Lemons

I hate dealing with car repairs, salesmen and dealerships. 

This morning my car decided it had had enough and would not move forward from an intersection just a mile away from home.  Not forward.  Not backward.  The only motion it had going for it was rolling down the incline, thankfully, because I did not want to be stuck directly behind the stop sign blocking traffic.  The car (a mini-van, technically) was not alone in having had enough.

We purchased this car in August of 2009.  By November of the same year we had it in the repair shop because it would lurch when I pulled away from a stop.  It was in again the following spring.  During one of those visits, hubby was told that they had replaced the transmission in this vehicle during their inspection process because they found it wouldn't shift into overdrive.  Important information.  Why hadn't that been shared with us during the purchase process? 

We'd take the car home and it would run fine for a few months.  The latest episode began earlier this month, when I was taking my aunt to a play in KC.  About at our destination, the car began lurching something awful.  Lordy, I was so embarassed.  However, I really thought it might have had to do with the E85 gasoline I'd put in that morning.  It had never sputtered and lurched like that before.  I made it home and immediately complained to hubby.  We filled the tank with regular gas a few times hoping to run out the E85 and just this weekend put some HEET in the gas tank.  Oh, those home remedies.  On my drive home yesterday, I began hearing an odd noise on accelleration.  Kind of a whine.  Today, it conks out. 

Hubby contacts a tow truck operation and has the car towed to the dealership and then places a call to the service department where he's told they'll look at it.  Oh, no, I say.  They're going to do more than look at it.  And hubby invites me to call the dealership myself. 

There are phone numbers listed on their website, but none for the guy hubby had suggested I call.  However, there was a "contact us" link and an email address for someone at the local dealership.  Knowing that the pen is mightier than the sword (and no one can see you cry when you type an email), I began composing an email laden with facts, concerns and my list of acceptable solutions to this fiasco.  I want a different mini-van of the same year; in the same interior and exterior condition as the one we now have; with the same mileage as the one we purchased; with a carfax report; and a loaner at no cost to us.  After sending this to both places, I called the dealership manager, where I left a very nice message asking him to read the email and call me.

About 45 minutes later, I had received a conference call from the executive service manager and the service manager.  The service manager said he completely understands my frustration and wants to be given a chance to fix the car.  He does not think we have a lemon and thinks the problems lie with the transmission.  (Duh.)  He asked if he could drive the car for a couple of days and get a feel for the problem.  He'd then call and let me know what he thought it would take to fix the car.  My answer was yes, that would be fine, but if this does not solve the problem, I will be asking for a different car.

The loaner car, at no cost to us, will be here soon.  Stay tuned for an update.