I took my 2000 TL in for the 1st transmission replacement last week. It was at the Acura dealer in GAITHERSBURG, MD for a week. When I got the car back it had an extra 270 miles on the trip odometer and I was down 12 gallons of gas.
Plus the car had picked up a crease in one door and a ding in another.
When I asked the service manager about it, he said that it could not have happened. He could not explain how the gas disappeared, but said his techs had only driven the car "about twenty miles" to check the tranny. He promised to take care of the body damage but said that was caused by customers while the car was parked on the lot.

I don't know how to treat this. I KNOW that car went into the shop with a full tank of gas. With everything that happened to the car (too much to list) I think someone used the car to joyride.

Has this happened to anyone else? How would / did you deal with the situation?
At this point I feel used and ripped off. I'm considering reporting this to Acura and the State, but I'm not entirely sure what else is an appropriate response.

They put in the "new" remanufactured transmission, PCM and fuel control module.
Since then my mileage has gone down. Is that common? Car has 54k miles, almost all highway.

Thanks in advance...

 

damn that sucks

when i got my tranny done i got 26 mpg freeway once which was amazing...but since then my mileage has barely been hitting twenties and i drive city/country roads

 

i say report it.. try the news, around here, the news (FOX) is always looking for something to investigate..

but it helps if this happens numerous times..


personally, i would bitch at them at the dealership. ever since i joined this site, i feel like i have a crew w/ me when something is done w/ my car that i don't like. even if there's a chance i'm wrong.. it's me & acurazine vs. whoever..

 

I'd send a complaint letter that states the facts, with odometer readings and pictures, to;

Acura Customer Service
Local Better Business Bureau
Local Auto Dealers Association (if there is one)
State Consumer Fraud dept (if there is one)

270 miles is not a road test, it's a rip off. Someone was driving that car for personal/dealership use.

 

Wow. I know when I take my car in for anything, they always ask how many miles are on the car. 270 miles seems like they gave your car out as a loaner.

 

My suggestion, you have no proof so just drop it. Filing complaints with these different firms is going to waste your time. Just find yourself another Acura dealership to do business with in the future.

 

hey man.. i couldnt do anything when i brought my car in for a tranny replacement. they gave me a refurbished tranny, but within two weeks it started leaking. i told them that and they said it must be my driving or whatever. but im just gonna let my tranny die again and let bring it to another dealer. im not dealing with those guys anymore..

plus they used half of my tank when i brought it in it was full.. they put about 170 miles on mine.

 

How do you know?

Most service departments record on the receipt what the mileage in number is.

Acura Service, the BBB, the dealer association might already have other complaints about this dealership.

People want to piss and moan about bad dealers but when it comes to doing something about it, they don't want to take the time. (Real hard work, writing a letter or sending an email.)

Probably neither Acura Service, the BBB or a dealer association are going to take action based upon a single complaint, but when they receive enough reports, they will.

 

270 miles, that alot of hours of driving. I don't think a tech took your car for a joyride...I think they gave your car out as a loaner!

Now that would be a story for the news!

 

was it rosenthal...i herd the government has been trying to slam them for years....Pm me..ill help you out with this

 

Look at your receipt. I always check the mileage when I drop my car off for work at any mechanic. I make sure they write it down on the slip in PEN.

For some reason, punk mechanics like to "test" out my car.

 

Your mod list is the reason they like to take your car out...lol....stupid dealers

 

I guess you misunderstood.


sar·casm ( P ) Pronunciation Key (särkzm)
n.
A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound.
A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.
The use of sarcasm.

 

i always take pictures of my car with the date and time b4 i bring it in for service and let them know i did also

 

Hell, if I were working at a dealership and saw your TL roll in, I would be tempted to take it for a test drive, too.

 

Yep. My brother OWNED a body shop with this method.

After a front-end collision, he took it to a body shop called Collision Concepts in Metro Detroit.

After a month, it was done and we went to pick it up. Immediately, I noticed a bad touch-up paint job along the fender edge, parallel to the driver side door. We KNEW it wasn't there before, so we talked to the manager and he adamantly denied it. "Our guys would NEVER do that; damage a customer's car and just use touch-up paint to cover it up."

"Oh, yeah?" We'll be back in half an hour. We went home, picked up my laptop and my brother's digital camera. The pictures were taken in maximum resolution, so we were were able to zoom in at like 6x and show the manager that clearly there was no paint damage whatsoever on the day we dropped it off.

After that, we basically told him to shove it and fix the car. It felt sooooo great to own the body shop like that.

As for mileage, I write it down, and I make sure they write it down on the work order, so both of our records match. If I see any disrepancies when I pick up the car, someone's gonna pay. Nobody drives my car but me.

 

I had started a trip for business reasons that morning which is why I had set the trip odo and had a full tank of gas. Because the car started failing on the road and I took it right to the dealer, I did not have any time to do prep photos - which is a good idea.

The service manager told me the advisor has "notes" which list one "in" mileage, the invoice has only an "out mileage". That invoice mileage was 30 miles off from what was on my main odometer.

