The interesting part about this rant is that may have been me 15 years ago when dealing with Hallmark Ford. Very similar circumstances, except that the van I bought was new.
Had I done my homework, I would have not listened to my wife, and steered clear of buying that 1990 Aerostar. All my friends warned me that it was bad vehicle for reliability, etc. The thing was falling apart the moment we drove it home.
The service manager at the time was a guy that I went to high school with, so I thought I was in good hands. Turns out that he had learned all the devious tricks that one learns when preying on people that love their cars.
We had that van in to the dealership at least 20 times in the first year of ownership. Yep, I got sucked in to the IW extended warranty that was the rage in those days. Little did I know that they were ready to go bankrupt as I was signing the policy.
The dealership played duck and cover during that first year, sometimes keeping the van for up to 2 weeks, mostly not fixing the numerous problems with the van. Once, after having it for 5 days for a transmission leak, I rescued the van because I needed it one weekend. They hadn't even touched it!
So, 8 days (and 3.5K kms) after the factory warranty was up...I was driving home from work, gunned it to pass a car on the Canada Way hill in Burnaby, when I notice smoke pouring out the back of the car, and it is now running like shit.
Motor teardown revealed #5 piston circlip let go - pin hits the cylinder wall scoring it all to shit and I have a rebuild on my hands. Guess what? IW warranty is not honoring the warranty...Ford doesn't want to touch it until the extended warranty issue is resolved, and I am out one van with a bill of $600.00 owing for the teardown. 2 weeks later, IW goes bankrupt... Hallmark is not returning my phone calls, and I am ready to enroll in anger management class...
I did rebuild the motor with my own money, and obtained a judgement in small claims court for the full amount, but as an unsecured creditor, I was way down the line. Needless to say, neither Ford, nor the dealership cared to go to bat for me, even though I stayed relatively civil throughout the ordeal up until the end. ]
18 mos after we bought the van, I was happy to sell it for 17K lower than the price we payed for it, not considering the 5500.00 in cost for the motor rebuild.
Bottom line...do your homework. Don't trust car dealers. Protect yourself. If something happens, go to anger management classes. It works wonders.
Every once in a while though...whenever I drive down 152nd in Surrey, I have this irresistible urge to drive my company van through the showroom window. :ph34r:
