You could always ask him if he or someone else their would drive it home for the night to take pictures…
I have been known in the past to find the lowest point of a headlamp and drill a 1/64 hole in the bottom to allow any water to drain out, not sure how that would affect, if any, the newer HID/LED etc head lights though, so NOT recommending it just incase, don’t want to mess up a module or anything…
The only thing i can add to this discussion is that I would NEVER buy a vehicle with anything more complicated than basic halogen headlights. $4500 to replace two headlight assemblies??? You cannot be serious. A set of two brand-name aftermarket headlight assemblies for a model which uses standard halogen headlights costs less than $200. No programming, etc. is required, either.
That 1997-2001 Toyota Camry I talked about in your other thread is looking better the more I hear. You could have bought a decent one, with low miles, for less than the cost of new headlights for this GMC Terrain!
Why would you have to replace them if not for an accident which should be covered under an insurance claim. Wife’s 07 Lexus has extremely expensive motorized headlight assembly that move in the direction of the steering wheel. They are still original.
Get serious . They might not even be in business when you buy your next vehicle.
If your paper work has ( Sold As Is ) on it they don’t have to do anything.
How do the scratches affect headlight functionality? I doubt that scratches are anything but a cosmetic issue and even then it’s a stretch. If the headlights still work well, what’s the beef?
Condensation has been an issue for as long as they have the sealed modules. A very recent issue is with defects in the tail lights for the F150- they are literally filled with water.
Some condensation could be considered normal and will disappear temporarily when the lamps heat up and vaporize the water. Once they cool back down, and depending on external environmental conditions, the condensate may return.
Scratches on the inside might be explained by a ham fisted prior owner or garage trying to insert something through the lamp access hole to wipe them dry. Who knows. It could also be a process called crazing but only a guess without seeing them in person.
I agree with the premise that these things never get better. If there is a reason that trapped water or water vapor is inside the lens assembly, then that is not likely to fix itself or get better over time. Now is the time to do something about it with the dealer since you just bought the vehicle. The more time that elapses, the less chance of getting anything done about it. If there is a law in your state allowing you to return a purchase, then that is some leverage you have right now. You don’t have to follow through but use it to your advantage. Once that period elapses, they don’t have to do anything and can tell you to pound sand…
When you consider the cost of those units (plus labor), I would be very surprised if they agreed to replace them for you.
Went back to the dealer to talk to the used car manager about his offer to swap the headlights out. He said when the service manager gets the reply from GMC, which will probably be no, he’d swap them out. As he said, “No problem. We’ll try to get you new ones, but if we can’t, then we’ll swap them out with a car on the lot.”
I don’t believe the getting new headlights part, but I’m trusting him on the swap.
I also took one person’s suggestion of having the service mgr take the car home so he can get pictures at night. Service manager said h’e’d do that. So it’s going home with him tomorrow.
Scratches affect funtion by muting the light They’re not all over the lens, they’re concentratedd in the center. And they WILL get worse over time. If it only took 3 years of a lease for them to get like this, what do you think will happen when/if I have it for a very long time, as I had my Mazda for over 20 yrs? THAT’S the beef.
“used cars have flaws” - then this must have been a “flaw” within the 3 yr lease that the person never took care of, probably because they knew they were turning it in.
“will the used car manager pay the laboer…” Used car manager said he’ll do the swap, no problem.
“You didn’t by a new vehicle and they aren’t expecting you to buy several more.” You a car dealer??? Why do I have to have anything you said? I’ll bet they make a good amount of money on people who do maintenance on their cars, or come to them if there’s a problem. Especially if they’re just getting oil changes that can be done much cheaper anyplace other than at a dealer, who charges probably $165 or more/hour labor. That’s what the Mazda dealer charged. I got work done at a place that charged $100/hr and they were sometimes better than the dealer mechanics. When I stopped going to the dealer is when they said I needed a new engine, and the other place found it was a cracked radiator. New one solved the problem.
Service mgr is taking the car overnight to take pictures in the dark. And he says no, no one else can take the pictures because only he has the GM app, and there’s no way for him to import pictures from his phone’s pictures because the app ony has a “take a picture” feature, so he can’t do that. Got snarky when I asked the question, said he wanted whoever said he could do that to put it in writing so he could follow the directions. Really got an attitude about it.
And as I said in another reply, I’m not concerned so much about the condensation, as there’s not a lot, and I’m told the headlights are vented so that should help dissipate the moisture. The scratches/crazing/etching, whatever you want to call them, are the main problem. Used car mgr says he’ll swap them out, no problem.
I understand why you’d like the dealership to do that , but this thread got me to wondering if swapping parts from an unsold car to a customer’s newly purchased car is a common dealership practice? It seems like it is a “rob Peter to pay Paul” practice.
I’ve been told that this was SOP at many Fiat and Renault dealers, back in the '60s. Their stock of parts in The US was de minimis, and they would typically rob peter to pay paul until the replacement part arrived from Europe… many weeks later.
When I mentioned this (quite a few years ago in this forum), ok4450 confirmed that this practice wasn’t unusual with those makes because of their incredibly poor “local” parts supply.
That was in post #7. No, pictures should not be imported. Pictures must be taken using the app and include the VIN plate in the door jamb. More than one person should be trusted with the application, many employees are provided with company phones that can be loaded with the app. How do they process warranty complaints while the manager is away?
When I was at the Ford dealer, if they were having an issue with a newly sold new vehicle, they would swap out transmissions or rear ends trying to find the noise or issue, then tey could either warranty the new unsold vehicle part(s) out and let the customer go on about his business, or swap parts back out and warranty the sold parts out…
Used car dealers will do this also, and either sell the unsold car at the action or repair it and just mark the price of that vehicle up to cover the expense…
When I was working for the 2 brothers that owned the rental and used car lot, (90’s) I can’t tell you how many times I would steal another vehicle off the lot with the same part(s) and swap them around… it was common practice…
Some people are stymied by the simplest things. So take a picture of the picture displayed on your phone. Anyway, sounds like you have a solution in play. No sense getting them even more riled up about it.
Regarding the swap- more than likely they are counting on the buyer of that other car not to notice or care about the scratches or whatever they happen to be. Kick the can down the road…
Who knows? I’m not about to question him about it.
That could be what happened to my car - they swapped my original lights for these scratched ones and hoped whoever bought it wouldn’t notice or didn’t care. I won’t question them on it because they’ll probaby say they don’t know anyway, and I don’t want to antagonize that service mgr any more than I already may have.
And his attitude went high/angry when I suggested how he could maybe get the pictures into his app, when he started saying he’s been doing this for almost 40 yrs and he’s never been able to do it any other way and if someone knows how, let them write it down so he can follow the directions, blah blah blah. So he felt challenged, and I’m not about to say anything more about it.