Used vehicle, warranty, and dealerships. Advise needed. (long, sorry)

[sloinker]

Dealers and manufacturers both suck. Waaaay back in the day I was passing a half a mobil home on a grade coming out of Biggs, Oregon. '77 Chevy half ton with 350/350 and 4.11 rear end combo. Snapped a connecting rod during the pass. Brought to the dealer under drive train warranty and was denied due to the opinion I was racing the truck. Their rationale being the optional 4:11 rear end and signs of high revolutions in their inspection. Contacted the manufacturer via phone and registered mail, denied, plead my case again with the dealer, denied. Contacted a lawyer and he suggested the Washington state lemon law, one of the first in the nation. It was arbitrated and I was supposed to pay for half of the short block and the rest was on the dealer and manufacturer. All of a sudden it was discovered that the warranty would indeed cover the repair. I was driving the truck after 3 months of wrangling and eventual repair. It had a slight rod knock when first started on cold mornings. The local Chevy dealer was also the Datsun dealer, I traded it in on a 200sx which ended up having over 400k miles on it before my extended family was done using it. Finally driven to the junkyard when it couldn't pass emissions. Pull a carfax on the Fiat and see if that oil change shows up to bolster your case.

 

[user52165]

Has anyone actually diagnosed the car? Is a replacement engine needed or is it fixable?

 

[madRiver]

In the US many oil change places and dealers report back into what shows up in CarFax as oil changed and maintenance. Does this happen in Canada?

 

[Leo99]

We still don't know if Fiat is making excuses or the engine was abused. Fiat can get an automotive engineer to say the only way the engine will fail in this manner is if the oil was not changed as per the recommended intervals. Then the judge looks at you. Are you going to have your own expert witness to refute? Did you have the Fiat examined by an independent 3rd party before you bought it? You're caught between Fiat not wanting to pay for an abused engine and the selling dealership who will claim they were unaware of any mechanical issues and sold the car in good faith.

 

[69GTX]

With this dealer's logic, they should refuse to buy any used vehicle still under warranty w/o full maintenance records from a previous owner or easily found in the OEM data base. If they can't get them, they should offer a pittance for those vehicles and pass the "savings" along to customers along with full disclosure as to the risks of purchasing said vehicles from them. Looks to me like they get their cake and eat it too...without risk. If I were buying a used vehicle under warranty I'd want proof of maintenance from the dealership (or their signature on covering future drive train warranties) or I walk. Doesn't Canada have an equivalent of BBB, state DMV, state or province Attorney General? Those are places I'd go and raise a stink. I'd also post a nasty gram on some of the on line complaint sites like RipOff.com. I've done this a couple of times on car problems with both sellers and insurance companies....and received full satisfaction within 2-6 months.

 

[tahoe_hybrid]

Originally Posted by Surestick

I'm having a bit of an issue with the warranty on a used vehicle I bought earlier this year. - Earlier this year I bought a used 2014 Fiat 500 Abarth. The dealership I bought it from wasn't a Fiat dealer, it was on the used lot of another dealer. The checks the dealership did on it showed no issues with the vehicle (of course). I was told it had ~6 months left on the powertrain warranty. It was $11k and I was offered an extended powertrain warranty for an additional $5K which I turned down (~50% of the price of the vehicle for a warranty? Errr... No thanks). An oil change was done by the dealer. - Fast-forward 5 trouble-free months, I was overtaking another vehicle on the highway and suddenly lost power and the CEL came on. I pulled over and the engine felt like it was running on 3 cylinders and the exhaust was showing signs of oil burning. I tried shutting it down & restarting it without any improvement. I wasn't far from home so I got it home and checked the CEL which was a misfire in cylinder 1. I pulled the plug on cylinder 1 which was covered in oil, missing the ground strap, and covered in little aluminum balls... Ruh Roh. The other three spark plugs looked perfect, no signs of oil burning, no signs of detonation. - The oil was halfway between the full and add marks on the dipstick and, as this was about 7K kms into the 8K km OCI, had gone from honey coloured to maple syrup coloured. I'd been keeping an eye on it as the car was new to me and I wanted to get a feel for how much oil it used. - It was towed to the dealership under the warranty and they called the next day asking for oil change records. I explained the history of the car and they contacted the dealership where I bought it for the records. - The Fiat dealer called me back to say that they were able to obtain most oil change records but not all and were not going to repair the engine under warranty. - I called FCA who consulted the dealership service manager and also said they weren't going to be doing the repair under warranty due to missing oil change records and because the oil in the vehicle was "black and sludgy" (what?!?). - I called and spoke with the service manager at the Fiat dealership who repeated the "black and sludgy" claim but when I confronted him about the truth of this claim vs. my observations he backed down to "well, it might not have been sludgy but it was dark". Then said "I don't know why you think I would lie about that, we get paid to do warranty work". He agreed to borescope the other cylinders and get back to me but after doing that is still refusing to do the work under warranty. - The dealership where I bought the car is saying it's not their responsibility to provide oil change records and they can't contact the previous owner as they don't have any contact information for them. - A contact I know who's a dealer in another city called the Fiat dealer to see if he could figure out why they weren't just doing the repair under warranty and the Fiat service manager told him that it wasn't a normal failure for that engine so he wasn't going to warranty it. So, right now, I'm stuck having to spend what I paid for the car on a new engine or ~$6K on a used engine. I feel screwed over by the Fiat dealership and the service manager who apparently felt the need to make up lies about the condition of the oil in the engine to support not honoring the warranty and I feel like the dealership where I got the car sold me a vehicle with a fictitious warranty. At this point, I'm prepared to hire a lawyer as, if I'd prefer the money goes to a lawyer than either of these two businesses. Before I do that can anyone here offer any suggestions for how I can handle this without having to drag this through the courts? Does anyone have any records of this failure on the Fiat 1.4 Multiair turbo engine?

