Bittersweet

A few days back, I was ranting about the van. Friday, I got a call from the service department that the car's warranty wouldn't cover the damage since apparently that was "road hazard" and that unless it was a factory defect, it would be a customer-pay issue. Since we were quite busy on Friday and I didn't hear from them until the afternoon, I told them I wouldn't go through the repairs and that I would try calling the corporate offices to plead my case.

However, I mentioned to J that since we brought back the van from service, the air conditioning wouldn't cool at all, as opposed to when we brought it in, it was only the driver's side that was problematic. J assumed they probably drained the refrigerant to check for the leaks and didn't put any of it back. Even if we weren't going to go through with the repairs, they should have put refrigerant in, he said. Sure, it would leak again, but at least, for the time being, we'd be able to use it to go around. So, I called the service department again, this time speaking with another service associate. I told him that we weren't getting the van repaired yet, but if they can, please, get the air conditioning to work even if temporarily. They gave me an appointment for Monday morning. J agreed to drop by the dealership before going to work. I would have dealt with it myself, but we had an appointment with the dentist on Monday morning too, which ironically, made it all the more urgent to have the van running in top condition since both of us would be needing cars.

While we were at the dentist, J gave me a call that he would be leaving the van for service. He was told that while putting refrigerant in would temporarily solve the problem, it would come back again. They agreed though that they would not rely on the previous diagnosis that was given to me.

This morning, as I was off to bring A to school, I got a call. It was the new service associate telling me the van is ready to be picked up and that the cost only came up to labor. I was surprised. Well, it definitely was a lot better; paying for labor costs for the requested service sounds fair enough to me. I asked specifically what they did, and later on he told me they even didn't find any holes in the condenser. So, what would I have paid the $700 for?

Although I was really thankful about that, I couldn't help but feel bad about it, too. I mean, it turned out they needed to do very minimal work on it, so why was it that a $700 repair was suggested? Getting home, I did some googling. It took me to a forum discussing users getting the same answer to their air conditioning concern: that road debris hit and damaged their van's condenser. Turns out, this is a very common problem among users of the same model. There were 2 views on that. The first, that for that to be a pretty common and persistent problem, there must be a design flaw and surely the makers should be taking that into consideration to improving their newer models. That being said, warranty should cover that until such time that they update their designs.

The other view? That it is a service department gimmick. One of the respondents reported that he was given that answer over the phone, without having his car even seen by the service people. Another one complained when given that answer. He asked to see the damage, to which the service associate retaliated and got defensive. Another one said the service associate merely suggested he make a claim with his insurance. With all the reports and complaints that I saw, I won't be surprised if someone starts a class-action lawsuit about that.

Disappointing, I know, but the van has performed so well, we'd still consider getting from the same maker the next time we buy a car. I just hope, by then, they'd have smoothened out this problem. Otherwise, we'd probably have to get those grille covers.