New Car Dealers Meathead Face Vol. 2

OGG

OGG

Master of the Meh
I don't have the energy right now for another long, detailed story, so here's the meat and taters version.

Within 24 hours of picking up the car from the farcical 2 day oil change debacle, the security system was doing the same stupid shit. And despite the quite noticeably more taught clockspring in the turn signal stalk, the blinker bullshit was back. The clutch noise was still a concern, and now. .. there were issues with the infotainment sytem and the DC outlets.

I called the dealer and notified the service writer and asked for her to have the service manager call me. No call came. Over the next several days I made several attemps to contact him without success. Twice being placed on hold for over twenty minutes before getting disconnected.

So I tried to go a step higher and attempt to contact virtually anyone in the company who could help me. They make it incredibly difficult to do so. Eventually, very frustrated, I did the only thing I could, wish was to send a message via the "contact us" link wherein I mentioned my many failed attemps, and requested a prompt acknowledgment.

Nothing.

I finally procured a phone number to the business office and tried my luck there. The extremely nice lady who answered explained that they were just a small office of six people with virtually no authority. But, she gave me the number for Chris Baker, managing owner and son of the founder. Cool.

Called the number, got Voicemail, left message asking for HIM to return my call. Several hours later, the Service Manager who had dodged me for a solid week called me. I wasn't thrilled, but I gave him an opportunity to listen and then answer the few questions I had. He didn't really do either. His ultimate offer was to have me bring the car back and drop it off so they could "try to verify" complaints.

Say what? Oh no you didn't. He did.

I told him that before that would happen, I wanted to speak with the General Manager or Chris Baker. He put me on hold, then I got to the GM's Voicemail. I left a brief but assertive message asking for him to return my call.

He didn't.

But, he sent me an email stating that if I agreed to the tentatively scheduled drop off the following monday, he and Chris would meet with me then.

I emailed him back, agreed to the meeting and in an act of pure professional courtesy, filled him in on my level of knowledge and experience in the industry and a simple wish to be treated properly as had not yet happened. I also asked that he arrive prepared to answer my nagging questions.

He responded with a very brief, very terse message stating that "the purpose of our meeting on monday is strictly to allow us to attempt to verify and diagnose your concerns about the vehicle. I will NOT rehash or discuss previous conversations or statements made".

Seriously?

At that point, I finally contacted FIAT USA. I opened a claim that basically just puts them in the loop.

On Friday, I responded to the GM'S email by making it clear that I was expecting his full cooperation in resolving my issues and that I was still expecting some answers.

He responded with another short blast wherein he doubled down on his refusal to answer any questions and stated that beyond them veryfying my complaints as they relate to the operation of the vehicle, I was to take any additional concerns to FIAT USA "Since you've already contacted them".

So essentially, he was pissed off at me for contacting FIAT after a WEEK of being either ignored, or dismissed.

Therein began the good stuff.

To be continued. ..
 
GilmourD said:
And here's where we find out if a Fiat can indeed fit up somebody's colon.
Click to expand...
Funny, I told my bass player on Sunday that the following morning may indeed involve me seeing if a FIAT 500L would fit up the average male rectum.

Now back to the story.

I responded to his last email by letting him know that I am aware of how frustrating it is when a customer goes to corporate without first giving the independent dealer a chance to address their concerns. Yes, it is maddening. Unfortunately, that was clearly not the case since I had given them more than ample time to respond. I said it seemed clear that he was now angry because I had contacted FIAT and I was now unsure if we even still had an appointment on monday, but to please verify in order to avoid me wasting the trip.

No response.

Good stuff overload...

You guys may remember that I do freelance automotive journalism. I've had articles published in many different magazines and media outlets.

After a series of particularly positive product reviews of both FIAT and Chrysler branded cars, the HQ folks took quite a liking to me and shared several of my reviews on their own social media pages as well as having both of their individual main twitter feeds and several high ranking muckity mucks follow my dedicated automotive twitter account, which is also followed by virtually every manufacturer and dealer networks.

Oops.

The twitter smack down I placed on the dealership while tagging FIAT USA in every post, was epic and relentless. I had a wonderful time posting shit all night friday, knowing full well that neither the dealer or corporate would see any of it until monday morning, and long after the retweet train left the station.

