Car Rant (It's been a really bad few weeks)

[AlphaFrog]

So I called the place that was supposed to be fixing my car this morning to ind out if it was done because they had called to leave a message that the part had come in and it should be done by today.

When I called she said she'd have to call the place they sent it (their computer wasn't sophisticated enough to fix it) to see if it was done. I asked for the # so I could call, but she quickly said, "No I'll do it and call you right back." and hung up the phone. She calls me back to say that it's done and that it will be ready about 5 today. I was thinking, if it's done, why the *&(^ can't I pick it up right now...

So I call her back about 2 pm to see if I'm picking it up at their shop or at the other shop and she says it's been at their shop all day (so why the *&%$ did you have to call the other place this morning???)

So at 4pm after I had driven an hour and a half to give the car back to my aunt that I had borrowed it from while mine was getting fixed and my friend had driven me an hour to the town where it was getting fixed we were sitting in Hardee's waiting until closer to 5, like she had said. She calls me and says "Were the gas gauge and speedometer and all those gauges working before???" I was like "YES!!!" "Oh, well, they're not now...." (WHY THE &%$%#*&%$% DIDN'T SHE TELL ME THIS THE OTHER 3 TIMES I TALKED TO HER TODAY??????) "If you want them fixed you can leave it overnight and we'll try to fix them" (TRY????) "No, I'll be taking my car now and taking it to someone who knows what they're doing...thank you..."

I'm planning on taking my car the the Chrysler dealer tomarrow, and sending them the bill...even after the distributor went out (which was what was wrong with the car) the gauges worked. I expect when I take my car to the mechanic that they FIX the things that are wrong and not BREAK anything else....

[/rant]

I feel better now...just one more problem on top of the 3,000 already exsisting ones....

[smiley21]

what a bunch of idiots. i am sure that there are some wonderful mechanics out there. but there are others out there that give you guys a very bad name

[Optimist Prime]

car people are shady

[AWJDZ]

I've got one for you....My car was in the shop for 2 MONTHS (at the dealership). It is only 3 years old and has been in excellent condition. Some kind of service note was sent out because the intake gasket was bad on that particular year and model. Well, they don't have to notify you because it is not a safety issue. Coming home from Raleigh one Sunday afternoon, mine decides to blow and my car runs hot. I take it in, they change the gasket (after a week). I call GM and raise cain. They decided they would pay 30%...i feel like they should notify people of this stuff, espec. since they are recommending to be changed for FREE! Well, after that fix that, they notice something still is not right. They send the heads to the shop, they come back fine. So, now they call and tell me my whole block is cracked, I need a new motor.

The car sits there, daddy keeps calling and seeing what the deal is (my parents live in VA). I borrow my mom's car for two months. Finally, they call and tell me that the car is ready...mom comes down here with me on Sun. and spend the night. She goes with me to the dealership to pay and stuff. Now, I need a new battery. They want to charge $125 + labor...uh, can I say Advance Auto! Nothing was wrong with the battery before I took it in. My cd's in the visor thing were missing, still not found. But they kept throwing out that they Washed and Detailed it for me. They for some reason could not print my mom off the bill that day, she only could get a credit card reciept for $3500! When they sent the bill, nothing was itemized, it just had the grand total at the bottom. We really don't know what the parts cost, or if we were charged triple.

Now, my car is still not right, brand new motor on a 3 year old car and the service engine soon light came on yesterday!

UGHHHHHHHHHH!

[preciousjeni]

I just took my car in on Friday for a 7 AM appointment. I had gotten maintenance done last month and was told that my throttle body needed to be cleaned out (it gets carbon buildup or something).

$200 including labor.

So, I went to have that done. I didn't get the car back until 5:45 PM. My friend had taken me to pick up the car and we planned on having a girls' night in. So, I drove over to her house. When I got there, I idled momentarily outside her house before I turned off the car. All of the sudden, the car started revving itself really bad. Long story short, it got towed the next day and I found out that a head something was blown in the cooling system.

$800 including labor and it won't be complete until Wednesday (tomorrow).

In addition, when I took the car in to have the throttle body cleaned, I was told that the front struts were blown causing my tires to cup and go bad. They had to order the part and I had planned on bringing it back in when the part got there. But, then all the cooling stuff happened.

