You'd think from all the hysterics in this thread that the sky had fallen. Would hate to see how some behave during a real crisis.
Accidents happen. Get everything in writing, proceed with the dealer's repair & recovery plan and, most important, remain calm.
Originally Posted by ubervic
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776
Yeah you guys are probably right I didn't realize the truck was specially optioned. I remember a guy I worked with years ago getting a new Jeep Cherokee when he was having engine problems and the dealership wanted to tear down and rebuild the top of the engine and fix things and he said no I want a new truck and the dealership gave him a new truck but it was only a week old.
Last edited by Bobcat; 10-20-2017 at 12:03 PM.
Make them buy you an ice cream cone on the way home, too.
fix the bed, get a coupon book worth at least 10 free oil changes, and at least one transmission service.
I think Rob is going about this in a very level headed manner and hope things work out for him.
WRT JTQ's post, I'm continually perplexed by people who love to replace their vehicles as soon as they can. I used to be one of them. My current vehicle is an 08 Chevy Silverado I bought new. It has almost 113,000 miles on it. I like this truck more the longer I have it. It feels almost like an extension of my will, and seems to drive itself. I hope it lasts for several 100,000s miles more. Once it is gone, there will be no more Chevy/GMCs for me (bailout protest) and I have to start over, so I am in no rush to replace it. Even if I was going to get another Chevy, I'm really accustomed to this one and don't want to change just to change.
Last edited by Willard; 10-21-2017 at 12:12 AM.
In the fall of 2006, my wife and I went to a nearby Ford dealer to look at new F250 diesel pickups. After looking through the ample new truck inventory, we found a nice one in fire engine red with gray leather interior. Very nice. We advised our salesman we wanted to take it for a test drive. It was parked alongside a white equally nice similarly equipped F250 diesel. (Both were backed into the parking spaces). The salesman advised that he would need to personally pull the truck out of the parking space, and we would then be allowed to take it for a drive. As my wife stood in front and across the aisle from the trucks, the salesman got in the red truck and started it. As he pulled from the parking space, he cut the wheels too far to the left and hooked the front left corner of the red truck's bumper just behind the right front wheel of the white truck and drug the bumper along the white truck all the way to the white truck's front bumper! My wife and I had both seen what was going to happen and attempted to catch the salesman's attention, but he didn't see us. Two brand new F250 diesel trucks pretty fairly damaged! Another salesman nearby witnessed the accident and approached and began a discussion with the salesman who had wrecked the trucks (and was having a mini-meltdown). We thanked both salesmen and told them we were no longer interested in test driving the red F250, and as we walked across the large parking lot and approached the front of the dealership we spotted a brand new F350 (1 ton) diesel truck on a raised pedestal right in front of the showroom floor. It was a beauty . . . . completely loaded King Ranch model 2-tone bronze and gold paint, brown leather interior, etc. We struck up a conversation with the second salesman who had witnessed the previously described incident and began discussing the King Ranch F350. We took it for a test ride, fell in love with it, negotiated a deal, and purchased it. During the final walk-around, we noticed that one of the running boards (right side) had a place in the polymer step that appeared that it had been melted. We had already made arrangements to bring the truck back to the dealership in three days to have an Inyati bed liner sprayed inside the bed. The dealer advised that when we returned the truck for the bed liner, they would replaced the passenger's side running board. We thanked him and went on our way in our new truck.
Three days later, I was in my office and my wife took the truck in to the dealer for the bed liner installation and running board replacement. When she arrived at the dealer in the new truck it had 151 miles on it. They advised my wife that the work would take 4-5 hours, so she took advantage of the offered shuttle service, and they gave her a ride back to our home. At about 2 PM that afternoon, the dealership called my wife and advised that the truck was ready and confirmed that they would dispatch the shuttle to our home to pick her up and return her to the dealer to pick up the truck. About half an hour later, the shuttle driver arrived and picked up my wife to take her to the dealership.
When the shuttle pulled up in front of the dealership, my wife saw our new truck sitting in front of the showroom floor. There were approximately half a dozen dealership employees standing on the far side of the truck looking at it. When she got out of the shuttle vehicle and began to walk towards the ruck, the salesman who had sold the truck met her and stated: "You don't want to see your truck" with an ashen look on his face. At first, my wife thought he was joking with her, but then as she looked back at the truck, all but one of the employees who had been standing on the other side of the truck looking at it "scattered like quail" (in my wife's words). When she walked to the passenger's side of the truck, she observed quite an unexpected sight: Starting at the right front bumper, the entire right side of the truck was destroyed. The front bumper was twisted back toward the RF tire, the RF fender well was collapsed inward toward the RF tire. The (new) passenger's side running board was folded up at a 90 degree angle and pressed deeply into both RH doors. The RH rear view mirror was ripped completely off. The rear fender well was deeply collapsed, and the right side of the rear bumper was pulled partly off the back of the truck!