I didn't note my own car's mileage at the time I turned it in because I hadn't had an issue with this dealership before. When I picked up the car and saw the fuel level I remembered that I had reset the trip odo and then checked it's mileage.

My documentation is so poor because I was in a hurry going in and leaving the dealership (required business meetings both days). Better documentation is a lesson I've learned for the next time.

The service manager says he has interviewed his people and "it's inconceivable" that any of them could have taken the car. He did not tell me what their key control procedure was.

I appreaciate the feedback so far. I'll be looking for a new dealership.

For the record this happened at Rosenthal Acura, and it's been my experience that their service has been increasingly inconsistent over the past year.
The quality of service seems to depend on which advisor you go to.

 

to what the other guys are saying...

 

They put 300 miles on my car and low fuel light is off during replacing 2 tranny. I went in and talk to the Mang. He agree to give me an oil for free. Then i point out the oil change is only 19.95. And i need more than $20 the fill my car up. At the end they pay of my tank and full detail on my car.

 

Hey, im also in MD. go to this link if you want to report it

http://www.oag.state.md.us/Consumer/complaint.htm

the OAG CPD keeps a running tab on all complaints recieved, so if gaithersburg acura has had lots of similar complaints they might actually do something to them. even so, they will try and help u figure out the situation. . g'luck

 

A friend of mine used to work for Enterprise Rent a Car. He said one day a guy came in to rent a car. The guy said give me you're nicest car, which was a Lexus GS400, and charge the Acura dealership down the street. My friend asked him if he was sure because there was no way that Acura was going to pick up the bill on and expensive rental. The guy said they sure are. Apparently this guy took his NSX in for an oil change. The mechanics felt it needed a test ride afterwards and took it out. They apparently wrecked the car, took out a telephone pole. Needless to say Acura paid for the rental.

 

I've had the service people mess w/ my radio and my sub. They turned the bass all the way up on my sub. (when I had the sub)

 

I read a few years ago where a lady brought her Mustang(?) in to have work done. A couple clowns working at the shop took the car and rung it out pretty hard. Same two guys then had the gonads to brag about it on the Internet on a site that the owner of the car frequented too. These guys even gave the license plate number of the car they did it to.

Yea, they got hung.

 

That really sucks... I really don't trust the dealerships too much.... I've already stopped going there for my oil changes. I'm doing them myself to save some money.

I'd definitey complain about this issue.

 

Is that the same location as Rosenthal Jaguar? I hve some customers that have dealt with them and they are noted consistently as the worst of second worst Jaguar dealership for Service in the nation - their sales are always in the top 3 or so, and apparently that gets them off the hook with corporate. I had a customer give me the low down on them while buying parts from me for his Jag.

 

There isn't much you can do if you have no hard records of the condition and only know from memory. I say just go down there, and bitch and moan until they make you an offer for free stuff. File a complaint with whatever local agencies, and then just move on. Yeah, it feels bad, but they're not worth your time. If anything, it might be worth more of your time to research your other local dealers to make sure you find a good one.

Don't forget to use us as a threat. We are a significant community of owners, and tell them "we're gonna put you on our black list of dealers," which we should probably start anyways for the sake of all of us. Maybe even post the list prominently on the front of this site so it pops up when non-members search for their dealer.

 

I agree with persistant letter writing. It takes time and followup, but as someone else already mentioned, people are so quick to complain, but are unwilling to follow through.

 

how scandalous...

 

dont the dealer write down how many miles u have when u bring it in...and write down how many scratches and dents you have???
everytime i bring my car in they do all of that !

 

Your car got pimped.

k.

 

Rosenthal never did that for my car. It was always more like "did you leave the keys in the car?" etc

I agree with everyone who says to document the mileage and condition of the vehicle when it goes to the dealer.

I'm going to make these folks fix the body damage then move on to another dealer.

Thanks for the comments on this thread. I truly appreciate the support.
I've called and written ACS and will do the same with the State. I sent a copy of my letter to Acura to the GM at the dealership - so I'd hope to hear from him soon.

I'm going to push this. I'll let you all know what happens...

 

Maybe they used your car as a loaner car for another tranny victim!!!!

j/k

 

holy smokes, dealerships do that? it sounds like acura dealerships are shady!

 

Don' t paint all Acura dealerships with the same brush. Some are, most are not.

 

Rosenthal Acura always did seem a little shady to me. I live in Germantown, so I am available if you need any local help. Now, I must set out on a journey to find another Acura dealership close to home. Goodluck with everything.

 

mine is great, they treat me better than the local lexus dealer does to its customers, and lexus is supposed to be the benchmark every one tries to meet

 

After contacting Acura Client Service and fliling a complaint, still not a word from the Service Manager or GM. Not much in the way of support for the customer. Be careful if you use Rosenthal.

 

wow......never had that done to me as of yet and i get all my sutff done at a dealer in JerZY........ya need to find some other dealer shipz....

 

wow......never had that done to me as of yet and i get all my sutff done at a dealer in JerZY........ya need to find some other dealershipz....

 

what if we replaced the letter "s" with the letter "z". my rezponze would be like thiz. hey jpp, whatz the update on thiz ztory?