A Lifetime Warranty

Back in 2007 when I bought my 2008 PT Cruiser I was offered a lifetime warranty for a nominal fee. I took it. Of course they are counting on the fact that most people will trade the car in within the first three years, and certainly after five years. 

But they didn't count on me. I'll keep a car until the wheels fall off. Even though that was my third PT Cruiser, the first two were leases and had to be turned in or purchased after three years - but when I traded in the red one, buying the black one outright was a better option than leasing. I was very pleased with myself for purchasing the lifetime warranty because within the past couple years I've paid $100 for repairs that sounded very expensive. And I've kept the car because I knew that no matter what went wrong with it, Chrysler would repair it.

So, when the car started making jet engine noises, I wasn't worried. I phoned in to Hoyte in Sherman, made an appointment and took the car in.

While I waited at the service desk, the service writer went and put the little dongle into the car.

When he returned to the desk he looked intently at his computer screen.

"Hmmm. This isn't good." he said.

"What? What is it?"

"It looks like it's a problem with your power train and that's not covered."

"Of course it is. I bought the lifetime warranty."

"But you would have had to have it inspected in 2012 to keep the powertrain warranty in effect."

I offered up a number of arguments. "I should have been notified." "Look at the records, haven't I brought it in for service every time someone sent me a notice saying it was time to service something or another?" "You didn't have any problem notifying me when it was something I had to pay for." "It's been in and out of here for the past 10 years, why didn't someone say something?"

The answers weren't helpful. "Chrysler would have sent you a notice back in 2012. It would have been in a pink envelope." (Oh yeah, I remember getting a pink envelope. NOT! I wouldn't remember the color of an envelope from last week, much less five years ago.) "Is it possible that you took it to a different dealership for the inspection?" (No, this is the only dealership I've ever taken it to.)

Remember this was my third vehicle from this dealership. If I assume I had the first two for three years each and this one for ten years, that's 16 years! And this is how they behave?!

No matter, it had to be fixed. I offered to hang around for an hour while they checked it out and gave me an estimate. I was told there was no way they could get to it in an hour.

"Okay, that's fine. You can get me a rental." (A rental car was part of the extended warranty.)

"The rental car option of your warranty expired in 2012." Now, I'm really starting to get upset. "I had two repairs done last year and I was given a rental."

"We have loaners we give out as a courtesy, you probably got one of those but we don't have any today."

"It was not. I was taken over to Enterprise and got the car from them. Twice last year."

He stayed with the mantra that I hadn't been entitled to a rental since 2012.

It was at this point that Mark stepped in and suggested we just leave and go to an independent mechanic. And not wanting to be confrontational, that's what we did. 

$1,300 later we learned that the repair was to a wheel bearing and had nothing to do with the power train. So even though I believe that Chrysler in general and Hoyte in particular conspired to nullify my warranty, this repair should have been covered and should have cost me $100 not $1300.

I  decided to appeal to the dealership to reimburse me for the repair because if their service writer hadn't been such a good actor ("Hmmm, this isn't good.) and refused to give me the rental, I would have left the car with them and they would have fixed it - unless they were planning to tell me the repair was indeed powertrain related and how would I ever know the difference?

So after the car was repaired and I'd paid the bill, I phoned Hoyte's service manager. We talked about the powertrain warranty and the fact that this repair should have been covered but he claimed that it was all out of his hands now and that I'd have to call Chrysler. I was so looking forward to that - I imagined it would probably be about as much fun as calling Aetna.