14,080 warranty service

i get a call from boardwalk and my trim has come in. great.

i take the car up and when i drop it off, i also drop the bigger bomb and explain the rattle. my service manager tells me it'll be two days -- he's certain they can get the trim done in a day but the rattle sounds tougher.

that's fine. i have a rental for up to five days, thanks for my bumper-to-bumper wrap so i drop it off.

the next day i get a call and the car's fixed. i get to boardwalk late enough that my service guy is gone (their service has pick-up until 19:00, which is really nice), so all i get to read is what's on the form they hand me when i get my keys.

the following is absolutely verbatim (and sic):

CUST STATES ON DRIVERS SIDE REAR BY QUARTER PANEL WILL HEAR RATTLE TYPE SOUND COMING FROM DRIVERS SIDE CONV. TOP WEN GOING OVER BUMPS...INSPECT DUPLICATED RATTLE WERE SUSPECTED HAD TO REMOVED SEATS AND ALL THE TRIM AROUND THE LR 1/4 PANNEL SINCE THE NOISE IS COMING FROM THERE AFTER REMOVING THE PARTS RE ROAD TESTED TO TRACE THE NOISEAND FOUND IT AT THE LR SOFT TOP MECHANISM,WIL TRY TO REPAIR DUE TO NO TSB,S RELATED TO THE COMPLAINT IN TH SYSTEM TO REFER TOO IN THIS CASE. SECURED THE L SIDE MECHANISM OF THE SOFT TOP THAT CONNECTS TO THE L PISTON AND RE ROAD TEST AND RATLE IS GONE THEN I PROCEDED TO RE INSTALL ALL REMOVED TRIM PIECES AND RE ROAD T TEST AND CONFIRMED THE RATTLE IS GONE NOW.

a couple of good things here. a TSB is car-speak for a technical service bulletin. it's the thing dealerships pass out to all dealers if there's a problem that continually crops up. so this means that: one, they actually looked at the TSBs and two, it's not an endemic problem (which sort of surprises me).

better though is their technique. THEY WERE ABLE TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM. this is a big deal. this is a classic kind of thing that dealers will claim they can't do and i thought i was going to have to put a tech in the car at gun point to make it happen. not here.

then they took it partially apart and re-tested to make sure it was still off. then they made what they thought was a fix. then road tested it to make sure they were right. then they put the car back together and they tested it again to make sure it was still gone.

right. right right right right right.

THIS IS THE WAY YOU FIX A PROBLEM. i don't care how illiterate or mangey their description on the page seems. hell, i'll take the description in chicken entrails and smoke signals if they can FIX THE FRICKEN PROBLEM.

i drive the car two blocks, hitting every bump and pothole i can find.

and they've done it. they've bloody well done it. they've fixed the problem.

this is a big deal. it's a tricky, hard problem that wasn't strictly by the book. PT cruiser convertibles are rare. i'll bet they only service a dozen of 'em on a regular basis, so they have to just make things up as they go. and this approach, NOT TO MENTION THE RESULT, is right-on.

full marks. way to go broadway.

i look at the trim replacement and it's obvious to me it'll come loose again. i don't care. i'll just take it back in when it does. it's one thing to have a piece of extended trim where i can't see it. my car sounding like a dishwasher that's loading every 200' is something else.

all other things being equal, and especially assuming i can get coupons and remain in northern CA, boardwalk has customer for life.

{for the future, a list of error codes can be found here:
http://www.dodgetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94489}