I need to rant because today I have a horrible warranty experience, and I will name the dealer involved. Stevens Creek Mitsubishi, San Jose.

Heres my story:

Last night after a party, when I turned on my car, the Anti Lock light came on, so this morning I took it to the dealer (mentioned above). I asked them to check out, their response was they couldn't because they have skeleton crew and nobody qualified to look at it? (sort of understandable but not really) in any case, when i was at the dealer i noticed my right side parking lights aren't on.. the rear lights and the front lights, so i asked the dealer to check it out. And so he did.

This is what they came up with. They explained I have a blown fuse in the fuse box underneath my steering wheel, and per the description written on my work order it states "put new fuse in, fuse blown again immediately." and also after the fuse was replaced the lights still did Not work. Also on the work order they specifically said, this electrical problem was due to aftermarket RADIO install. Which i did have another stero put in because the stock one sucked. In anycase they charged me $60 dollars to get nothing done, and made me pay because they said it was voided underwarranty and the install of the car radio caused a short circuit in the fuse so they charged. They charged me $60 dollars to get nothing done.

Hence I took my car to best buy where I had the radio installed, I had those guys pull out the radio, rewire my whole radio with new harnasses and test the fuse which stated in the work order "blew once put new one in" now my understanding is that the new fuse also blew when they replaced it, therefore is no fuse?? Anyhow, we checked every fuse in the steering wheel section and every Fuse worked fine.... so the tech at best buy calls mitsubishi and asks which fuse they replaced, we check that fuse and nope nothing, it works fine. At this point Mitsu is pretty pissed off.... and they ask me to take the car back, so I did and they popped my hood and another guy came to check on the car.

And oh my gosh what did they find, there was a fuse box under the hood that had a bad fuse and that was why my parking lights were not working.... holy ****, I spent the whole day going on a wild goose chase paid $60 to mitsui to get bullsh!t done.

So they replace the fuse (which they could've done in the first place) and save me 6 hours of time. Not only that, but they did not refund my $60 and to make it worse, they put in a new fuse and seemed like I owe them a HUGE favor and they make this whole big deal about how they aren't charging me for this new fuse, no **** morons, if you did your job in the first place, it would've been done correctly. Oh and they still insist that any electrical problem is because of the radio install? I asked them how can you prove it, and their answer was, its always the case? Bullsh!t, can someone give me a better answer??? I mean i've had stero installed in all my cars.. could it not have been any reason (maybe bady electrical in car) that might have caused it??

Does anyone have an idea on what I should do, should I complain to a regional rep or something, because this is BS, I have my car less than 1 month, only 1800 miles and everything is plain stock, nothing added except a radio. I try to be nice and do everything it says in the manual to keep the warranty but this is really bull**** they are pulling on me.

Please help and give me advice? I am very frustrated. If mitsu reps are reading this, just know that this is very dissapointing and I can assure you that you are now driving your customer away, because this Evo is my third mitsubishi and if i get this kind of warranty service I am not buying another mitsubishi.

 

They absolutely cannot void your warranty for that and you should get the money back. Call their 1-800 number that you should have recieved when you bought your car, it is a little booklet on warranty arbetration. You can nail their ***' for this.

 

this is why i always ignore the warranty stuff, actually, not just mits, but most of the japan car dealers are the same like that.
so just forget about those warranty, they are just somethin use to make u feel comfort to buy yr car.

 

if u use credit card, DI****ENPUTE IT!! I am beginning to hate and hate dealerships.

 

I like to work on my own car anyway!

 

good luck with everthing...hope it all gets fixed

 

By the way, thank you for posting the name of that dealership. I hope anyone considering buying an Evo (or any car) reads your story and avoids that place.

 

so, is it safe to assume that the fuse that blew was somehow wired with the stereo? If not(and I doubt it is because you said it was under the hood), there is no way that the "aftermarket" headunit could have blown it. Fight it and get your money back!

 

I would have the install guys at Best Buy, write a statement, or at least a call to mitsu dealership.......get that money back!

 

I had a similar situation occur with my 97 Eclipse GS-T. If I remember correctly, the rear wiper wouldn't work. They tried to blame it on aftermarket radio install. I knew the guy who installed it, damn good installer, and he basically called up the dealership asking them what he did to do it, and they basically could not answer him. I proceded to tell them to find out what was wrong with the F'ing car and fix and instead of trying to pass the buck on something you can't seem to find a fix for.

I made the service manager eat his words several times that day - felt pretty damn good. But, just the fact that I had to MAKE them fix the car is pretty pathetic.

I had actually forgotten about this incident until now - so that makes two problems I had with my Eclipse. Still was a good car, though

 

Legally they can contest the warranty and not honor it if and only if the aftermarket component can be proven without question to have caused the problem. They probably don't have that. This was just a quick $60 into the till. Politely at first, tell them they exceeded the parameters of Magnuson Moss and need to refund your money.

As a side note, what's up with this disclaimer stuff that takes up a lot of space and does nothing? Whoever started that didn't actually think it would do anything to protect them legally did they? Does anyone know who actually started it or is it just a cut and paste bunch of sheep copying each other thing now?

 

I think i will take the advice of the many posts so far and ask for a refund a la the magnuson moss parameters. Also i think i'll have a lot more clout to mess with them cuz my sister is a lawyer, thus if my words doesn't rattle their cages a bit, I think a letter from my sister should do something. Btw its not the matter of $60, its the principle of the matter cuz if they deny me warranty for such a small thing, what would happen if a big issues comes up later. I think I will take the plunge and get these guys to wake up a little bit because not all warranty issues we bring to the dealer are bogus and mostly they are legitamate.

:-)

 

Talk to the service manager on Monday. Explain everything. They originally charged you $60 because they thought the problem was due to a third-party [Best Buy] who installed the radio incorrectly. Now they know it was unrelated, your warantee now covers that misdiagnosis and you get your money back.

If you opt to work on your car and you screw up something and go to the dealer for help, they will charge you for your screw up, regardless if the part you were attempting to fix should have been covered anyway.

 

Can't remember who started it, but one of the guys on here posted about his dealership used his words here on this forum against him to deny his warranty.

It's probably not needed if you're careful about your identity but the fact that it's there will actually help protect you if Mitsu tries to use this forum against you. If they're using what you say here, then they have to use the disclaimer.

As for being sheep, yeah, sure - sheep that won't be screwed by Mitsu on a warranty claim.

 

What personnel did you deal with (in service and in the garage)?

For what it's worth, Stevens Creek gave me no grief about replacing my transmission @ 1800 miles after the transfer case started howling. I've had no problems since then either. Chris (foreman, Evo specialist) did me a good turn on that one.

Sorry your experience was so bad. Apparently Capitol Mitsubishi's service dept. is no better though (heard on the West Region board).