JustJason
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2007
- Messages
- 5,320
So the woman went out last month and bought a new to her car. She's not my wife and we don't share finances so it's really none off my business what she buys or does with her money. The only thing I did was offer my advice and knowledge and support if she wanted to take me up on it. In my mind.... that's all I really can do.
So she ends up buying an 07 Subaru Impreza with 25K on it, off of the used lot at a local Toyota dealership. The deal is what it is, and they were willing to finance the car and finance what she owed on her old car (which was a lease, in which she way way over the milage on... and payed a hefty penalty)
She was completely upside down on the old car.... and to damm stubborn to take my initial advice, which was lets go out together and see if we can find a nice, well taken care of, Honda or Toyota with 100K on it owned by an older person. And lets see if we can scoop one up for 4 or 5 grand. And before you buy anything, i'll go through the entire car.
But nope.... she wants a newer car, and not an 8 year old Honda.
So she goes out on her own, does the whole deal with the car without me, takes the salesmans word on everything and the only time I went to see the car was with her on the night she was to sign the papers and pick it up.
The car was sold to her with the remainder of the factory warranty, along with a 30 day powertrain warranty from Toyota. (which i'll explain more on later, because it's essentially useless)
I looked the car over quickly for signs of previous accidents, looked for oil leaks, etc... but I never drove it. She said she did and it drives fine.
There were some marks on the paint, apparently from a now gone roof rack, that I wasn't happy with. I had the dealer wet sand, buff, clearcoat and wax. It's not perfect, but it is alot better. That took a day for the clear to dry so she didn't pick it up that night (which she wasn't happy with) And we went the next night to pick it up.
She had to take her old lease and take it down to her brothers shop. (tire and rim shop) to have her custom rims taken off and have the factorys put back on. The old car is an 07 Beetle, and I can't drive it. I'm physically to large to fit in the drivers seat, and my feet are to big with shoes on to work the pedals independantly.
So..... she drives the Beetle, and I follow with the Impreza to the shop.
Now the fun begins.......
As soon as I drive it I pick up 2 problems. 1 more of a bother, another potentially dangerous.
The first one is the radio..... whenever you turn on the rear defroster the reception cuts out. The antennae is built into the rear window, and since that problem is now fixed (replaced the entire rear window) I won't go into it.
Now the 2nd problem..... The transmission (5spd) has a vibration that starts at 3500rpms, peaks at 4K, and becomes unnoticable above 4500.... This vibration makes the shifter in the car "ring" audibly... and fairly loudly to.
It does this in any gear at any speed.
We call the dealer that night, but they were closed, so we called the very next day to report the problem. The salesguy was nice enough and makes us an appointment with service. The earliest service could get us in was a week, so she drives the car in the meantime.
We get to service and they say they will look at it and call us when it's fixed. And they give her a loaner car at no charge, as they should. The loaner is an 09 Corolla.
Remember that 30 day warranty Toyota gives on the car.... and how I said it was useless.... Here it is.
Apparently nobody in the service dept knew that they couldn't work on the car because it is a Subaru, and under subaru factory warranty. So what they did was make an appointment at the closest subaru and drived the car over there.
The first time the car sat for 3 days at Toyota while she had the rental, and it never got looked at.
Now service had the smarts to call and make an appointment... But Subaru was a week and half out. We return the loaner and take the car back.
We go back later, to Toyota... They give us the loaner again and then they take the car to Subaru and deal with them. Subaru tells Toyota its the heatshields on the car causing the vibration, and they won't cover them under warranty, and we have to pay to have them "tightened up".
I'm the one talking to Toyota, and I call them out on it... I say Bullhocky.... the shields are not the problem. And I go into a little rant with them as to why. I tell them that I don't care what Subaru says is warrantyable or not, I bought the car from you (TOYO)... with this 30 day warranty that you put on the car... And I tell them, if Subaru wants money to fix it, then you pay for it.
So TOYO give Subaru a couple hundred tighten up all 6 heat shields. Toyo calls and says the car is fixed and the noise is gone and to come get the car.
We go to get it.... and it has the same exact problem. It was not fixed.
