gregwils

I picked up a new '12 TL on Friday, it was a demo too. I got a great deal, but not because it was an adversarial process. There was a dealer about 2 hours away with an advertised price for the exact same car about $2,500 less than my local dealer was asking. I simply called and said I am going to buy the car from XXX or I can buy yours. The salesperson called me back and said 'we will match the deal, but, oh, you should know ours was a demo with 6,500 miles'. I said 'that's not apples for apples so they threw in about $400 of stuff and I called it a day because I didn't want to drive to the farther dealer.

Fast forward, I take delivery. As the salesperson is giving me a quick tour we both noticed that the oil life is at 20%. I was in a hurry and blew it off. Over the weekend, I checked the oil and it is down about 3/4 of a quart. I checked the windshield washer fluid, needed about 2/3 of a gallon (i.e. it was nearly empty), tire pressures - all off, one 4 lbs from the correct cold temp, but only 2 lbs off from the others. Plus 2 road rash chips, which would be ok, but they told me that they had their 'body guy' go over the car. The final insult was I pulled out the mats over the weekend to vac the interior and their was dirt under the mat.

Frankly, I can let everything go, but the oil. In addition to being only 20% of remaining life on the oil, it flashed "A1 Service Due" after 50 miles of my driving. The car was mfg'd in 01/12 and the oil was low and a little dirty, so I know it was the original oil. I took possession of the car on 5/10/13, so the oil they delivered in the car is 16 months old, which means it does not meet the manufacturers maintenance schedule (p. 540 of owners manual "*1 If the message "SERVICE DUE NOW does not appear more than 12 months after the display is reset, change the engine oil every year." 12 months in the crankcase is standard across the industry. Does anyone think I should document this fact?

Do I get what I deserve for buying a 1 year old demo or was this poor delivery? I had a TSX serviced at this same dealer for years and got decent service, so I don't think they are deceitful. At a minimum, it was really, really sloppy. I am not a hard nose, but who likes feeling as if they have are being ignored, stepped on or something else. I will be interested in seeing how they respond when I call them tomorrow.

PS - Love the car, less so the dealer. Do you think I will have an Acura survey?

weather

Greg...Sorry to hear about your experience and I think that this is poor service delivery indeed. I hope you will get a chance to fill a survey and capture these points. It appears that you are the casualty of the aggressive pricing request and they cut corners in the process. In retrospect, maybe the 2h drive would have been worth it after all but in the end, hopefully you can get satisfaction in your vehicle. By the sounds of things, you seem happy with the TL which is what really matters at the end of the day

Thanks for joining Acurazine and welcome to the group....we are a pretty good bunch of people to hang around

KarKraze

I would say that the dealership did a very poor job in prepping the car for delivery.

Perhaps in the excitement to take delivery of your new car you overlooked those things,however that does not excuse the dealership from performing what should have been the the necessary routine in delivery of your car.

You should notify the dealership and express your disappointment and when you get your survey make sure you share your disappointment.

beach109

This simply sounds like it was not fully prepped for delivery.

When we take our demo's out of service, aside from re-detailing prep for new display again, the oil change, etc. are completed. If by chance this servicing did not get completed before putting on the floor or podium, it will be done at delivery to the new owner.

Disappointing but all very easily remedied issues that should not effect your ownership experience, and can happen when things are rushed. Call the dealer, set a time, hopefully they can give you a car and resolve all.

Edward'TLS

^^^^^

Agree. Go back to the dealership and complain all the misses to the sales manager, who will very likely fix things back up for you.

Jackieee_TL

Greg, sorry to hear about the horrible experience from that dealership you purchased your car at. May I ask why you purchased a demo car in the first place? I know you would save some money, but usually demo cars get abused badly (I know I do the same thing when test driving cars).

potmilkz

what did you expect.. it was a demo.. you should have requested all of that to be done during inspection of the car..

who buys a car without fully inspecting it first?

gregwils

I don't agree that demos live a life of abuse. Harder than a gentle owner, sure. Harder than the car was designed to take, no. I expected the dealer to deliver it as new, had my TSX serviced there for nine years. As I said, I could overlook everything but the oil. Who pulls out a dipstick when taking delivery of a new car?

Thanks for everyone's feedback. I intend to call the dealer this morning. I am debating whether or not to ask for something in writing that states the engine is still under full warranty despite not being maintained in accordance with the manufacturer's warranty.

Stew4HD

I have bought demos in the past. In fact, my 08 TL was a demo. The dealer's manager was driving it. I got a good deal on it and excellent service. It was not abused at all. Same for all the otehr demos I've bought. It's much better than buying a lease return.

