I purchased a 1998 Dodge Durango from Prestige auto in October of and while it still had 30 tags on it, the water pump failed. I was told by the sales person when I bought it that with the extended warranty that I purchased, I could take the vehicle anywhere I wanted to for repairs, and the warranty company would authorize the repair, and pay for it with a credit card right then and there. I was away with my ship at the time, so my wife was having to deal with all this. I told her to take it to the Dodge dealership near our house, because I knew that they would fix it using Dodge parts, and return it to manufacturers specifications. I knew that the dealership would be more costly, but what do I care I don't have to come out of my pocket for anything except for the $100 deductible (so I thought).
The water pump was covered under the warranty, so they authorized that repair, but when it was complete, the warranty company said they would mail out a check to the dealership for the repair, and then the Dealership told my wife she couldn't have the vehicle back until they recieved payment for the repair. My wife called me and let me know everything that was going on. I asked her for the number to this warranty company, when I questioned them about their credit card payments, I was told that they only did that with two repair facilities, neither of them very big, or widely known. I then called the dealer, and asked them about all this, and they acted surprised (imagine that).
To get our vehicle back we had to come out of our pocket with $345, of that only $62 was re-imbursed to us by the warranty company. I questioned that, and was told that the repair facility that we chose exceeded their maximum coverage amount for parts, and labor, so all they covered was $62 worth of parts, and labor. My major gripe here is that Prestige needs to know about the product they are selling, and explain how it works in detail to the consumer before they walk out the door, and also they need to be more vigilant when they are so called reconditioning a vehicle before they put it on the lot for sale.
My wife did not deserve to go through all that mess with a vehicle purchased just two weeks prior to all that. I kept getting all kinds of assurances that we would have no problems as I hesitated to sign on the line. After all this they gave her the run around with the hard plates, because the temporary one were about to expire, and they wouldn't give her new ones. The sales manager said it was against the law. So she said what if I get pulled over? She was told to tell the cop that the dealership had not yet gotten her the plates. Along with everything else, she got pulled over, and did just like she was told, and was still ticketed, she took the ticket to Prestige at which time they gave her new temp plates (against the law).
She had to appear in court, the case was thrown out, but she still endured the hassle though. To sum all this up, make people explain things to you in full detail, look over any vehicle before you purchase it, test drive the hell out of it before you purchase it, and don't go to Prestige Auto brokers.
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