Dealing With The Dealership

      I am in a bit of a mood today. On one hand, it’s opening night for football. Which is exciting. I adore football season. On the other hand, my car has been in the shop for over a week! I feel like I’m getting the run around. I feel like my “service advisor” is trying to over-charge me. It all started a couple of weeks ago when the Calvins played in Long Beach. Which was an awesome show by the way. I don’t know if I ever got to tell you, but it was epic! We got to see a couple of really good bands, and play in front of some pretty cool people. The venue was definitely the kind of place we would hang out at if we lived up there. Now that I think about it, the car trouble probably started long before that. Even when we first bought it, there was some kind of hang up on getting the tags because of some smog concerns. They never told us what it was, but we ended up getting the registration, and thought it was all good. However, there were moments of concern. It drove a little differently than we had experienced. We were used to a 6-cylinder SUV, and this was a small economy car, so we thought it was just a different “feel.” Looking at the paperwork, we noticed on the Carfax report that there were a few outstanding recalls that had never been fixed. We were notified that we could take it to Ford, and they would handle it. Most of the recall fixes had “expired,” so we didn’t really get much out of it. The “service advisor” at that time told me that it was fine, and that what we were experiencing was just a different type of engine, and that we would get used to it. But, the car would randomly turn off, or sputter out. For some reason it didn’t like going slow. It would die in stop and go traffic! I don’t think that’s something we can be expected to get used to.

     The “check engine” light would come on sometimes. I eventually took it to my new mechanic. They cleaned some kind of airflow sensor, and it worked like a charm. We were glad it was an easy fix. No problems for a while. We thought it was all good. Then after about a year, the light came on again. We took it back to the mechanic and he said it was good, it was a code about the same sensor that they had just cleaned, and as long as the car was running fine, he recommended we wait to “fix” the problem until we needed a smog check. That struck me as odd. A mechanic saying a problem doesn’t need fixed. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to save me some money, or had some weird kind of customer loyalty scam. Either way, I trusted him, and we continued on our way. We weren’t having any trouble, it’s just a little nerve-racking to have the “check engine” light on all the time. I’m not sure if it’s going to burn out, plus we have no idea if another problem arises, because the light is always on. At this point, the only real problem that we were having with the car was that every once in a while, when it was trying to get up to gear, it would sputter a little, like it was having trouble changing gears. It wasn’t usual, but it was noticeable. Not too worrisome, but a thought in the back of the mind. Then we received this letter from Ford, notifying us that an extended warranty had been issued for our vehicle because the TCM can go bad. We had until June of 25 to get it fixed, if we were having some specific problems. I thought about taking it in, but Susan’s sisters were in town, and there was the whole memorial thing, so we waited until it was all over, in case something like this happened. Which now it unfortunately has.

     Our other car isn’t any better. It’s older, and has its own set of problems going on. So, it’s not the most reliable either. The one currently in the shop is our “good” one! My music gear fits better in our SUV, but because our car gets better gas mileage, we decided to take it to Long Beach. We got up there no problem. After our gig, we went to take the gear back to the hotel room. The car wouldn’t start. I looked under the hood, as if I’d know what the problem was. The ground cable on the battery was loose. I twisted it a little, and the car started right up. But the car wouldn’t go over 30. I crept through a mall parking lot to get back to the hotel. I figured we deal with it in the morning. We had a lot going on. We Ubered back to the party. The next day the car was working fine. I don’t know what the heck was going on, but I bought a wrench to tighten up the cable, and we made our way back home. It was the day of the hurricane, and I was a nervous wreck. It was pouring rain, and every little bump on the road made me afraid we’d get stranded. I did not want to be broken down on the side of the freeway in a hurricane. But I kept pushing through, and we made it. The next day I made the appointment at Ford to get it looked at. Nothing was available until Wednesday. The car was acting a little weird, so we were glad to have made it to the dealer, thinking all of our troubles were in the past. That was last Wednesday! I was told: “a day or 2 for diagnosis.” That was last Wednesday! I finally talked to my “service advisor” on Tuesday, and they hadn’t even checked the TCM yet. Now they’re trying to charge me for checking all of this other stuff, that I never asked for, and I can’t even get them on the phone! Not happy.