I also knew that because of the time difference, FIAT Chrysler group would become aware hours before the dealership.

Oh my!

Over the weekend, I also did Yelp, Google, all of that shit, as well as leaving a scathing review on their own facebook page.

Oh, but there was still more hilarity to follow.

To be continued. ..
 
So, this is where I need to state that every single statement and post I made over the weekend was 100% factual and verifiable. Homey ain't down with getting sued for libel or slander. I used their own documented communications to essentially give them plenty of rope to hang themselves with.

The best one though... it was like a gift from above.

Late Friday I got an automated email from the dealership with a link to a survey page where I could rate my recent service visit.

It was signed by the same fucking douchebag GM that was now the target of my assault.

:grin:

I proceeded to fill out the survey with the lowest possible score, and in the comments section specifically addressed said douchebag and thanked him for providing a prewritren form for me to voice my concerns that I could screen cap and post at will. Then I hit send.

Then I published the screen cap.

Monday morning, 8 AM I recieve a very brief email informing me that our appointment was still scheduled.

To be continued. ..
 
OGG said:
So, this is where I need to state that every single statement and post I made over the weekend was 100% factual and verifiable. Homey ain't down with getting sued for libel or slander. I used their own documented communications to essentially give them plenty of rope to hang themselves with.

The best one though... it was like a gift from above.

Late Friday I got an automated email from the dealership with a link to a survey page where I could rate my recent service visit.

It was signed by the same fucking douchebag GM that was now the target of my assault.

:grin:

I proceeded to fill out the survey with the lowest possible score, and in the comments section specifically addressed said douchebag and thanked him for providing a prewritren form for me to voice my concerns that I could screen cap and post at will. Then I hit send.

Then I published the screen cap.

Monday morning, 8 AM I recieve a very brief email informing me that our appointment was still scheduled.

To be continued. ..
Click to expand...
I did see that one...
 
lol. I can't wait to hear how this ends.

The guys at my local mazda joint are great. The service writer guy I typically use tells me that if they don't get pretty much flawless survey cards for service visits, they get chewed out by the GM, the owner's management (Penske), and mazda USA. I imagine your events have a whole lot of people getting their ass chewed, especially as FIAT is trying very hard to break back into the US market, and one of their issues is convincing people today's FIAT isn't the same as the unreliable FIATs of the past.
 
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My wife and I arrive for the scheduled appointment exactly on time. We were greeted by Douchebag GM, Douchebag Service Manager, Douchebag Lot Foreman, Clueless "Master Technician" who aside from maybe being as old as 23, was the one who had "Repaired" our vehicle. Also present was the now clearly befuddled and nervous original Service Writer. Conspicuously absent, was Chris Baker.

They all offered a friendly greeting. No mention was made of the events over the weekend. Everyone, including myself was calm, polite and seemingly eager to resolve the situation.

Unfortunately, douchebag GM decided to double down again by seeing how much unadulterated bullshit he could try to get past me. Curiously, despite his earlier refusal to answer any of my questions, he had come prepared with a list of my questions and his "answers" to each of them. Chief among these questions was my asking how they were able to compare my 6 speed manual 500L to another 6 speed manual 500L in diagnosing the clutch noise when there was no such equipped car on the lot at the time, and both the previous and current sales managers had confirmed was not a variant that the dealership keeps on hand due to the popularity of the flappy paddle or full auto variants. The current sales manager also confirmed to me on the phone (After I personally walked the lot and looked), that indeed they had not had such a vehicle in stock for some time, and that they only get them as customer special orders. So, how then did they come up with this 6 speed manual 500L for the comparison? Since I believed I was being mislead, I informed him the week before that he could provide a simple inventory log or blacked out sales receipt showing such a car had been there, or if it were a customer's car also there for service, a copy of the work order/invoice with the customer info blacked out would suffice.

