Plus the dealer is not financing the car, a financial institution is.
1 Like
Unfortunately, these wrong-headed ideas are not unique to him.
Over the years, we have heard from a few people who were under the bizarre impression that their car’s factory warranty included the price of maintenance, and that the dealership was “cheating” them by charging for oil changes and such. Those posts pre-date the advent of maintenance that is now included for the first couple of years on Toyotas and some other makes.
Other people seem to think that they can walk away from a mechanic’s shop without paying a diagnostic fee if they opt to not have the repairs done.
Edited to add:
Then, there are also the folks who are incensed that the vehicle manufacturer won’t pay for repairs to a vehicle that is ten or twelve years old…
2 Likes
If there’s a problem with the installation of the windshield at the factory, then it’s under warranty. Stone hitting the windshield and cracking/chipping it is NOT.
There isn’t a dealer around where I live that replaces windshields. It’s done by one or two local windshield repair shops out of their mobile trucks. Calibration may be done at the dealer, but more and more of the large windshield repair companies do their own calibration.
1 Like
Quite a few of the automotive journalist experts are also way off base. I remember reading a story by one of these experts some years back who wrote an article about warranty labor times.
This guy said for example that if the job paid 2 hours under warranty and the mechanic spent 4 hours on it then they simply ask the car manufacturer to pony up the 2 hour difference and voila; it’s done.
In a parallel universe maybe; not in this one.
It’s possible for a windshield to be covered under warranty if it is damaged due to something other than road debris. Say a stress crack at a very young age. Several decades back I saw several Subaru windshields cracked on cars that had less than 400 miles on them. Both were in the top right corner and not due to rocks, etc. Tight fit on the glass and add some body flex. Size of potholes are an unknown factor if applicable…
Depending on the lender, and the type of dealer, there very well could be $15k of interest and fees on a $30k car. However, this is not going to happen at a new-car dealer, which is what we are talking about here.
I just did the math. For a $30,000 car, nothing down, at a rate of 3.5% (which is a common rate for those with good credit, for a 60 month term, the payment would be $545.25, total of payments would be $32,745.14 making the interest cost $2745.14, a very reasonable number.
1 Like