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?
- 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?
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