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Not so savvy car buyer
December 4, 2009
Service Warranties
We all know how deceptive Car Companies can be, but it surprised me that Car Max, which is a self-described "no bullshit" car company would be running this scam. When you buy a car, in my case, a 2001 Lincoln Navigator, the salesman pressures you to buy the extended warranty. This is not cheap, in my case I purchased the warranty for $1800, figuring that a "no bullshit" company would have a "no bullshit" warranty.
Surprisingly, such was not the case. During my extended warranty, the transmission went out on my Navigator at only 80, 000 miles. Now this would make you think the company had sold a bad car? But no, when I approached Car Max, they asked me to prove that I had properly serviced the car. This is service, according to the small print on their extended warranty. Happily, I had properly serviced my car according to CarMax. The next step was for Car Max to "sub" the job out to another company. Surprise! They do not do transmission work, or several other car servicing jobs. These jobs are basics with a regular car dealer, but to car max, it appears that anything over an oil change is out of their realm of expertise. The trouble starts if the sub company does not do great work. Car Max sends you to these people, they are "trusted" by Car Max, and when they screw up, Car Max keeps sending you back to this company, until you are happy. This results in lost work, time spent dealing with the issue, and Car Max does not supply a loaner or rental car while these shennanigans are going on!! Initially: Car Max was responsible for hooking me up with a loaner car. But as I went back to the sub 2, 3 4 times to get the work done right: Car Max was not responsible for the loaner car, the sub was. This resulted in my receiving a horrible, dirty, and badly serviced loaner car. The window wipers, and horn didn't work on it. I was driving my kids around in a Chrysler that had definitely seen better days.
The first time I got my transmission done by this sub, I took it home, and it stopped working a day or two later. Then it would work again, then stop again. I took it back.
The second time, it worked longer, but it had a "hitch" at 42 mph. The car would roughly shift into a higher gear. I asked the sub about this rough shifter, and they said the transmission was the only one Car Max would pay for, and that was the best I could hope for. Again, the transmission would stop working at random times, and I had to leave my car in the shop for several days so the "mechanic" could drive it to his home, and diagnose it.
This continued for two months. I was so mad at Car Max, and the transmission shop, but Car Max kept throwing the blame back on the sub. Car Max took NO RESPONSIBILITY for the continuing issue, only the sub was to blame. I lost so much work over the two months, and had so much aggravation, I was furious.
The final straw was when I was getting ready to take a vacation. I was driving 500 miles, and didn't want to experience any of the issues I'd had. I asked the sub to make sure my transmission was ready to go. The owner snottily informed me that not only was my car ready, but he wanted a personal apology if I made it to my vacation destination and back without transmission trouble.
Well, guess what. After traveling 400 miles, my transmission went again. It wouldn't go in reverse. So while on vacation, resulting in a ruined vacation, my car had to go into the shop again. This time, when phoning Car Max, I was told that the sub was responsible for the repair, and they would find a sub where I was vacationing.
I guess it was fortuitous that my car finally was fixed, by the sub's sub. If not, I think I'd probably still be going back to the original sub and begging them to get my transmission going.
The moral: DO NOT BUY an extended warranty from Car Max. They are selling you a useless document, unless you know who will be doing the repair work. If Car Max isn't responsible, they shouldn't be selling the warranties. I will never buy another car from Car Max.
In an interesting aside: after I bought my car, and was assured it was in good working order and had never been in an accident, I called my insurance agent to get insurance on it. He asked me about the accident I'd had a few months before. I told him I'd just purchased the car, and hadn't been in an accident. Car Max DOES NOT give it's consumers an accurate record on what's happened to the cars they sell. You'd be better off going to Ned the Snakey Car Salesman than Car Max.
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