Dealers are a joke over here in Australia too. Our very first experience with Chrysler Jeep Dodge went as follows;
Saw the Nitro as we drove past a dealership in Melbourne (Aust.) so went for a test drive. We liked it so asked for a trade in price for my wifes Suzuki Jimny. The sales man had all the paperwork out & started filling it in and i said to him, I just want to know a trade in / change over price, we'll sleep on it , then come in on Monday. (it was a Saturday when we test drove.)
Well after telling him that we were shown the door, quite literally! (the salesman looked as if his second job was a night club bouncer!)
I did my research on Sunday & Monday we went in armed with printouts from internet car sale sites (the car was worth quite a bit more than we expected).
The arrogant pricks offered us less than half what it was worth so we elected to sell the care privately. It sold in a flash, the second person to contact us Flew to Melbourne From Brisbane! & drove it home. Would seem that my wife & i are better used car sales people than the arrogant f-wits at Dodge!
But then we get the car & i couldn't quite put my finger on it at first, but something was wrong. Then i worked it out; no premium sound system with subwoofer & 12v outlet in the subwoofer. I distinctly remember saying to my wife when we test drove it that we'd be able to plug the car fridge into the 12v outlet in the back (in the subwoofer housing).
When we approached the dealer the response was "you've got the 08 model, which doesn't have that sound system as standard, instead it's got climate control (which i hate, i'd much rater control it myself)
The old "Specifications subject to change" clause.
We haven't had too much trouble with it (except for the servicing costs being huge!!$$$$$) but close to the end of the warrantee we got a rattle in the sunroof.
Took it in (we live an hour and a half from the closest dealer) spent nearly 6 hours waiting, finally fixed. But, a few weeks later and with only a few weeks left of warrantee i heard the rattle starting to come back (just) and the reverse sensors weren't working.
Back we go, managed to demonstrate 1 knock of the rattle to the mechanic (like i said, it was only just coming back). They seemed a little pissed coz it was so minor but i only had about a week of warrantee left.
they fixed it in 3 hours this time, but charged me $81 to fix the reverse sensors even though it was still in warrantee! They claimed that it was the trailer plug full of dust & dirt. I notice that the fusebox under the hood has a dustproof seal; i argued to no avail that if the electrical system is affected by dust, then it should be dustproof!!! They gave me a sob story that they spent 3 hours on the sunroof & that they can't claim any warrantee work on it (i asked why, they said just because!) so reluctantly i paid.
Today,9 days after it was "fixed" and 2 days out of warrantee, NO REVERSE SENSORS! I spent a while cleaning the trailer plug (not that it was dirty anyway) to no avail. I think the dusty trailer plug was a load of B.S.
I'm going to ring them tomorrow & tear them a new one (not that it'll do an ounce of good)
