Dealer Warranty Frustration (RANT)

[Subcompact Culture]

I dropped my '17 Mirage off at a local dealer over two weeks to have some minor stuff looked at. This included:

• Wind noise from driver's door seal
• Loose serpentine belt
• TPMS light
• Rattling glove box
• Divot in seat cushion

Communication has been terrible. The first two days they didn't even know I dropped it off and put the key in the overnight key drop. OK, mistakes happen, we're in the midst of a global pandemic, and apparently they've already had to let people go. OK, I can empathize. It's tough times.

Three more days go by. I call again—where are we at? What's going on? I can't even get a hold of their service department. I finally get a call-back. Still no word on whether anything's going to be covered under warranty. All of the complaints are being sent to Mitsubishi for approval. Dealer says maybe by next Wednesday. OK, fine.

No word comes in on that Wednesday, so I call Thursday. They tell me they're going to put in the door seal, which is good. They also are ordering a new belt. Great.

They won't warranty the broken TPMS. Apparently Discount Tire was the last to touch the TPMS and one fell off and broke it. OK, fine; I'll go chase them. They said the seat bottom divot wasn't a warranty item. Alright.

They said it'd be a few more days as the parts come in. Fine; I'm not going anywhere soon, and I have other vehicles.

But now where we are at day 15. They car is still at the dealer, I've had no calls—again.

Maybe I just need to chill because we're in the middle of this COVID-19 thing. But this just seems unacceptable.

Am I out of my mind? Do I need to chill?

[Dodge Aries K]

It's part the dealer being stupid, part the stupid virus thing. I do know that first hand Mitsu's response times for things has slowed way down because their call centers and stuff are all switched to a work from home environment. Plus, with the dealer having less people it's always going to screw up.

However, it seems they're being a bit too stupid about it. I'd kindly remind them that you'd like to get your vehicle back in working order.

As for the seat divot, what are you referring to? Is there like a low spot or something?

[Subcompact Culture]

As for the seat divot, what are you referring to? Is there like a low spot or something?

Attachment 15346

There's a hole at the back of the foam pad; like it isn't filled. Dealer said that's the way all the seats. I have a thread on it here: https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...ont-Seat-Divot

A warranty is nice, but I hate having to fight dealers on stuff. I've owned an embarrassingly high number of new cars since 1999 and know the warranty game. It's still a PITA.

[Dodge Aries K]

Attachment 15346

There's a hole at the back of the foam pad; like it isn't filled. Dealer said that's the way all the seats. I have a thread on it here: https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...ont-Seat-Divot

Let me go check out the Mirages here and see if they have that same spot. Might be something with how the seats are made. I'll report back in a bit.

[Top_Fuel]

I don't know what's going on out there, but around here dealership service departments are way down in business. Someone I know indirectly has been a Service Advisor at a Chrysler dealer for 20+ years. He got laid off more than a week ago. It's guys like him that are coordinating customer complaints, getting them to the right tech, and following up with the customer. Your dealer is probably operating on a skeleton crew in the service department. They are either under-staffed now, or have someone who was answering phones last week working in the service department this week.

I wouldn't be shocked if they also cut back on techs...but those guys usually are flat-rate and they are only getting paid when there's something to wrench on anyway. So they'll show up to work and only get paid when work comes in the door.

They won't warranty the broken TPMS. Apparently Discount Tire was the last to touch the TPMS and one fell off and broke it.

Yeah...that sucks. If someone other than the dealer has touched your wheels and tires, your TPMS warranty is out the window (this is stated in the owner's manual). So even if an OEM sensor battery goes dead, Mitsubishi won't replace it if someone else has put tires on your car.

Make sure Discount Tire can re-learn your TPMS system before you have them replace that bad sensor. If they can't, you will want to clone that bad sensor instead of replacing it with a completely different new sensor.

[timw4mail]

Make sure Discount Tire can re-learn your TPMS system before you have them replace that bad sensor. If they can't, you will want to clone that bad sensor instead of replacing it with a completely different new sensor.

My local Discount Tire has been able to program new sensors with each tire swap.

it requires they have the special blue Mitsubishi OBD cable, and two programming units. One is plugged into the ODB port, and the other scans the sensors.

Now, it took a while for them to figure out the process in the first place, so giving them a heads up might help.

[Mark]

My local Discount Tire has been able to program new sensors with each tire swap.

it requires they have the special blue Mitsubishi OBD cable, and two programming units. One is plugged into the ODB port, and the other scans the sensors.

Now, it took a while for them to figure out the process in the first place, so giving them a heads up might help.

I wouldn't assume a tire shop (including Discount Tire) will have the special blue Mitsubishi OBD cable on hand. If you are driving a distance to have this done, I would ask about it specifically or buy the cable yourself & bring it along.

[foama]

My car was only two years old when a new sort of fuel with 10% instead of 5% alcohol was introduced. As I found out much later, a certain gas station sold it out of a tank which had previously held diesel fuel for decades. The bottom of the tank was obvoiusly full of muck or residue which the later filling of higher alcohol content fuel disolved. That way, I unknowingly filled the tank with plenty of old residue added to the fuel. After a round about 300km drive on the highway at around 110km/hour, the car was parked in the garage. A couple of days later it failed to start because the valves were stuck open with a hardened dark brown gooey residue that stuck everything together, almost like epoxy glue.
Tha car was "fixed" in a Mitsubishi workshop under warranty, and ever since compression has been only 150 to 160psi on all cylinders. This car is a 1.0l model, which has a compresseion ratio of 11.5:1, and should achieve much higher compression pressure than a US model 1.2l.
The dealer insisted all is OK and Mitsubishi Germany was of nill help. That was four years ago.

It turned out the mechanic took the head off and removed and cleaned the valves, but put them back into random cylinders. The upper piston rings were stuck and gummed together in the slits of the pistons, but were not adressed.
Now I have a car with lower compression than the FSM allows, thanks to an incompetent Mitsubishi dealer and nill help from Mitsubishi Germany.
If I would have repaired it myself it would have been OK...

[dspace9]

2 similar things I should tell you about dealer/Mirage experience.

Glovebox rattle has plagued my Mirage from day 1. As has windnoise at speed, but not from the doorsills. From the engine bay, and the overall "moving through wind" noise you get w any car, more pronounced on my Mirage. Ok I can live with that.

But... once a few years ago, the dealer sold my brakes to another customer, literally I called a week or two in advance, ordered my disc brakes, and they put the brakes on another customer's car by accident. Yep, I was stuck that Saturday. They gave me a free rental RVR for the weekend.

Then I had the headache getting my faulty starter fixed. FINALLY resolved after much negotiation... cost me $300 bucks and they said they sunk over $3000 into my car.*

My dealer's owner switched by the way, new name and everything... so that has caused problems. I'm a repeat customer, but half or more of their staff is new.

Then I had an issue with my evap leak, or the fact the price dropped on Mirages 3 months after I bought my Mirage... to 9999 instead of $12,495 I paid... anyways

*Thanks again to the Mirage Forum community for finding this recall for me, and saving me $3000

[Fummins]

Did you book your car in ahead of time or just drop it off and expect them to get to it right away? it they messed up your car.

First world problems with a third world car lol.