Car-On Auto Sales

Car-On Auto Sales responded

Good afternoon Mrs. Marinelli. I am sorry to hear you are having problems with your Equinox. It is never pleasant to have issues with your vehicle regardless of the age of it. I need to bring some clarification to your comments made as they relate to you returning to Car-On and us being “unable to fix the problem”. On March 26, 2016 you purchased a 2011 Chevrolet Equinox with 129,000 from us. We included a 30 day complimentary warranty on your car as we do with all our certified pre-owned vehicles. Over and above that, Simon, the business manager, offered you an extended warranty for the next year, 2 years or 3 years to protect you should there be issues down the road. You decided that you didn’t need an extended warranty and were going to “take your chances”. Let me remind you at this point that you were buying a 6 year old vehicle with 129,000km. On May 9th, 2016 ( 6 weeks after your purchase) you called Ken Islemoe, our sales manager, and mentioned there was a rattle under your car. Despite the fact that you were well past your 30 day warranty , Ken agreed to make an appointment for you to bring your Equinox to our service department. Understanding that you live outside Ottawa, we even provided you with you a loaner vehicle while yours was in the shop (again a goodwill gesture towards a valued customer). We diagnosed the rattle to a faulty flex coupling on the front exhaust pipe and, Ken, in a further gesture to help out a valued customer, performed the repairs at NO COST TO YOU… despite the fact that you had opted against a warranty and were past your 30 day guarantee. With regards to grease causing the swelling of metal wheel nuts, nothing could be further from the truth. A vehicle is completely surrounded by oil and grease, be it from the engine oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid, any of the greases and lubricants used for all the steering components to the anti-rust oil treatments commonly used in the market place….not to mention road tar and any environmental grease we pick up driving on or off road. If grease caused metal to expand and crack all vehicles would be xxxxx of “expansion” and would be a danger on the road. To address your comment that we applied grease on your wheels, we absolutely did. We use grease on ALL our wheels. During each brake service, we grind down both the hub and the alloy wheels to ensure a solid clean contact between the two surfaces and then apply Permatex Anti-seize grease to prevent future corrosion and rust. Permatex Anti Seize is designed specifically for metal and alloy surfaces and prevents future rust build-up. I invite you to google the technical specifications of the product should you want to learn more about its properties and benefits. I am disappointed that you were misinformed by a mechanic that gave you un-factual information and invite you to perhaps look for one that will be more truthful in the future.

chevy equinox 2011 responded

I need to bring some clarification to your comments made as they relate to my dealings with Ken at Car-On. I actually called you long before May 9th to inform you that my Equinox made a rattle noise upon startup. I called you three days after my husband brought my car home, therefore it was still under your 30 day warranty. Your garage was unable to accommodate us for 6 weeks. Your diagnosis of a faulty flex coupling that was repaired DID NOT solve the rattle noise!!! You also tried to make us pay for half of the repair ("that did not fix the problem") knowing that it was still under your warranty, until I was so upset that it brought me to tears:( When I called you to inform you that my wheel was falling off the front end of my Equinox, you told me that your mechanic's NEVER use grease on wheels. I do know that any extended warranty from you would not have covered my wheel falling off of my car. (especially when you say"my mechanic was misinformed") I do however know that my wheel was definitely falling off and I am just glad that I didn't have my kids in the car!!! It could have been a lot worse. Now I am left with a car that still rattles upon startup and a $285.09 bill for the cleanup of my rims and replacement of new lug nuts. I am so disappointed:( So much for your slogan "driving peace of mind" My 2004 Escape was much safer than this!!!

