so here's the deal ... chapman chrysler jeep in las vegas, NV handed me a vehicle inspection (part of a chrysler coupon i had), that showed i needed $814 worth of services (bad fuel injection, dirty power steering fluid and dirty automatic transmission fluid). no inspection before this one by chapman, and the one immediately preceding it, showed any problems with my vehicle.
if you're new here, go ahead and read through some of the stuff i've written to decide whether i'm a flakeball just spouting off, or i have a legitimate complaint about something suspicious going on here ... after you're done with that my advice to you would be to get a second opinion of any recommendation by chapman.
it should be noted that their service, although often slow (they set me up an appointment at 10:00, but don't roll my car into the service bay until 15:30?), is done spot-on the money. everything chapman claimed they'd do eventually got done completely and correctly.
2009-07-16
37,042 mile service
i wasn't able to stop by the shop in vegas before i headed out so i dropped back in to autowest dodge chrysler jeep in fremont, CA on my triumphant return to the bay area.
i had a coupon for tire rotation, oil change and inspection. the inspection should be interesting because if it matches chapman, then i can more firmly suspect there's something legitimately wrong with the car -- and if it doesn't match, it could mean there's something very wrong with chapman's service.
i say nothing about the former inspection and wait for an hour in the waiting area with some guy making hilarious comments about jerry springer (i swear to you, if he sat with me through all TV shows, i'd watch television every day ... instead of only when i travel, like i do now).
the car gets done and guess what? nothing is wrong in the inspection.
hmm.
$19
i had a coupon for tire rotation, oil change and inspection. the inspection should be interesting because if it matches chapman, then i can more firmly suspect there's something legitimately wrong with the car -- and if it doesn't match, it could mean there's something very wrong with chapman's service.
i say nothing about the former inspection and wait for an hour in the waiting area with some guy making hilarious comments about jerry springer (i swear to you, if he sat with me through all TV shows, i'd watch television every day ... instead of only when i travel, like i do now).
the car gets done and guess what? nothing is wrong in the inspection.
hmm.
$19
2009-06-19
35,141 mile warranty service
might as well call this one "roll bar molding, part III"
i'm approaching the magic distance of 36,000 miles on the continual car. to be clear, this is the point where i drop away from the factory warranty (read: "free repairs") and go to the extended service contract (meaning "$100 deductible").
the continual car has had the roll bar trim come loose twice (it's a problem with the air turbulent rolling over it with the top down) and it's loose again, so i need to get it done now ... while i'm at it, i'm going to have them repair the lens on the roll bar interior light -- the fit and finish isn't quite right.
i roll into chapman with 35,141 miles. it takes them a full day to look over the car (i get a rental) and decide that: yes i was right; no, they don't have the parts.
no matter. it's not something that needs to be done right away, but it is something they need to be aware of before i cross the magic number ...
oh, and a mild kicker here is i won't be able to get the roll bar trim fixed in the future under my service contract because it would definitely qualify as soft trim.
no problem ... if it comes off in the future it'll definitely be "paging mr. glue, mr. super glue" ... but i'll take one more chance on chrysler, sure.
a minor catch here is i won't be in town when the parts do come in, but if i can get them to hold on to them long enough, i can get it done next time i'm in town ... maybe even with an oil change.
i'm approaching the magic distance of 36,000 miles on the continual car. to be clear, this is the point where i drop away from the factory warranty (read: "free repairs") and go to the extended service contract (meaning "$100 deductible").
the continual car has had the roll bar trim come loose twice (it's a problem with the air turbulent rolling over it with the top down) and it's loose again, so i need to get it done now ... while i'm at it, i'm going to have them repair the lens on the roll bar interior light -- the fit and finish isn't quite right.
i roll into chapman with 35,141 miles. it takes them a full day to look over the car (i get a rental) and decide that: yes i was right; no, they don't have the parts.
no matter. it's not something that needs to be done right away, but it is something they need to be aware of before i cross the magic number ...
oh, and a mild kicker here is i won't be able to get the roll bar trim fixed in the future under my service contract because it would definitely qualify as soft trim.
no problem ... if it comes off in the future it'll definitely be "paging mr. glue, mr. super glue" ... but i'll take one more chance on chrysler, sure.
a minor catch here is i won't be in town when the parts do come in, but if i can get them to hold on to them long enough, i can get it done next time i'm in town ... maybe even with an oil change.
2009-06-02
a call to chrysler
i call the service contract people with a question that is this:
if you do an inspection on my vehicle and find something's wrong, like automatic transmission fluid is dirty, and i don't change it, and it fails, am i still covered?
you'd think this is a simple question. i certainly do.
but try asking this to a politically correct corporate spudnut that may be being recorded for quality assurance purposes. the guy hems and haws and spews wild different forms of gibberish that are all essentially non-answers.
during the conversation (which takes more than 20 minutes), i point out that the inspection isn't required, that i could have a vehicle serviced anywhere (which means i may or may not change the transmission fluid and they wouldn't know) and that if my car did have bad transmission fluid it would be so early that it should be covered by warranty repair.
after beating him like a rabid dog for an extended period of time he finally said something close to yes, i would be liable.
i'm not happy and this is far from over.
pre-emptive letters are going to go out to the heads of all the operations here. you'll see.
if you do an inspection on my vehicle and find something's wrong, like automatic transmission fluid is dirty, and i don't change it, and it fails, am i still covered?
you'd think this is a simple question. i certainly do.
but try asking this to a politically correct corporate spudnut that may be being recorded for quality assurance purposes. the guy hems and haws and spews wild different forms of gibberish that are all essentially non-answers.
during the conversation (which takes more than 20 minutes), i point out that the inspection isn't required, that i could have a vehicle serviced anywhere (which means i may or may not change the transmission fluid and they wouldn't know) and that if my car did have bad transmission fluid it would be so early that it should be covered by warranty repair.
after beating him like a rabid dog for an extended period of time he finally said something close to yes, i would be liable.
i'm not happy and this is far from over.
pre-emptive letters are going to go out to the heads of all the operations here. you'll see.
