Car dealership ripoffs.

Too much crap like selling accident damaged cars the swines
 
Well I sent my Opel Zafira into the dealership in Edenvale.
3 issues:
  • Small water leak
  • Oil leak
  • Air-con compressor bearings which were making a noise so I had smaller v-belt fitted, bypassing the compressor, until this could be sorted.

2.5 months and R23.5k later, they had replaced the 2 water hoses to the car heater - sorted - no more water leak.
They then simply fitted the standard v-belt, no servicing of the compressor. - Squeal started again on the way home.
The DP gave a BS excuse that they had never fitted another V-belt, even though they had charged me for it as well as an hour's labour. They said it was the timing chain tensioner making the noise. They subsequently refunded me for that.

They said the oil leak was a cylinder head issue, which was, according to them, causing the leak, so this was duly redone.

Less than a month later, I noticed that the oil leak mark was still there on my driveway, large and proud. I took it back to them.
I took it back to them, it turns out it was leaking by the oil sensor, BUT, according to them, my rings are shot, and once they had done the cylinder head, the "compression" was now blowing past the rings and blowing the oil out. He was even kind enough to show me oil in the inlet manifold, and I mean oil, like somebody had dropped a spoonful of it right there. I asked them if they had done a compression test for which the answer was no.

They suggested that the car was so bad, I need to get rid of it ASAP. The DP, the service manager, and the motor mech., stood around me like an undertaker would when trying to console you after your great-aunt died. The DP offered to get me 3 quotes as a trade-in on this nasty car, hell, even the motor mech. said that he knew of a friend that was looking for a car and would take this burden off my shoulders. I emailed them and told them that I would be coming to collect the car to get other offers as well.

When I got there, I was told the sad news that the best offer was R25k because the car is so bad. I must admit, I was given red-carpet treatment, ushered to an Opel Crossland with about 20000 on the clock, which I could have for R335k, substantially discounted just for me.

I took the car home, and parked it as I had other commitments to cater for. Today, I had another guy come out and do a compression test for me.

Taking the spark plugs out, 3 were tight, and the other was not even hand-tight! This he said, would cause problems, and other dealers would very likely suspect engine problems and offer a very low trade-in.
He checked the compression and all 4 cylinders were perfect, their readings so close together, if I was not there, I would swear it was one cylinder tested 4 times.

My opinion is that my car had a simple oil leak, which they then tried to up-sell into a cylinder head job, but they did not even fix the oil leak. To cover for their incompetence and the unnecessary cylinder head job, they tried to convince me that the engine was in a bad shape, and then to add to that (hey they are on a roll now!), they tried to trade the car in for peanuts and still sell me a car so that I'm stuck with them for the service plan.

I would rather stick toothpicks in my eyes than have to deal with them again.
 
Well I sent my Opel Zafira into the dealership in Edenvale.
3 issues:
  • Small water leak
  • Oil leak
  • Air-con compressor bearings which were making a noise so I had smaller v-belt fitted, bypassing the compressor, until this could be sorted.

2.5 months and R23.5k later, they had replaced the 2 water hoses to the car heater - sorted - no more water leak.
They then simply fitted the standard v-belt, no servicing of the compressor. - Squeal started again on the way home.
The DP gave a BS excuse that they had never fitted another V-belt, even though they had charged me for it as well as an hour's labour. They said it was the timing chain tensioner making the noise. They subsequently refunded me for that.

They said the oil leak was a cylinder head issue, which was, according to them, causing the leak, so this was duly redone.

Less than a month later, I noticed that the oil leak mark was still there on my driveway, large and proud. I took it back to them.
I took it back to them, it turns out it was leaking by the oil sensor, BUT, according to them, my rings are shot, and once they had done the cylinder head, the "compression" was now blowing past the rings and blowing the oil out. He was even kind enough to show me oil in the inlet manifold, and I mean oil, like somebody had dropped a spoonful of it right there. I asked them if they had done a compression test for which the answer was no.

They suggested that the car was so bad, I need to get rid of it ASAP. The DP, the service manager, and the motor mech., stood around me like an undertaker would when trying to console you after your great-aunt died. The DP offered to get me 3 quotes as a trade-in on this nasty car, hell, even the motor mech. said that he knew of a friend that was looking for a car and would take this burden off my shoulders. I emailed them and told them that I would be coming to collect the car to get other offers as well.

When I got there, I was told the sad news that the best offer was R25k because the car is so bad. I must admit, I was given red-carpet treatment, ushered to an Opel Crossland with about 20000 on the clock, which I could have for R335k, substantially discounted just for me.

I took the car home, and parked it as I had other commitments to cater for. Today, I had another guy come out and do a compression test for me.

Taking the spark plugs out, 3 were tight, and the other was not even hand-tight! This he said, would cause problems, and other dealers would very likely suspect engine problems and offer a very low trade-in.
He checked the compression and all 4 cylinders were perfect, their readings so close together, if I was not there, I would swear it was one cylinder tested 4 times.

My opinion is that my car had a simple oil leak, which they then tried to up-sell into a cylinder head job, but they did not even fix the oil leak. To cover for their incompetence and the unnecessary cylinder head job, they tried to convince me that the engine was in a bad shape, and then to add to that (hey they are on a roll now!), they tried to trade the car in for peanuts and still sell me a car so that I'm stuck with them for the service plan.

I would rather stick toothpicks in my eyes than have to deal with them again.
Wow shits trying to milk you
 
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