Car-On Auto Sales responded

Dear mercedisman, I want to thank you for taking the time to do a review of your experience at Car-On. Despite the fact that not all reviews are positive they are nonetheless appreciated as they help us improve our business process. After a substantial dissection of what went “off the rails” with your visit on May 20th, we have changed a few things in our delivery process and for that I thank you. I do, however, struggle however with several things you describe in your review. Please allow me to bring light to some of your statements.. firstly, if the vehicle had a plugged convertor and a bypassed turbo, as you claim, it would never have passed Ontario Emission testing. If you take a minute to go on the MTO website and input the serial number of the Sprinter, you will see that it passed an e-test the day before you came to see it. I’ve taken the liberty of including the link to the MTO report for you (http://www.driveclean.ene.gov.on.ca/ONPublicWeb/pages/vir/vehSearch.jsf) . Secondly, if it had no exhaust system, it would be impossible to have a plugged convertor as the convertor is part of the exhaust system. Thirdly, parking brakes are meant to be tested at 800 RPM not 2500 RPM as you were doing. Please refer to MTO standards -NCS 11b Section 3H subsection 14 - “ With an automatic transmission – Apply the parking brake and place the transmission in forward gear. Raise the speed to no more than 800 rpm. Vehicle may shift due to torqueing of the suspension but it should not roll forward or backward”. The Sprinter develops its maximum torque at 1400RPM. The parking brake is not meant to prevent a 325 ft-lbs diesel engine from pulling the vehicle forward. It is meant to prevent a vehicle from rolling forward or back should the transmission park mechanism fail or slow down and ultimately stop a vehicle if the regular brake system failed hence “Emergency Brake” or “Parking Brake”. Fourthly, a spare tire is an option on a 3500 Sprinter and is not mandatory. I invite you to call Mercedes Canada and you will find out that the Sprinter can be ordered with or without a spare tire. This one came without a spare tire. We do however apologize for the fact that the resonator and the tail pipe were in fact missing on the vehicle. Once noted, we immediately installed one. I understand your disappointment at the fact that the resonator and tailpipe were missing, but the omission was immediately corrected. You then elected not to purchase the vehicle and again we promptly refunded your deposit without hesitation.

Car-On Auto Sales responded

Hello Joanne, We had the opportunity to read your review and we are sorry to hear about your difficult dealings with our service staff. Treating customers in the fashion you describe is not how we built our business and reputation, and, if we treated customers in such a way we would not still be thriving after 34 years in business in the same community. We would like to firstly acknowledge your frustration and take a few moments to explain our viewpoint of the events. In October 2015, you purchased a used 2010 Mazda CX7 with over 100,000km on it. That was over 7 month ago and you have since driven more than 17,000km on it. Prior to your visit this week, you had only ever brought back your Mazda to our service department 1 other time since your purchase. Your concern in November 2015 was “fuel door difficult to open”. Upon inspection we noticed lots of salt/sand build up around the fuel door mechanism. Our technician lubricated the mechanism, the latch and the cable. He ensured it worked correctly and returned the vehicle to you later that day and we DIDN’T CHARGE YOU for the repair. Until the comments in your attached post, we were unaware that the door was not working correctly or broken for that matter. Had it not worked or been broken, one would assume you would have returned to us with that complaint before now.. not waited 6 months to tell us in a post. Your second visit at our service department was this past week (May 16th, 2016). You made an appointment with 2 concerns: a) noise while driving and b) check engine light on / engine sluggish. Upon inspection by our shop foreman, we found 2 problems. Noisy right rear wheel bearing which was COVERED UNDER WARRANTY and faulty ignition coils which was also COVERED UNDER WARRANTY. As a result of driving with the vehicle with the defective coils, 2 of the spark plugs became fouled (because they were not getting the right spark due to weak coils). We recommended replacing all the spark plugs. We offered to do the repairs for $50 + parts. You refused to pay for the replacement of the plugs and became very verbally abusive towards our staff claiming it was like that since you bought the vehicle. We both know that, had the problem existed from the time you took delivery of your Mazda, you wouldn’t have waited 7 months to return the vehicle to us. Any reasonable person having problem when buying a new vehicle would have notified the dealer immediately. Joanne, despite the fact that it is never pleasant to pay for repairs, car maintenance is inevitable. The repairs the first visit did not cost you anything and the expensive repairs in your second visit were paid by your extended warranty. We were offering to replace the spark plugs for $50 + parts which most people that have ever paid for service repairs would feel is more than reasonable. Maintenance and repairs are un-avoidable especially on a 6 year old vehicle with over 120,000km. Again, I feel for your frustration but can’t see how differently we could have approached this situation that would have been fair to all parties.