2009-05-28
32,985 mile service
new coupon, new dealership.
what starts as a routine oil change ends very oddly.
i'm supposed to get an oil change and an air filter (not that i need it, but that's what the coupon's for). which is fine and that's what i get.
but their inspection turns up, get this: failure of the fuel injection system, dirty power steering fluid and dirty automatic transmission fluid. at 33,000 miles? this sounds highly suspicious.
i tell them "no thanks" to the $814 worth of service they've suggested and pull out my owner's manual ...
... because if i'm responsible for standard and required maintenance, what's required when?
there's no reference to the power steering fluid change, but transmission fluid is expected, get this, at 60k miles if i'm a taxi, a police car or a delivery truck.
i call my brother and he's immediately suspicious of all their findings. he knows i've been taking care of the vehicle. he also knows how vehicles of this type behave over time. essentially he believes their claims are ludicrous. and because he believes that, so do i.
or more precisely, if those things are in fact, wrong, they should be covered by warranty because they fall into the realm of defective.
and i don't know what it means to have a black mark on my record like this. if they say it's at fault, and i don't fix it because it's not standard maintenance, are they going to filch when i bring it in for warranty repair on failure? (yeah, that's what i think too.)
it all leaves a particularly bad taste in my mouth.
i need to talk to the service contract people.
chapman chrysler jeep, i officially don't trust you.
$22
what starts as a routine oil change ends very oddly.
i'm supposed to get an oil change and an air filter (not that i need it, but that's what the coupon's for). which is fine and that's what i get.
but their inspection turns up, get this: failure of the fuel injection system, dirty power steering fluid and dirty automatic transmission fluid. at 33,000 miles? this sounds highly suspicious.
i tell them "no thanks" to the $814 worth of service they've suggested and pull out my owner's manual ...
... because if i'm responsible for standard and required maintenance, what's required when?
there's no reference to the power steering fluid change, but transmission fluid is expected, get this, at 60k miles if i'm a taxi, a police car or a delivery truck.
i call my brother and he's immediately suspicious of all their findings. he knows i've been taking care of the vehicle. he also knows how vehicles of this type behave over time. essentially he believes their claims are ludicrous. and because he believes that, so do i.
or more precisely, if those things are in fact, wrong, they should be covered by warranty because they fall into the realm of defective.
and i don't know what it means to have a black mark on my record like this. if they say it's at fault, and i don't fix it because it's not standard maintenance, are they going to filch when i bring it in for warranty repair on failure? (yeah, that's what i think too.)
it all leaves a particularly bad taste in my mouth.
i need to talk to the service contract people.
chapman chrysler jeep, i officially don't trust you.
$22
2009-05-01
i told you so ...
got a letter in the mail from chrysler.
the short version of seven paragraphs:
* chrysler is filing bankruptcy and merging with fiat
(a wrinkle in what my bother and i talked about a year and a half ago)
* "the new company will seamlessly honor all warranty claims and service contracts."
(both what i had predicted and what i'd been told by the service people)
which means the continual car concept lives on.
(this written 12/10/09 as i found the letter in a stack of old stuff. pre-dated to match the date of the letter "may 2009.")
the short version of seven paragraphs:
* chrysler is filing bankruptcy and merging with fiat
(a wrinkle in what my bother and i talked about a year and a half ago)
* "the new company will seamlessly honor all warranty claims and service contracts."
(both what i had predicted and what i'd been told by the service people)
which means the continual car concept lives on.
(this written 12/10/09 as i found the letter in a stack of old stuff. pre-dated to match the date of the letter "may 2009.")
2009-04-06
29,595 mile service
this is the first big service on the car. up to here it's just oil changes, tire rotations and air filters; 30,000 miles includes spark plugs, inspection of the PCV valve (whatever the hell that is), air filter and adjusting the generator belt drive tension.
unfortunately, this also gives me my first shot at getting majorly up-sold. if you call a service center and ask for a "30,000 mile service on a PT cruiser," you're likely to get a whole catalog of items that aren't in the owner's manual (or are at much later mileages). the answer they'll give you, always, is that it's what they recommend.
i'm in NV right now, giving me four choices of dealerships to choose from (and i already called from the bay area about this service as well -- it's about 15% cheaper here than back home).
a quick call shows a whopping difference in price. most NV dealerships are wanting on the order of $750, but i find one, united chrysler jeep, that will do it for $250 minus the amount of my oil change coupon.
i go in, get my rental and get the service done. the dealership on the whole feels a little shoddy, but i'm not arguing with the service, nor the price.
$239
(my brother is appalled that four spark plugs are $167. "i'll teach you how to do that.")
unfortunately, this also gives me my first shot at getting majorly up-sold. if you call a service center and ask for a "30,000 mile service on a PT cruiser," you're likely to get a whole catalog of items that aren't in the owner's manual (or are at much later mileages). the answer they'll give you, always, is that it's what they recommend.
i'm in NV right now, giving me four choices of dealerships to choose from (and i already called from the bay area about this service as well -- it's about 15% cheaper here than back home).
a quick call shows a whopping difference in price. most NV dealerships are wanting on the order of $750, but i find one, united chrysler jeep, that will do it for $250 minus the amount of my oil change coupon.
i go in, get my rental and get the service done. the dealership on the whole feels a little shoddy, but i'm not arguing with the service, nor the price.
$239
(my brother is appalled that four spark plugs are $167. "i'll teach you how to do that.")
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