My wife had a meltdown and unloaded on the salesman and the office worker standing nearby. The salesman and about three employees calmed her down and took her inside the dealership, where she was met by the manager. After assuring her they would "make everything right", she was taken into the manager's office. She told him that HE had to call me at the office and tell me what happened! I received the call in my office, and the ensuing discussion revealed that the mechanic that had replaced the running board on the truck had been instructed to pull the truck around to the front of the showroom floor, as my wife was on the way from home to pick it up. A quick investigation showed that as the mechanic pulled around the corner of the shop, he wiped the side of the truck off on a large diameter pipe guard post filled with concrete. One did not have to be an accident investigation expert to figure out what had happened! The mechanic had done the damage to the truck, pulled it around to the front of the showroom as instructed, taken the keys inside to the lady in the service department, and walked back to the shop and had gone back to work!! He did not report any of the damage to anyone! When the service department lady notified our salesman that my wife was on her way to the dealership to pick up the truck, he had gone outside yo look at it, and he was the first one to report the damage! It was about this time that my wife arrived at the dealership.
The manger began our phone conversation by describing what had happened, and then said that we needed to discuss our options for "making it right". At that point, I interrupted him and told him there were three, and only three options:
1. We had traded in a 3-year old Ford Excursion diesel on the new truck and had paid the balance of the amount owed on the truck in cash. He could bring our Excursion back to the front of the store, sign the title back into our name, and provide my wife with a check in the full amount we had paid three days earlier
2. He could replace the truck with a new one with exactly the same equipment and of the same color.
3. He could provide me with the name of his dealership's attorney so I could provide that information to my attorney.
End of discussion. He advised he would find us a new truck. Before my wife left the dealership, she pointed pointed out that in the process of three days, his dealership had wrecked THREE trucks! When that remark was made, it was evident that the manager was aware that the red and white trucks had been damaged, but was NOT aware of the fact that they had wrecked by one of his own salesmen! We were told later that the mechanic was fired that same evening and that the salesman was terminated a couple of days later!
The dealership provided my wife with a loaner truck and it took the dealership five days, but they found a brand new F350 exactly like the one we had purchased, except that it had the deluxe ($1900+) "chrome package". He offered to include that package at no additional charge to me. He also had the Inyati bed liner sprayed in at NO CHARGE to us (an additional $425).
Now for the grand finale: We were told that between the day we purchased the new F350 and the day they totaled it, an elderly couple who had purchased a a brand new Ford car had brought the car in for it's initial service at 5000 miles. While it was in for service, one of the dealer's mechanics took it for a road test and was in an accident on the nearby US 6o freeway, and the car was totaled!! That made four new vehicles wrecked (two totaled) in four calendar days! (As we understood it, this wreck was not the fault of the dealership employee).
At the end of the day, we drove the F350 for nearly 8 years and put just over 100,000 miles on it. Loved it every day that we owned it, and never had a single problem with it. Continued to take our vehicles to that Ford dealership for service needs, including a 2007 Ford Mustang GT, and a 2011 Ford Edge Sport that we bought from them. And then in late 2014 we traded the F350 on a new 2014 Ford F150 Raptor, which I am still driving and have serviced at that same dealer. They could not be better about their customer care, but they went through a rough patch over a few days back in 2006!!
Berge?
Last edited by Coyotesfan97; 10-24-2017 at 12:45 AM.
Just a dog chauffeur that used to hold the dumb end of the leash.
I used to be a heavy line mechanic at berge. In my time there I saw an f250 fall nose first off a lift that was 6 ft in air. I also saw a nice mid 90s bronco get dumped on passengers side while going into lube pit.
The old bronco was amazing. Apparently when the kid realized he drove off the side of the lube pit and the truck was resting on passengers door he panicked and hit gas pedal. The bronco drove or rather pushed itself almost the entire length of the pit.
Last edited by fixer; 10-24-2017 at 06:05 AM.
Pickup trucks have gotten so big that they are just naturally going to run into things with adequate clearance for cars and older trucks.
Anecdote: A lawyer here had a Jaguar "multi" (V12). This was years ago, long before the present ad campaign and Jags of the era were well known for their finicky nature. Overengineered and underbuilt.
It was handsome but it was nothing but trouble beyond the ability of any dealer or independent here to fix. So he contacted the reportedly best Jag shop in the Southeast in Atlanta, 250 miles away. The expert sent a driver to collect it. The shop driver wrecked and totaled the car on the way back to Atlanta. They paid up in cash value. I told him he was well rid of the thing but he said "I'll have another one someday." But he hasn't yet.
Code Name: JET STREAM
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