$300 including labor

TOTAL for car repairs: $1300

Total for gas in the gas guzzling replacement car I've been driving: $27 in just a few days and it already had half a tank when I got it. I put $27 in when it had about a quarter of a tank left. And, now it needs MORE GAS today!! This is compared to my $16 a full tank car in the shop.

[adpialumcsuc]

Let me start by saying that I hate cars.....

We bought a used Camry from a private party. She gave me all the receipts to all the work that she had done on the vehicle since she bought it new. She always took it to the dealership. One day my huband is driving it and hears a loud noise that he thinks is the water pump and the car starts to over heat. He limps it back to work and I called AAA to come tow it home. We took it to our mechanic (whom is wonderful) and yes the water pump blew up and also took out lots of other fun stuff along the way. So I pulled my receipts and found that the water pump was "replaced" about 3 months prior and there was a serial number on the reciept. I gave it to my mechanic and low and behold it wasn't the same one. HMMM Fishy!! So it cost us about $1000 to fix everything that was ruined. Then we had to take it back in 4 other times with in a month because the oil seal kept blowing. The mechanic didn't charge any of the other times because it wasn't out fault but it was a hassle. After the third time he felt so bad that he replaced my broken door handle and also replaced a bad CV joint at no cost. I turned all the inforamtion over to the previous owner and she is going after the dealership for not replacing the parts that they said they did. YEAH for her!

[ADPiShannan]

My dad was thining of becoming a auto mechanic when he was in HS so he took a ton of classes on it and even leased a building and ran a shop for a while, but he ended up getting a diff job. Anyways, he makes me buy cars he knows about so when something goes wrong he fixes it himself. Once we had a car that he didnt know about so we took it in and they charged us way over so from now on he buys what he knows and if he doesnt know he has a friend who knows so we dont get stiffed. Those people will do things to your car to get you to come back. Ive had so many friends that has happened to with diff mechanics. I send them to my dad and hell fix it for free, just charge you for parts. He and my bro love to tinker with them so Im so glad. Itll be hell if I move out of OH and he cant fix my car anymore

[sueali]

We were driving on a very loong road trip and one day in to the trip our car breaks down. We had pulled into a small town in CA just across the northern Nevada Border and parked the car and went to eat dinner. We get back into the car start it drive for like 2 seconds and smell something buring. We park the car again. Start looking around for what was burning. We open the fuse box and two or three fuses had been melted. So we have one of those emergency road side kits and they had replacement fuses in them so we try to replace them( the fuses were to our tail lights) the new fuses don't work. We try to start the car so that we could drive it to a mechanic. Now the car won't get out of park at all. Apparently there is a safety mechanism that won't let you get the car out of drive. W spend the night. the next day the mechanic that we take it to is in this small CA town and he tells us that it is an electrical problem on the drivers side, and says he is not specialized in electrical and could spend hours just trying to figure out what is wrong. So he suggest we take it to the closest dealership, which is 2 hours away in Folsum CA. Yes Folsum like the prison. He fixs the car so we can drive it and we drive to Folsum.

We tell the dealership people what is wrong. Tell them it is an electrical problem and the fuses were melting. The dealership guy tells us it could take all day so we sit around, go to the movies. We come back at like 4:30 and they tell us they have to order a part from Oakland. It will be in tomorrow. Ok we tell them we aren't from here, and ask them if they have like a courtesy vehicle that could take us to a hotel (there is no bus or anything). They tell us no. I get pissed they finally decide they can find someone to drop us off.

We come back the next day they get the part, We think they are done he comes out and says I need to order another part. Fine we go through the whole process. come back the next day. And he says Oh I didn't know it was melted all the way to the front I have to order another part.

So SEVEN DAYS and me being thrown out of the office ( I have a mouth) we get our car back. They ended up giving us a deal on labor and paying for food that they had ruined ( snacks and stuff). The worst time I have ever had.

[Rio_Kohitsuji]

......all your problems is the reason why I'm marrying a man whose father owns his own auto shop

[norcalchick]

mechanics suck! they tell you EVERYTHING that is wrong with your car so that can charge you extra for parts and an arm and a leg for labor (knowing damn well it took 20 mins to fix it, and 4 hours of it sitting in the shop with the hood up). they talk out of thier ass about what's wrong with your car. thank god i have a bf now that knows a lot about cars and likes to fix things. he always used to work on cars and and always fixed his own cars up. so something that's wrong that the mechanic tells you cost $300, really just costs $20 and an hour of fixing it...