get a lawyer lemon law it you do have documentation that they refused to fix it correct? but you can always park it outside the FIAT Dealer with a sign that says this CAR has a blown engine at 50k milels DONT BUY THIS BRAND that can put them out of business... hhahaha that will really stick it to them

 

[JTK]

Sorry about your issues here. That's a nightmare. I may have missed it somewhere, but FCA products come with a 5yr/60K mile powertrain warranty. How is this 2014 model year Fiat still under warranty? I

 

[Dinoburner]

How is the money that will be spent solving this problem be best spent. There has been some good ideas in this thread. Having been through three problems here with three different vehicles I would demand, in nice way, an explanation of what happened and why. Saying that the oil is dark means nothing without further analysis such as an oil analysis. Speculation isn`t worth squat.

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted by JTK

Sorry about your issues here. That's a nightmare. I may have missed it somewhere, but FCA products come with a 5yr/60K mile powertrain warranty. How is this 2014 model year Fiat still under warranty? I

It appears Fiat vehicles only have a 4yr/50K powertrain warranty. Unless this one has a REALLY late in-service date, Shouldn't be under the factory warranty & the Fiat dealer should have told him as much.

 

[A_Spruce]

Are manufacturer warranties even transferable to subsequent owners? Unless you've got it in writing from the used dealer, you have no warranty and not leg to stand on in a court of law.

 

[rooflessVW]

Originally Posted by user52165

Has anyone actually diagnosed the car? Is a replacement engine needed or is it fixable?

Put a plug in it and drive it over to the sales department.

 

[mehullica]

How many service records do you have & how many miles between them?

 

[ls973800]

Originally Posted by A_Spruce

Are manufacturer warranties even transferable to subsequent owners? Unless you've got it in writing from the used dealer, you have no warranty and not leg to stand on in a court of law.

Yes, when you purchase a used vehicle which still has remaining factory warranty it follows the vehicle, not the first owner. Don't need anything from the selling dealer in writing, you can check the VIN with the manufacturer for in service date and how much warranty remains. You will have BOTH legs to stand on in court as long as the warranty wasn't canceled by the manufacturer due to salvage, mis-use, etc. Sometimes there is bumper to bumper warranty still remaining, sometimes just power train warranty remaining. All depends on how many miles and what in service date on the used car.

 

[SatinSilver]

Originally Posted by Leo99

We still don't know if Fiat is making excuses or the engine was abused.

Probably making excuses. I was reading the CR annual buying guide yesterday and this car is on their list of ones to avoid.

 

[bdcardinal]

Yes, the factory warranty transfers to subsequent owners. However purchased extended warranties do not always transfer. Ford has notes on their OASIS reports that if the name associated with the ESP plan does not match the vehicle owner, then the warranty is not to be honored. You can pay a fee to ESP and have the warranty transferred but you have to wait 30 days for it to activate.

 

[Hall]

Those are some good points. What if (I really hate using 'what if' scenarios) this engine failure occurred the day after it was purchased (used) ? The new owner likely has zero obligation to have performed any maintenance at that point. Providing service records from the previous owner is in no way the new owner's responsibility.

 

[SatinSilver]

Originally Posted by Surestick

I just bought a 500 Abarth with the 1.4 Multiair turbo motor that specs 5w40.

This post by the OP rolled in on 3/10/19. So add six months to that and we're at 9/10/19. So the 6 month warranty probably already expired. https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/5038561/re-oil-and-multi-air#Post5038561

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

What a run of badluck for the OP. I did not see a mention of the current mileage on this car. Well, the quote for your extended warranty was truly high at 5,000. I have extended warranty on my SUV and could bot be happier. It was expensive and I refused to buy it when I bought my car but my credit union kind of forced it in me a d I am thankful I bought it on my own vehicle. I am one of those people that have been lucky to have used their extended warranty and it has paid about $20,000 in 3.5 years to do repairs on my car. I never believed in buying extended warranty, but I will recommend it to anyone depending on what kind of car you are buying and the mileage on it. Maybe your extended warranty could have paid for this. But who knows? They could have also refused. Anyway, I hope this works out in your favor because this mist be a nightmare.

 

[red7404]

for my 2016 frontier i have a policy with car shield. you might give them a call. my frontier only cost $80. mo aprox

 

[super20dan]

just buy a Toyota in the first place and forget about extended warrantys