Well, where do I start? Back in 2001 I was going to school full time and working full time. I was borrowing my grandfathers truck, putting in excess of 100 miles a day. I badly needed my own car, and I've always been a Nissan fan, so I went to the local nissan dealer.
They couldn't get me financed for the Spec-V sentra I wanted, but could get me into a slightly used 01 Kia Optima. The price was decent, and I was told it had a bumper to bumper warranty for 75,000 miles. My fiance also witnessed this.
I was also told that if I bought this car, paid for it on time for a year, I would be able to come back and trade it in for something I wanted. So between the good price, good warranty and promise of getting a 02 spec v I was sold.
The car did great for a while, but one day when a friend and myself went to lunch, we came back out and found the car would not start. I had just had it serviced some weeks before hand, and nothing was found needing repair. It turns out however, the timing belt had broke. I was fortunate that it broke after I shut the car off, so no internal engine damage was done.
Well, I understood that I had a bumper to bumper warranty, but this is when I found out otherwise. I had a limited drive train warranty, but this is not what I was told, nor what sold the car for them. After weeks of not having my car, and not being provided a rental, it was determined to be a warranty repair because the timing belt tensioner had siezed up, causing the premature breakage of the belt.
So they told me if I provided a receipt for my belt (I had to purchase my own belt because they had a 200%markup on the price) I would be given a full refund. I provided the reciept, yet they denied my refund. I was told that it was not a genuine kia part, and kia would not authorize a refund. However, it was a authentic kia oem replacement, even came in a back with Kia printed all over it. Ohwell, screwed out of $75 on top of spending my entire savings to purchase a cheap truck to drive while my car was being repaired.
It took them almost a month to actually repair my car. Anyone who has ever turned a wrench knows there is absoultly no reason such a job should take so long.
Anyhow, I get my car back, and within a week it is displaying serious problems. The electrical system is freaking out, my stereo essentially caught fire and smoked the car out, while going down the road at 70 mph. The in dash clock rarely worked, and my power windows all quit functioning properly. The blower for the heating/AC also lost a lot of power, blowing less wind on the high setting then a properly functioning fan would blow on the lowest of settings.
And this was coming up time for me to trade this car in and get my Spec V. I returned to the service department, with the hope of them honoring the warranty they told me I had, since I had established a warranty, and a tensioner is not part of the drivetrain. Anyhow, I was denied.in the mean time, I was also in talks about trading the car in.in little over a year, the car I purchased for around 15,000 dollars was worth only $2500 in good condition. I still owed around 12,000. So the advice the salesmen give me was to finance the sentra, since I was only cosigned on the kia, my grandfather being the main signer. (This was also something they tricked me on, I was supposed to be the main signer, and due to this none of the payments I made reported to the credit bereu.) And just let them repo the Kia.
Anyways to shorten this story, I was sold a lemon, lied to about the warranty, refused the quality service they claim to provide, ripped off, lied to time after time from the sales staff, finance manager and even the owner.
The people there will say absolutely anything to get you to buy a car. "Its not true, ahh, tellem it is anyhow". This i s evidenced by the fact that they managed to get my brother into a very similar situation.
Part 2, this really pisses me off. I don't mind my credit being messed up, I've learned my lesson and I will never by a new car again. But now they are doing the same BS to my brother.
He purchased a Nissan frontier from them in 02, in the midst of all the trouble I was having. I told him not to, but he did anyhow.in this respect, he should have known better, but who would think a company would try to royal screw two people from the same family?
Anyhow, the truck was decent, but kept having the heater control cable break, causing the heater to not be able to switch to defrost. This happened 4 or 5 times within the month my brother owned the truck. Finally, he was offered to trade it out for something that he'd been wanting, much like I wanted a Spec-V.
A 2003 Mitsubishi Lanver Evolution VII. At first it seemed like a wonderfull car. 280 horses coming from a 4 cylinder, some of you (If your still with me:)) are probably shaking your heads in disbelief. Its 4wd, front engine. It is basically a street legal rally car.
My brother was excited, and jumped right into it. Shortly after purchasing the car, he discovered that many other evo owners were having problems with the clutch burning up in less then 15,000 miles. Now, mitsubishi sells a full warranty, bumper to bumper. So my brother printed off some of the posts from the people warning of the clutch problem, and reported this problem to the service department.