Now TOYO is BS... because they paid subaru to have it fixed, and they are also paying for the loaner we have. We didn't pick up the car. We kept the loaner and said call us when it's fixed.
So the car sits at Subaru for another 10 days. Subaru calls out a regional warranty rep to look over the car. Subaru then decides to refund TOYO the money, and replace all 6 heat shields under warranty. Subaru returns the car to Toyo, Toyo calls me and says the car is all set... the noise is gone.
I ask Toyo if they actually drove it and verified that the noise is gone, they said it was. I laughed and said "we'll see".
Well.... We go to return the loaner and pick it up.... The car is still not fixed... the noise/vibration is still there.
Now I'm BS. The woman is BS. TOYO is BS. I asked them for the mechanic who drove the car. His name was Julio. I ask Julio how long he's been a mechanic, he says 4 years. I asked him why he told his boss (right in front of his boss) that the noise was gone when it was not. He stated it was gone when he drove it. So now I'm so BS it's not even funny, and I'm trying my best to keep my cool.
So I grab Julio, the service dept manager, and the sales dept manager, and stick them all in the car. I drive it down the street and duplicated the noise.
Service dept has no clue, Julio is an idiot, I called him an idiot and told him to get out of the car and made him walk 1/4 mile back to the shop, and the sales manager agreed that it wasn't the heat shield but wouldn't say as to what it was.
They agreed to keep the car again and give us the loaner back, which they should do. But now there is another concern. We are getting a foot of snow today, and the women doesn't want (and rightfully so) a FWD Corolla, she wants a 4WD loaner. TOYO doesn't have a 4WD loaner. I tell them to take anything off the lot, anything, car, truck, ute, thats 4WD and slap a dealer plate on it. They say because of insurance reasons they can not do that.
So then I try to compromise and I tell the woman that if they have a Corolla or Camry with electronic stability controll and traction controll it won't be that bad in the snow, and to take that.... I get her to agree. All of TOYO's loaners are base models... and none of them have those features. I had to go out in the lot and through a dozen cars with the keys to find that out.
So sales say they will pay for a rental, but only 25 bucks day. I tell them BS, and that they are going to pay whatever it costs for a 4WD car. They don't answer because they don't know what the cost is. We end up taking the Subaru back last night, and they are working on a rental for her today.
I have the sales and service managers in front of me, and I tell them this.
"I'm pissed, i know it's not your fault personally, but you guys have 3 options.
Option A is that you do the right thing, you give us a comprable rental at no charge, and you get the car fixed whatever it takes.
Option B is you agree to take the car back right now, we'll sit down and call Toyota finnancial and work on getting her out of the loan in a way it won't affect her credit
Or Option C... I give you the keys to the car, I'm going out and taking the plates off, and walking away from the car. I will call toyota financial and tell them the whole situation, and I will tell them no matter what, We have no intention of paying for this lemon. I will ask toyota finnancial if they will agreeably cancel the loan and refuse to pay your dealership for the car, and I will ask toyota finnancial if they want to do this, or if they want to go through the trouble and expense of paying their legal department to sue us. And if that happens we will you sue. Win or lose your dealership is going to have to pay lawyers as well."
I say what's it going to be guys... A, B, or C????
They say they want to take care of us.
We'll see what happens today..... they should be working on a rental right now.
Now I have an idea of what the problem is.... to me it sounds like a tapered roller bearing in the tranny chattering. Like it was never preloaded correctly upon assembly. I tell them this. I tell them how to check it also.... stick a guy in the car and put it up on the lift and run it, and have another guy down under start probing with a mechanics stethoscope.... But apparently no tech in their shop has a mechanics stethoscope.
My biggest fear is that i'm actually right. My fear is that if the woman drives the car and a bearing blows in the tranny that its going to lock up... you can imagine the rest.
So to my woman.... I friggen told you so.... don't buy a car without me. Because now i'm dealing with mess.
To Kim at toyota service..... I friggen told you so.... if you listened to me in the first place we would'nt be in this mess.
To the mechanics at Subaru..... your all idiots.
To Julio..... your an idiot too.
To Subaru..... just give me a damm transmission, and i'll fix it myself.