He answered that question finally by saying that they had actually compared my car side by side to a Dodge Dart "Which as you may know, shares the engine and transmission with the 500L, so it's a like for like comparison". Well, they do have a dodge dealership right down the street, so it's certainly possible that they did so. Here was my response: "Yes, I am aware of the fact that the Dart and 500L s speed manual share a motor and transmission. However, I am also aware that the engine in the Dart is tuned to put out much fewer horsepower and foot pounds of torque much to the published dismay of many Dart owners. I am also aware that while both assemblies share an architecture, the engine and transmission in the 500L manual are built and assembled in Italy before being shipped as a unit to the former Slavic Republic for mating to the chassis and final assembly. Further, that the dutuned variant in the Dart is assembled in the US from individual sources before being installed into a vehicle with a significantly lower curb weight. I am also aware, as are you, the added torque, horespower and weight of the 500L puts much more stress on the clutch assembly. I am also aware, as are you, that there are widespread reports of manual equipped 500L's completely grenading clutch assemblies in as few as 2,000 miles, and many documented cases of such equipped cars going through 4 or 5 clutch assemblies in 40-50K miles. I am further aware, that between the relatively low but serious instance of clutch failure in the manual, and the nightmarish number of issues with the Euro Twin Clutch AutoStick variant, that production of the entire line was halted in September of last year for a period of several weeks in order for FIAT to get a handle on the situation. My car was built in August.

Blank stare followed by more bullshit and the exchanging of horrified looks between all present employees.

Then we got to the combined issue of the aftermarket alarm (Which we didn't want and weren't offered one way or other, and is COMPLETELY redundant to the factory equipped security system that is a standard feature on all 500L models), still malfunctioning in exactly the same way it had before the previous visit where I was told was not defective, but had been "rewired" anyway by the aftermarket vendor. Only now, after this "rewiring" job, there were new problems that certainly seem to be related. For instance, the infotainment system will randomly and intermittently produce a harsh crackling noise out of nowhere despite the type, or source of media being played (Therefor, NOT radio static). Also, most curious was that the DC outlets in the car would no longer charge our cell phones. The chargers would light up, but would not actually charge the phone. This was a new development that happened to appear immediately after the previous service visit. We thought perhaps our charger was defective, so we bought another one. Same thing. BOTH of them however work just fine in our other vehicles, and I physically demonstrated this to them with two chargers and two identical phones plugged into my car and then plugged into a randomly chosen car on the lot. This would seem to be the case of either a voltage deficiency, or irregularity that I suspected could be caused the rewiring of the useless afermarket alarm and the high probability that the technician had had tapped into either the ground or power to the infotainment system, which was likely the cause of the intermittent noise as well.

What followed was a stunningly mind boggling load of pure bullshit that I have ever heard in my entire lifetime. Seriously. You can't make this shit up. How these assclowns could keep a straight face while spewing this bullshit is a complete mystery, whoever the author the bullshit was, they are either an absolute genius, or the dumbest motherfucker on earth because NOBODY could possibly believe what they were spinning.

First, the system was only rewired because I had complained about it not functioning properly (Which I demonstrated for them previously), and although they were unable to duplicate the symptoms, or diagnose a problem, they had the alarm supplier rewire the system as a courtesy to me which they would be invoiced for. So really, they were just being generous. How sweet.

At this point, the lot foreman asks the service writer if "Steve" from Southwest was the one who rewired my alarm. Her response, "No actually, it was some guy I've never seen before, new guy, young kid". Yup. BTW, the Southwest he was referring to is Southwest Dealer Services Inc. Which you can read all about on google or your national crime blotter. Aside from being shady as fuck, they were sued by their own employees as a collective for heinous violations of labor laws, and LOST THEIR ASS in the courts.

These geniuses sent the inexperienced new guy to diagnose and rewire a suspect system in a car he has probably never seen before in his life. Brilliant. How the service advisor or service manager could notice this, and not at least give pause is unimaginable to me.

However, it gets so, so much better. the reason my phones (all FOUR of our less than 2 month old Samsung Galaxies) are likely incompatible with the UConnect infotainment system, thereby causing the issue with them not charging. Yes really. They further stated that a firmware flash on the system can sometimes cause new compatibility issues with certain devices. OK, so did you do a firmware flash update on my system? "no". Well then, that ain't the problem! However, can anyone in this room explain to me how regardless of compatibility in terms of connectivity between a device and the UConnect system (Which BTW, our phones interact with beautifully) could in any possible way account for the DC outlets getting power, but not charging the phones? Is there anyone who can comfirm that the DC outlets are "Intelligent" outlets that are linked to the UConect system with the means to recognize a particular device and pass that information along to the head unit even if the device in question is powered down at the time, because I gotta tell ya... those would be some truly brilliant DC outlets.