See, what Mitsubishi did was use a cheaper, less powerfull clutch in the american version of the Evolution. I don't know the exact numbers but it is quite a difference. Something like 1800 f/lbs in the american vs 24 or 2600 f/lbs in the overseas version. I don't know what reason mitsubishi chose to do this, as obviously a 280 hp 4wd car needs all the clutch strength it can get.
Anyhow, my brother, Chris, reported this to the service dept. A few days after purchasing the car. He also read stories of how mitsubishi gets out of doing the warranty work by claiming the worn out clutch is due to improper driving. My brother and I have been driving almost as long as we've been walking, so improper driving simply is not the case. We've raced go-karts and motorcyles for many years, and learned to drive a manual transmission Ford f150 work truck loaded down with vinyl siding and needed tools to install. We Know How to Drive.
So our thought was, "Lets bring this problem to the service departments attention before it becomes a problem, so that they cannot weasel out of it." Instead, they respond by telling us "We can't replace the clutch if it isn't broken, and we certainly can't do it under warranty work, you would have to pay. And installing a clutch with more clamping pressure (The numbers I mentioned above) will void your warranty.".
So Chris decided he would baby the car, drive it as easy as possible. After 11,000 miles, the clutch had self destructed. The fiber which makes up the clutch pads had overheated, and turned into something which looked like steel wool.
Anyhow, when Chris was finally able to get the service dept to agree to work on it, he pretty much accepted the fact that the warranty would not cover the work. He sought out an OEM replacement for the overseas version of the clutch. He got it, and give the car to them on wednesday, the 2nd june. They told him the job would be done by that friday, 4 june.
I can't believe, I almost forget the most important part. They cut a hole in the bell housing to remove the clutch. Sorry for the caps, but you gotta scream that one. The mechanics were incompetent, underqualified to work on a 4wd driven car, and essentialy had no business under the hood of my brothers car. The owner assured us this was the best, and only route, and also promised to cover any damages that may result from having a friggin whole in your bell housing. This explains the delay, and why it took them so long:
Yup, you guessed it. The job wasn't done friday, but instead, a promise it would be done early monday. Bet you didn't guess this, it ended up being 16 June before he recieved his car back. As soon as he left the dealership, he pulled out in traffic and the car died. The idiots who were working on the car did not reinstall the intake pipe from the turbo to the head, which resulted in the car bogging down when he tried to accelerate. This almost result in my brothers death, but fortunately the other drivers on the road were able to avoid this situation.
This, is evidence of the shotty workmanship that went into the car. Now, my brother has had his car back for a little over a week. He finally got to go back to work that following thursday, and upon his trip home noticed a faint, but persistant whining sound coming from the front of the car.
A little searching on the internet, and listening to sound clips he discovered the sound was the tranfer case, which distributes the rotational force of the engine to the rear wheels. A very essential component in a 4wd car. Now, this sound was not present before the clutch repair, but appeared shortly thereafter. My brother believes in using synthetic oils, and had purchased a specific brand of oil to be used in his transmission. It is our belief, for we cannot prove such a thing, that the incompetent, underqualified mechanics put the oil, which was supposed to be used in the transmission in the transfer case. Generally transmission gear oil is very thick, whereas transfer case oil is much thinner. If someone put thick gear oil in the transfer case, it would most certainly result in unneeded heat and friction, moving components worst enemy.
Now, they are attempting to weasel their way out of this situation, by claiming that they are not responsible. They send us to crown mitsubishi, finally admitting their incomptentence, and are trying now to wash their hands of this.
To those of you who managed through my little mini series, I thank you. My credit is ruined and I will have to deal with that. There is little that can be done to help me. My brother however is quickly being thrusted into the exact same situation, only with a greater loan value. Please don't let this happen to him. I greatly appreciated any help anyone might be able to provide, please contact me via email at [email protected].
Thanks.
Note, I am filing this report against Asheboro Nissan, however I would not recomend a mitsubishi for my worst enemys. The company does not stand behind its work, and is infamous for concocting elaborate schemes to cover up its garbage products. It lies, schemes and (hey, they should run for president:)) puts you on an endless loop on hold when you attempt to contact and confront a negative situation.
Basically their customer service policy is "Ignore it till they go away".
Shawn
Asheboro, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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