It will not be delivered as new though, it is used, though slightly.

Hopefully the dealership will toss in a free oil change for you if you ask the right person. Call the manager of the used car department and express your concerns.

g37guy01

On broadway a great rehearsal and poor opening night will seal the fate on the show. The delivery is when the dealers opening night and they get to strut their stuff and the salesperson should make sure off all of this.

Op good luck with the car hope the dealer comes through. Interesting the dealer thought 6500 miles is worth $400, but on a lease the same 6500 miles @.20/mile is $1300.

Oswald Vater

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your purchase. I believe your dealership experience is far below and rare for Acura's standards. Why these things were overlooked I'm not sure but I would think that complaining to the right persons there will set things right and may even result in a few "freebees".

TheAspec

I am almost positive when you contact the dealer and express these concerns they will all be addressed and corrected. Every Acura dealer is HUGE on the survey you will receive. If they don't get all 10's it looks bad and the dealers GM will hear about it.

Should this have happened? No. Should you have to go back to get it correct, no, it should have been right the first time.

I took a car in for a routine oil change and when I got the car back the MID had not been reset. Not a big deal but something that should have not been overlooked. I walked back in and told my service writer about it and he shrugged me off -- so I said fine/no problem I will reset it myself and if I get a survey don't be upset when I mark it.

Sure enough I get a local dealer survey and I marked it -- dealers GM calls and tells me how this was not acceptable and my next oil change was on him if I would consider coming back.

What I am getting at is Acura and it's dealers strive for 100% customer satisfaction and will usually make everything right or better than right if you simply bring it to there attention. This has kept me a loyal Acura customer for the past 7 years!

potmilkz

sorry to burst your bubble.. you are correct.. no one checks the dipstick when it comes to purchasing a new car.... the only problem with that statement is that the car is not new..

you are purchasing a used car.. no matter how low of the mileage.. its been driven and the fact that its a demo car should raise up more flags for you to check the oil level.. make sure there are no warnings, no service needed, etc...

think of it as buying a car that is at 30k mileage.. you do the same procedure. check all fluids and make sure everything is in good order. After all.. we are all people and mistakes happen..

personally i dont think all the blame lies with the dealer.. as a buyer, you should inspect the car upon completion of purchase.

ferrcad

Baierl, Spitzer or Smail... My guess would be the first.... Also, who was the dealer 200 miles away? Just wondering....

gregwils

I called the dealer this AM. The salesman was responsive, but the Service Manager was just so-so at first. I felt like he didn't seem to think there was any issue, called them "my concerns". They did come to get the car. They called the Acura Zone Rep, who said there was no warranty conflict because of the old oil. He must have instructed them to open the oil filter to look for metal shavings, there were none. They didn't charge me for the oil change. Just to show this Service Department is a little disheveled, they lost my keys - thankfully removed my house keys. The Service Manager gave me a new set of keys/fobs, and FINALLY apologized for the inconvenience.

All of this could have been averted had they taken a few extra minutes the first time. I hope I don't get surveyed, I'm not sure how I would respond.

potmilkz

lesson learned man.. fully inspect the car before signing over those papers.. ESPECIALLY when its a used car.

PaulAWD

But normally they don't clean the car until after the papers are signed. I don't get my hopes up anymore that the dealers will clean and inspect the car correctly at all. One dealer we looked at every new car had greasy on the drivers seat and on the door panels from dirty porters or techs. My wife was really turned off. We bought from another dealer and I told the salesman to make sure all the grime was cleaned up before we got there or my wife will flip out. Of course I was assured their detailers will make it perfect. After an hour of waiting for the car to come around for delivery none of the grime was cleaned off the seat or door panel. It still had a bunch of bug guts on the front and it was 2 quarts low on oil at only 120 miles.

ALFAQ

Sloppy service, I guess I am lucky because every car except one that I purchased used or new was delivered fully detailed and had a fresh oil change.

The one exception was from some little used car dealer and it was a cheap runaround auto.

TeamAcura

Sorry to hear about your experience but wow I'd be so PO'd. But since you've dealt with them for 9 years and you'd give them the benefit of a doubt with the prep delivery. Not filling the gas tank and no detail/wash are the obvious red flags and I'd start questioning. I just find it hard to believe any Acura dealer would give you delivery of a car without fully prepping it first. Maybe their thinking was he's a repeat customer and so they didn't bother. You would think it's the opposite but apparently not. If that survey came my way they will get some harsh words from me. And as mentioned, anything below 10s across the board is failure to Acura standards. Usually they will accommodate you in some way.