More blank stares and confused looks.

Next the "Master Tech" tried to tell me that our alarm issue was most likely operator error (Now the 4th time they tried to blame us), or the result of "Cell tower interference" or "Maybe interference from some type of device left in the car such as a phone, laptop or tablet". "Maybe it's just where you live bro". For Fucks Sake!

I still somehow remained totally calm and deadpan despite seething under the surface. By this time, the rental agency had arrived to take us to our waiting Kia Hamster Shitmobile so I ended the meeting with the simple request that they find and fix the issues I brought it in for. We planned on them having the car for at least a few days and since they were paying for the rental, I told them to please take whatever time they needed to get it right.

I have to go to band practice now, I'm late, so I'll wrap this up later, I promise.

For now, here's the satisfaction survey:

BBAGSurvey1.png
 
The issues with this car (plus many reviews and ratings) make it look like Fiat is trying to join MINI and Land Rover for the POS Crown.
Throw in the crappy service at the dealer for the icing.
 
Tig said:
The issues with this car (plus many reviews and ratings) make it look like Fiat is trying to join MINI and Land Rover for the POS Crown.
Throw in the crappy service at the dealer for the icing.
Click to expand...
I thought it was only 1st gen Minis that had the real issues and they've since worked through those.
 
TomcatMF said:
You should have bought a Hyundai.
Click to expand...
Yeah!

Actually all dealerships are independent businesses and can be great or shit sucking dumbass bottomfeeders regardless of brand. I got @reverend1 a great deal on a car trough my wife and the guy at the dealer was such an asshole that he walked down the street and bought a VW.
 
The Minis are still shitburgers. 14 years in, and they still haven't sorted their own transmission issues.

I would have no issue buying a Hyundai, great cars. In fact, my buddy who played guitar in my band 30 years ago sells new Hyundais at a local dealership. He's been there for years, and it was a phone call from him after he saw my facebook post that gave the final pieces of the puzzle to unleash the fooking fjury.

As for the FIAT itself, I don't care that it isn't a perfect car. The issues I've had with it are annoying, but relatively minor. It's the first model year of an entirely new car on an entirely new platform. I knew going in that it would have problems that would need sorting. As for the known transmission issues, only the Euro Twin Clutch Auto Stick was having issues, albeit severe issues, but they have sorted that out now. The clutch issues with the 6 speed manual have far fewer instances of occurrence, and according to what I have read is ultimately going to be determined to be the fault of a slave cylinder that is simply too weak. I'm not sure my car is affected, but the fact that it still gives off the classic burning smell at 3,300 miles, and is most notable after a long freeway drive where you're cruising in 6th gear leads me to suspect that the clutch is never completely disengaged. This literally smokes the clutch plate to the point of failure. I have every confidence that FIAT will get that sorted as well.

I adore this little car. I love the brand and always have. For me, it's equally important for a car to have character and a strong identity as it is to be rock solid reliable. I'm an enthusiast, if I just wanted a reliable set of wheels, I'd buy a Camry or an Accord. But the thought of driving one of those things every day feels like prison sentence.

But here's the real kicker as far as why I love this car so much. I met my wife 20 years ago this past December. After we had been dating for a few months, I found a sweet deal on a 78 FIAT X1/9, and despite having already owned 6 of the bloody things that sucked my wallet dry, I couldn't resist.

Her and I drove around in that FIAT for over a year during the foundational portion of our relationship.

So this past December, my wife, knowing my love the damned things, and wanting to do something special for me to mark 20 years, bought this car for me. I was only minimally involved in the process. She wanted it to be a surprise, but she didn't want to screwed by the dealership going in alone. So it was only after she had decided to buy the car, that I got involved at all.

So aside from a love for the brand going back to my earliest memories, the wonderful nostalgia associated with it and my clearly stated desire to eventually get one, it's the sentiment attached to it by creating a bridge back to 20 years ago and the great memories of time spent in that old X1/9.

I honestly wouldn't care if it was the biggest piece of shit on the road. I'd still love it for all of those reasons above.

The fact that these unscrupulous scumbags have turned a wonderful gift into a horrid nightmare is what ultimately drives me to completely eviscerate their public image until they do the right thing.

Which by the way, is the topic of the next post.

Stay tuned...
 
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