We’re happy to announce the winner of our third Backfires Briefs contest: Pat Daly! We asked members to write up their most terrible dealership experiences in 250 words or less, and then asked the Backfires commentariat to vote on who had it worst. Reading Pat’s story, it’s not difficult to see why Fiat took a quarter-century hiatus from our market.
Here’s Pat’s tale of woe:
Fix It Again Tony – by Pat Daly
In the mid 70’s I bought a low mileage used Fiat 124 Spyder. A few months into ownership, during braking, the car began pulling to the right. I found a dealer in Yonkers New York. Without looking at the car the service manager told me I needed new pads and rotors. I asked if he was sure that would solve the problem, he said, “Yes, absolutely.”
When I got the car back it still pulled to the right. I went back and told the service manager his fix had not worked. “Then you need new calipers,” he said, again without looking at the car. At this point, even youth and inexperience told me I was pegged as an easy mark. So, with no other negotiating tools in my box I again asked for assurance that this would solve the problem. “Absolutely!” he earnestly repeated.
After replacing the front calipers, the car still pulled to the right. I was livid. The service manager could see my Irish was up and became immediately apologetic. “I’m very sorry, I’ll have my best mechanic go out with you and see if he can find the problem.” The mechanic spoke no English. Under braking I took my hands off the wheel and it jerked hard right. He nodded. The mechanic drove the car and got the same result.
Back at the dealership the mechanic spoke for several minutes with the service manager who then spoke to me, “He says the car is fine…”
Of course, there were plenty of other deliciously horrible stories submitted: tied for second were maarp with his lease of one of the first Mini Coopers in Canada and MichaelJames_NY with his faulty M-Brace switch. There was another tie in the standings below them, covering bait33′s “Certified Pre-Owned” Mazda and crwpitman’s warranty woes.
Check out all the leading vote getters via the links below, or just read ‘em all here.
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You must be a level-four Backfires member (as denoted by the lightning bolts associated with your username) to submit entries for Backfires Briefs, so make sure you’re posting and otherwise busying yourself to gain points. Any Backfires user can vote for their favorite Backfires Briefs. And if you’re not a Backfires member yet, sign up here.
Source: CarAndDriver
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