I hate my life...... and i'm going to go skiing today and see if I can find a nice tree.
Anybody got a gallon of gas and a match for me?
So she ends up buying an 07 Subaru Impreza with 25K on it, off of the used lot at a local Toyota dealership. The deal is what it is, and they were willing to finance the car and finance what she owed on her old car (which was a lease, in which she way way over the milage on... and payed a hefty penalty)
She was completely upside down on the old car.... and to damm stubborn to take my initial advice, which was lets go out together and see if we can find a nice, well taken care of, Honda or Toyota with 100K on it owned by an older person. And lets see if we can scoop one up for 4 or 5 grand. And before you buy anything, i'll go through the entire car.
But nope.... she wants a newer car, and not an 8 year old Honda.
So she goes out on her own, does the whole deal with the car without me, takes the salesmans word on everything and the only time I went to see the car was with her on the night she was to sign the papers and pick it up.
The car was sold to her with the remainder of the factory warranty, along with a 30 day powertrain warranty from Toyota. (which i'll explain more on later, because it's essentially useless)
I looked the car over quickly for signs of previous accidents, looked for oil leaks, etc... but I never drove it. She said she did and it drives fine.
There were some marks on the paint, apparently from a now gone roof rack, that I wasn't happy with. I had the dealer wet sand, buff, clearcoat and wax. It's not perfect, but it is alot better. That took a day for the clear to dry so she didn't pick it up that night (which she wasn't happy with) And we went the next night to pick it up.
She had to take her old lease and take it down to her brothers shop. (tire and rim shop) to have her custom rims taken off and have the factorys put back on. The old car is an 07 Beetle, and I can't drive it. I'm physically to large to fit in the drivers seat, and my feet are to big with shoes on to work the pedals independantly.
So..... she drives the Beetle, and I follow with the Impreza to the shop.
Now the fun begins.......
As soon as I drive it I pick up 2 problems. 1 more of a bother, another potentially dangerous.
The first one is the radio..... whenever you turn on the rear defroster the reception cuts out. The antennae is built into the rear window, and since that problem is now fixed (replaced the entire rear window) I won't go into it.
Now the 2nd problem..... The transmission (5spd) has a vibration that starts at 3500rpms, peaks at 4K, and becomes unnoticable above 4500.... This vibration makes the shifter in the car "ring" audibly... and fairly loudly to.
It does this in any gear at any speed.
We call the dealer that night, but they were closed, so we called the very next day to report the problem. The salesguy was nice enough and makes us an appointment with service. The earliest service could get us in was a week, so she drives the car in the meantime.
We get to service and they say they will look at it and call us when it's fixed. And they give her a loaner car at no charge, as they should. The loaner is an 09 Corolla.
Remember that 30 day warranty Toyota gives on the car.... and how I said it was useless.... Here it is.
Apparently nobody in the service dept knew that they couldn't work on the car because it is a Subaru, and under subaru factory warranty. So what they did was make an appointment at the closest subaru and drived the car over there.
The first time the car sat for 3 days at Toyota while she had the rental, and it never got looked at.
Now service had the smarts to call and make an appointment... But Subaru was a week and half out. We return the loaner and take the car back.
We go back later, to Toyota... They give us the loaner again and then they take the car to Subaru and deal with them. Subaru tells Toyota its the heatshields on the car causing the vibration, and they won't cover them under warranty, and we have to pay to have them "tightened up".
I'm the one talking to Toyota, and I call them out on it... I say Bullhocky.... the shields are not the problem. And I go into a little rant with them as to why. I tell them that I don't care what Subaru says is warrantyable or not, I bought the car from you (TOYO)... with this 30 day warranty that you put on the car... And I tell them, if Subaru wants money to fix it, then you pay for it.
So TOYO give Subaru a couple hundred tighten up all 6 heat shields. Toyo calls and says the car is fixed and the noise is gone and to come get the car.
We go to get it.... and it has the same exact problem. It was not fixed.
Now TOYO is BS... because they paid subaru to have it fixed, and they are also paying for the loaner we have. We didn't pick up the car. We kept the loaner and said call us when it's fixed.
