Disappointed X

Sorry it’s long, I have a tl;dr on the bottom but if you do read, and know any way to help me with my situation, please advise. I don’t know what to do since I know my car will continue having issues. It's a new car, that I can't rely on.

Long Version:
Purchased my car in August of 2010 from So-Cal Mitsubishi. 2010 Evo GSR. 6miles on the car.
Car started giving me problems early 2011, giving off an engine code “random misfire”. I also had issues with my cabin fan from the first day (squealing) which at the very least should have been addressed if not fixed. The problem got worst in February, and I finally made an appointment to take my car in for service. Called Sam, he had me take my car to Huntington since he had switched Management positions. I took it to Huntington only because Sam was my sales guy and he offered me a loaner. Sam was great but the dealership really didn’t have much pull when it came to corporate. They constantly questioned and “investigated” everything about my car. Mind you, I’m completely stock and passed the computer inspection but was still questioned and remarks of “we have the history of your car and you revved your engine to 8300rpm” or “it’s rumored that your car was taken to the track”. First of all, I dare you to rev my engine to 8300rpm and the track thing.. Idiots.

I left my car and went on my way. A few days later I was asked to provide information about my car.

1. Oil change information.
I provided full documentation receipts from Road Race Engineering. I purchased my own Mobil 1 oil from Wal-Mart ($24.50) and had the guys at RRE change it. They provided me with invoices. Mitsubishi stated that they wanted receipts from Wal-Mart showing I used synthetic oil. (Give me a break, I drive an EVO.. I know better) I Couldn’t get them those receipts so they said (40 days after having my car) come take your car, get your oil tested and bring us the results. Mind you, if I actually didn’t use synthetic oil, don’t you think I will drive out of the dealer and change my damn oil before it’s tested? This was complete bull****.

2. Why I don’t have my plates on the car.
During the purchase of my vehicle, they mistyped my zip-code. I never got my plates but when this issue came up; I went to the local AAA office and got some new plates. In fact, the day I was driving my car down to the dealer, I was pulled over and got a fix it ticket for this issue. I had to extend my inspection with the court 2 times because my car was out of service.

3. Why I’ve driven my car 17k since I purchased it.
I will drive the car as much as I want. MY DAMN CAR. Actually I was nice about it and explained to them that I drive to and from work plus school that’s a good 100-120miles a day. What can I do, I have a car, I must use it. Let me also point out the fact that I was still on stock Advan tires and they were almost entirely bald. I was going to change them before all of this happened.

So 44days of no work done to my car at Huntington, I was advised to call corporate and complain. First of all, the guy I spoke with at corporate was a complete professional in what he does.. Pointing blame and being rude. Customer is always right doesn’t fly with Evo owner. Didn’t give me many options so I said I’m taking it somewhere else. One option I was offered by the service manager at Huntington was, if I signed off on the work they will reimburse me in the end. This wasn’t purposed to me from the first day, it was however an option on the 44th freaking day!

I went down to Huntington to meet the AAA guy for the tow.. I spoke to Sam one last time and his answer was, I can’t do anything. Followed by, you must my crazy to show invoices of RRE changing your oil. No one in their right mind would show invoices of oil changes from a tuner shop. I don’t agree about RRE being a tuner shop, this place is amazing and does amazing work.

(Mike knows more about this damn car in his pinky then most people so ya, I went to him, not to mention it’s close to my work and Mike’s a damn cool guy.)

I used AAA to tow my car to Glendale Mitsubishi and spoke to the service manager, Paul. I towed the car so they wouldn’t have anything on me and say I did this or that while driving from one dealer to another. Let me tell you this, all the bad reviews about Glendale hold no water. Paul couldn’t get me a loaner car but he did fix my car. He was a little busy and dropping off the car out of nowhere would take longer for him since I never scheduled an appointment, and I understand that warranty doesn’t work fast, so I assured him that 4 weeks would be fine by me as long as I get it done.

Paul spent a while cleaning up the mess Huntington did and called me with options. Said that I have a bad valve and he would have to send my head to a machine shop to fix the issue. When they took the head off, he noticed that my small block is bad; piston 1 and 4 walls were scratched up. Ordered me a new small block and asked if it would be ok to work on the car in a few days. These guys are busy and I completely appreciate the honesty. They got to work on my car on Thursday morning and it was fully done by Friday evening. I was impressed and even did a surprise visit to see that they are working on my car. They were, mechanic was very nice. I had a check engine light in 3 days, camshaft error. Dropped my car off to Paul for a day and picked it up the next. They had to reprogram the computer and changed intake oil valve or sensor. I don’t remember.

Yesterday I dropped my car off because I had an oil leak. I just found out that it’s leaking from the timing belt housing. They need my car for another 3 days. I will pick it up because I don’t have any other means of transportation until I’m able to give it back.

I will probably never purchase a Mitsubishi again because of this, however if I even consider buying a car such as an Evo or Sti, it will be from Glendale Subaru/Mitsubishi. Because of the earthquakes in Japan, I can’t get my hands on a decently priced STI.

Because of Paul, I do love my car again and I’m getting 23-25mpg. That’s not because I’m taking it completely easy and driving at 45mph. It’s because my car finally works right. I was getting 16-18mpg from the first day of purchase and I was told that’s normal. This is highway driving.

Glendale Service manager Paul is a very cool guy who took this horrible situation and made it perfect. Be honest with him, and he will work for any customer regardless of what dealership you purchased your car. I will go to him with anymore Mitsubishi problems and give loyalty to his dealership for as long as I feel the need to own a 4 door family car…err I mean a finely tuned, rally inspired, technologically advanced, Japanese marvel!

