In July of 2006 I purchased a 2002 chrysler town and country mini-van for my wife from a large local Ford/Kia Dealer. The buyers guide advised of a 30 day 1000 mile warranty from this dealer with no manufactur warranty remaining. The van had just over 50,000 miles. In mid Sept. I had a problem with the compressor assembly including the clutch and sepintine belt. After asking for some sort of break on the cost and getting no where I paid almost $900 for the repair. One month later the van was back in the shop with the same problem. This time they advised me it would be fixed at no cost to me on a parts and labor warranty. This past November the problem reared it’s head again. At the time I was out of town so I dealt with it over the phone. The dealer asked for permission to send the van to the local Chrysler dealer to have it repaired under a extented manufactur warranty on that component. I was advised by the dealer there would be no cost to me. I told them to go ahead. When I got home I went and talked to the Chrysler shop where the repair work was done. I discovered several things. First this was the second time my van had been to there shop. It was sent there for repairs in October of 2006, the second time I had issues, without my knowledge or permission. The second thing I found out was that the extended warranty that it was repaired under the third time was put into effect in june of 2003 because of a high number of problems. My questions, are can a dealer out sorce the repair work without your permission? Also shouldn’t the dealer have had the extented warranty disclosed on the buyer’s guide. I would have had serious second thoughts on buying a vehicle that has an aknowledged issue. My van now has 72,000 miles and the extened warranty expired at 70,000. The dealership I purchased it from won’t even aknowledge any misjustice or repay my $900 for the First repair. Do you see any way I can gain some leverage against the dealer.
When ever I buy a car I spend some time on-line and magazines doing research. If there was a defect like you say then if you did any research before purchasing you should have found it. The Ford dealer you bought the Chrysler from may have not known of the problem.
Why don’t you think a dealer can outsource their work?? It’s done all the time (especially bodywork and thinks like Glass). There is no problem here.
The dealer you bought the car from is having this repaired for free. The ONLY issue is that the first time they fixed you car. But I think that is also partly your fault for NOT finding out what extended warranty there might be on the vehicle. A Ford dealership isn’t really going to know that information any more then you do.
First, the knowledge of an extended warranty may not have been disclosed to the Ford dealer. He may have found out when he outsource one of the repairs. Secondly, there may be a terminology issue here. Chrysler may have extended a goodwill warranty for the compressor issue, not an extended warranty. Can’t tell by what is said and no paperwork to review.
To answer your other questions, yes, a dealer can oursource anything without telling you. I happened to find out that one of the Ford dealers I know outsources all of his AC work. I don’t care, because it comes with the dealer warranty anyway. Other dealers outsource alignments and some body shop work. To my knowledge, they don’t have to disclose this to you.
I would question the $900 if the work done would have been covered by Chrysler. On the other hand, used cars come “buyer beware”, and that extends to knowing and calling before you agree to any repair work if there is an existing Chrysler warranty offered on the repair issue. Obviously any work actually done in the Ford shop had to be paid for, by someone, and your 30 day used car warranty had run out.
I will be interested if others have an opposing view here.
No leverage against the Ford/Kia dealer, in my opinion. The first repair in September you paid $900 for because it was beyond the Ford/Kia dealer’s 30 day/1000 mile warranty period. We have no indication the Ford/Kia dealer knew at this point there was an extended warranty, and since the work wasn’t outsourced to the Chrysler dealer for this first repair, you were appropriately charged for it. Look at it this way… you can’t take your car to get fixed at Repair Shop A, and then find out the work is covered by an extended warranty at Dealer Service Center B, and then go back to Repair Shop A to get your money back.
The second repair, in October, you didn’t pay for…and probably wouldn’t have had to pay for regardless of who did the work–The Ford/Kia dealer would have paid for it under their parts/labor warranty or, as turned out to be the case, they outsourced the job (which they can do without telling you) to the Chrysler dealer who paid for it under their extended warranty. The third repair you didn’t have to pay for either, because it was also outsourced to the Chrysler dealer, the only difference is this time you knew ahead of time.
The only way you would have a legitimate beef is if you found out that the first $900 repair you paid the Ford/Kia dealer for had also been outsourced to the Chrysler dealer, at which time it was also fixed under the extended warranty. But if the Ford/Kia dealer actually did the work the first time around, it doesn’t matter if it was covered by Chrysler, you still have to pay Ford/Kia for the work they did.
I guess I should add that some (all?) manufacturers will reimburse you for the cost of a repair that they end up issuing an extended warranty for. VW extended the warranty on the catalytic convertor on my wife’s car, and we had just had it replaced about a week before we got the notice in the mail. Since she was well-within the time/mileage limits of the extended warranty, she just had to show proof that the repair had been performed and paid for, and she was reimbursed for it. That might be your only recourse as far as the $900 you spent, but that’s something you’ve got to take up with Chrysler, not the Ford/Kia dealer you bought the car from.