So the car sits at Subaru for another 10 days. Subaru calls out a regional warranty rep to look over the car. Subaru then decides to refund TOYO the money, and replace all 6 heat shields under warranty. Subaru returns the car to Toyo, Toyo calls me and says the car is all set... the noise is gone.
I ask Toyo if they actually drove it and verified that the noise is gone, they said it was. I laughed and said "we'll see".
Well.... We go to return the loaner and pick it up.... The car is still not fixed... the noise/vibration is still there.
Now I'm BS. The woman is BS. TOYO is BS. I asked them for the mechanic who drove the car. His name was Julio. I ask Julio how long he's been a mechanic, he says 4 years. I asked him why he told his boss (right in front of his boss) that the noise was gone when it was not. He stated it was gone when he drove it. So now I'm so BS it's not even funny, and I'm trying my best to keep my cool.
So I grab Julio, the service dept manager, and the sales dept manager, and stick them all in the car. I drive it down the street and duplicated the noise.
Service dept has no clue, Julio is an idiot, I called him an idiot and told him to get out of the car and made him walk 1/4 mile back to the shop, and the sales manager agreed that it wasn't the heat shield but wouldn't say as to what it was.
They agreed to keep the car again and give us the loaner back, which they should do. But now there is another concern. We are getting a foot of snow today, and the women doesn't want (and rightfully so) a FWD Corolla, she wants a 4WD loaner. TOYO doesn't have a 4WD loaner. I tell them to take anything off the lot, anything, car, truck, ute, thats 4WD and slap a dealer plate on it. They say because of insurance reasons they can not do that.
So then I try to compromise and I tell the woman that if they have a Corolla or Camry with electronic stability controll and traction controll it won't be that bad in the snow, and to take that.... I get her to agree. All of TOYO's loaners are base models... and none of them have those features. I had to go out in the lot and through a dozen cars with the keys to find that out.
So sales say they will pay for a rental, but only 25 bucks day. I tell them BS, and that they are going to pay whatever it costs for a 4WD car. They don't answer because they don't know what the cost is. We end up taking the Subaru back last night, and they are working on a rental for her today.
I have the sales and service managers in front of me, and I tell them this.
"I'm pissed, i know it's not your fault personally, but you guys have 3 options.
Option A is that you do the right thing, you give us a comprable rental at no charge, and you get the car fixed whatever it takes.
Option B is you agree to take the car back right now, we'll sit down and call Toyota finnancial and work on getting her out of the loan in a way it won't affect her credit
Or Option C... I give you the keys to the car, I'm going out and taking the plates off, and walking away from the car. I will call toyota financial and tell them the whole situation, and I will tell them no matter what, We have no intention of paying for this lemon. I will ask toyota finnancial if they will agreeably cancel the loan and refuse to pay your dealership for the car, and I will ask toyota finnancial if they want to do this, or if they want to go through the trouble and expense of paying their legal department to sue us. And if that happens we will you sue. Win or lose your dealership is going to have to pay lawyers as well."
I say what's it going to be guys... A, B, or C????
They say they want to take care of us.
We'll see what happens today..... they should be working on a rental right now.
Now I have an idea of what the problem is.... to me it sounds like a tapered roller bearing in the tranny chattering. Like it was never preloaded correctly upon assembly. I tell them this. I tell them how to check it also.... stick a guy in the car and put it up on the lift and run it, and have another guy down under start probing with a mechanics stethoscope.... But apparently no tech in their shop has a mechanics stethoscope.
My biggest fear is that i'm actually right. My fear is that if the woman drives the car and a bearing blows in the tranny that its going to lock up... you can imagine the rest.
So to my woman.... I friggen told you so.... don't buy a car without me. Because now i'm dealing with mess.
To Kim at toyota service..... I friggen told you so.... if you listened to me in the first place we would'nt be in this mess.
To the mechanics at Subaru..... your all idiots.
To Julio..... your an idiot too.
To Subaru..... just give me a damm transmission, and i'll fix it myself.
I hate my life...... and i'm going to go skiing today and see if I can find a nice tree.
Anybody got a gallon of gas and a match for me?