Out of commission dates,

Huntington – 2-24-11 thru 4-08-11

Glendale – 4-08-11 thru 5-13-11
Glendale – 5-17-11 Intake oil valve and reprogram
Glendale – 6-04-11 Oil leak and changed my oil purchased again by me Mobile 1 Synt.

tl;dr:
Car had misfire problems, took it to Huntington. Huntington didn’t touch my car for 43 days and gave me no help and no options. Told me to sign off on the work and reimburse me later. Towed car to Glendale and got a new small block and new valves. Fixed car in 2 weeks and runs great. Mitsubishi warranty is horrible and I’m disappointed in Huntington’s lack of customer service (typically not keeping me updated. I feel like they only did work when I called them once a week) especially since I purchased the car from the same dealership group. Sam is a great sales person, that’s what he does. He said he did everything he could but I think he didn’t do much other than give me a loaner and helping me calm down from being pissed about not having my car for so long. Don’t have the misperception that he holds more status with corporate. Total days without my car 80DAYS!

Crester

It really sucks that that Huntington gave you the run around like that. Atleast Glendale was able to help you out.

Did you report your dramas to Huntington to Mitsubishi Corporate?

Disappointed X

Corporate.. that guy didn't really do much the first time around. On Monday i'm calling them back with a new complaint and see what will be done.

Kracka

iTrader: (49)

Sounds more like an issue with the dealership rather than a warranty problem from Mitsu.

Fergy33WF

Mitsubishi has more than a handful of crap dealerships though... Need to crack the whip a little more and have some control over who sells/represents their product.

Exyia

iTrader: (6)

i sell mitsu's, and i can tell you mitsu should be happy any dealership owner is willing to even keep their mitsu franchise

hence why most mitsu dealerships are awful. people should really appreciate the good ones more because of it, because the owner could easily put the money towards a toyota or honda franchise and sell way more units a month

iamblue03

Exyia, man.. mcginnis is closed down and now any mitsubishi dealers are 30+ miles away from me. (medical center) Does Greg from mcginnis work in Hub?

Disappointed X

well Glendale is 15min from me but i went to South Coast (100miles away) just because they are the highest selling dealership group in Southern California.. I assumed they would do a lot more for their customers since they sell more. I should have bought my car at Glendale and not waste my time driving down there because your original dealership usually takes better care of you.

Exyia

iTrader: (6)

HUB (which is where I work) actually bought the McGinnis franchise

the place was garbage and such a pain to deal with even dealer-to-dealer. then when a local owner wanted to buy out the Cadillac next door, he scoffed at the Mitsu and pretty much said "pfft, no thanks". HUB's owner (Bob ***) decided to buy it to have two locations. NOBODY else even wanted the Mitsubishi franchise. I'm thankful that Mr. *** still thinks something of Mitsubishi

McGinnis is now another HUB location, and will be moved next door to the HUB Hyundai on I-10. Not sure which Greg you refer to, but only some service guys and the head managers stayed. The very minute word got out that McGinnis sold out, EVERY salesperson left. It wasn't even official but salespeople knew they'd be better off elsewhere

/endrant

Exyia

iTrader: (6)

believe it or not, not always the case

service and sales are two completely different departments. service and sales have their own GMs (general managers). The Mitsu sales GM can request/***** at service all they want, but ultimately they can't force anything upon them

if anything, I assume the service manager doesn't like the sales manager. EX-

"customer has a scratch on the car he just bought, can you fix it?"
"for free?"
"yeah, to make him happy and make a sale"
".....sigh, guess that means I have to..."

iamblue03

sigh... i am terribly sorry that dealerships in houston aren't doing so well, but i am glad that someone actually picking up this mess.

I guess i'll have to pay a visit to hub in the next thousand mile.. little problems happen here and there and i need them to be taken care of. 60 miles round trip.. god here goes my weekend. by the way when is the i10 location opening?

Exyia

iTrader: (6)

the original McGinnis building/lot still stayed up while they prepared the setup next-door the the HUB Hyundai @ I-10. I don't think they're ready to move over yet, but HUB has already officially bought out the franchise (we already order their inventory and everything). So technically, HUB I-10 has always been open, just moving locations

honestly, if it's for service I would try I-10 since I think most of the service guys are the same, and I heard much better things about their service compared to our HUB@290. Don't get me wrong, the best Mitsu tech here is very smart and experienced, and used to work at a performance shop, but just like any good employee, he wants to be paid for his work - nothing is more annoying than someone coming in to spend hours inspecting what went wrong and potentially not being paid for those hours because it was caused by a mod, so warranty won't pay for it and neither will the customer.

as far as sales though, I'm happy at HUB@290 because the main guys here have been with Mitsubishi for over 15years (maybe even 20, I can't remember). Won't get too far into it - don't want to advertise - but we're doing fine because we understand the brand. big corporate heads who own the dealerships just care about profit margins, and big-names like Toyota/Honda make those profits very easily with almost any adequate sales staff.

only thing is those big-name franchises cost more money - I imagine that there are a lot of Mitsu dealers out there just because the owner can't afford bigger-name/bigger-profit brands yet. Did you know HUB Mitsu used to be Joe Myers Mitsu? as in the current Joe Myers Toyota...obviously dropped it to make budget to buy the MUCH more successful Toyota franchise

just some insight into the car business. I used to have the same thoughts as everyone else on the boards - until I got to see what it's like on the other side.