Joined Oct 2005
awake
Forum Thread
Engine mysteriously died in a new car - how can I turn it to my advantage?
May 14, 2013 at
08:36 PM
in
Chat
Brief version, without any names:
Six weeks ago, I bought a brand new car, with warranty and all that other good stuff. Two days ago, as I was driving on a highway, the coolant light came on, followed by an engine light, followed by my car dying just a minute later.
After it got towed to the dealership, they said the cause was a leaking radiator hose. (Keep in mind, the car is 6 weeks old and has only 850 miles on it!) After they replaced it, it kept acting up, so they decided to hold it a bit longer. (They got me a rental car in the meantime.)
When I called them earlier today to see if they had any updates, I was told this: "Oh, hi there. Uh, we don't really know what's wrong with your car, so we decided to replace the whole engine! We'll get a brand new one tomorrow and it'll be good to go by Thursday! "
When I asked what exactly was wrong, they just kept repeating the same thing. I don't know a whole lot about cars, but a friend told me that getting a replacement engine pretty much destroys the car's resale value because people will wonder what else might be wrong with it. Is that correct? Logically, it would seem that, for example, a 10-year-old car with a 1-year-old engine is better than a 10-year-old car with a 10-year-old engine, but consumer psychology is a strange animal.
Personally, I plan on driving the car for 10 years and 120,000 miles (it's got an extended warranty) before I trade it in, so the resale value isn't a big deal for me. That said, is there any way I can spin this to get some major freebies (e.g., get the car company to shave off a few grand off my loan balance) or something along those lines? Right now, they're just paying for my rental car and nothing else. Given the sheer immensity of this colossal fark-up, though, it seems to me that they owe me a lot more than that.
Got any comments, advice or suggestions?
Thanks!
Six weeks ago, I bought a brand new car, with warranty and all that other good stuff. Two days ago, as I was driving on a highway, the coolant light came on, followed by an engine light, followed by my car dying just a minute later.
After it got towed to the dealership, they said the cause was a leaking radiator hose. (Keep in mind, the car is 6 weeks old and has only 850 miles on it!) After they replaced it, it kept acting up, so they decided to hold it a bit longer. (They got me a rental car in the meantime.)
When I called them earlier today to see if they had any updates, I was told this: "Oh, hi there. Uh, we don't really know what's wrong with your car, so we decided to replace the whole engine! We'll get a brand new one tomorrow and it'll be good to go by Thursday! "
When I asked what exactly was wrong, they just kept repeating the same thing. I don't know a whole lot about cars, but a friend told me that getting a replacement engine pretty much destroys the car's resale value because people will wonder what else might be wrong with it. Is that correct? Logically, it would seem that, for example, a 10-year-old car with a 1-year-old engine is better than a 10-year-old car with a 10-year-old engine, but consumer psychology is a strange animal.
Personally, I plan on driving the car for 10 years and 120,000 miles (it's got an extended warranty) before I trade it in, so the resale value isn't a big deal for me. That said, is there any way I can spin this to get some major freebies (e.g., get the car company to shave off a few grand off my loan balance) or something along those lines? Right now, they're just paying for my rental car and nothing else. Given the sheer immensity of this colossal fark-up, though, it seems to me that they owe me a lot more than that.
Got any comments, advice or suggestions?
Thanks!
153 Comments
Your comment cannot be blank.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Obligatory woman driver comment.
I'm sorry if my posts do not satisfy your Benghazi-style questioning, but just FYI - I got off the highway as soon as the "check engine" light came on. Otherwise, the car would have died in 70mph traffic and probably would have caused an accident.
Is there anything else I can help you with, oh high and mighty inquisitor?
You obviously don't know much about vehicles, or you would have moved over much more quickly onto the shoulder of the road. Even I as a woman knows that Check Engine light, pull over, pull out Code Reader from glove box, plug in read code; find out what is wrong; very simple
Apparently from the beginning of this thread you wanted to fark over the dealership; that was your intention and you wanted everyone here on board with ya - didn't quite work out that way did it
but yeah, why didn't you plug your code reader in...everybody has one of those, your car came with one, right??
So that makes it a bit more "reasonable" that you drove a bit, due to safety...but it took how long into your thread before you've clarified that point?
I'm sorry if my posts do not satisfy your Benghazi-style questioning, but just FYI - I got off the highway as soon as the "check engine" light came on. Otherwise, the car would have died in 70mph traffic and probably would have caused an accident.
Is there anything else I can help you with, oh high and mighty inquisitor?
Are you trolling me or are you having a severe caffeine deficiency?Uno mas:You obviously don't know much about vehicles, or you would have moved over much more quickly onto the shoulder of the road. Even I as a woman knows that Check Engine light, pull over, pull out Code Reader from glove box, plug in read code; find out what is wrong; very simple
Apparently from the beginning of this thread you wanted to fark over the dealership; that was your intention and you wanted everyone here on board with ya - didn't quite work out that way did it
but yeah, why didn't you plug your code reader in...everybody has one of those, your car came with one, right??
Oh, and we keep the tuner in the truck that also reads the codes. Very handy for the few times the CEL has come on.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Oh, and we keep the tuner in the truck that also reads the codes. Very handy for the few times the CEL has come on.
Instead all he gets is the fat service manager
Instead all he gets is the fat service manager
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Obligatory woman driver comment.