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The continuing saga of a Spokane dealership

December 23, 2003 By: bio Category: General

You may remember how I did a rant on Wendle Ford in Spokane a while ago.

They’re the dealer that I purchased my 2003 Aerio from Well… that car wasn’t my first purchase from them.

In 2000, my wife desperately needed a new vehicle, so I convinced her to go car shopping… “just to look”. We came home in a ’99 Durango. It was used, but in exceptional condition. Leather everything, monster engine, all the extras… spiffy!

Of course, I purchased the extended warranty, as the Durango already had a few miles on it, and the manufacturers warranty wasn’t far from done.

We added 60,000 miles and 5 years to the warranty to cover… well.. everything that could go wrong (the extended warranty wasn’t cheap).

Today, my wife took it down to the Dodge dealer because we’ve noticed a few problems (tie rods are bad and a leaking gasket) The dealer found the problems and it’s no big deal, because it’s covered by the warranty.

No it’s not.

Apparently, the yahoo who filled out my warranty at Wendle checked the “new” box instead of the “used” box, and now my warranty is expired (because of the mileage).

I called the warranty company, and they’ll authorize the repairs only if Wendle calls them and admits to screwing up. Getting a hold of anyone at Wendle to fix this is apparently impossible.

This is so typical of my Wendle experience. Trust me… if you live in this area and want to purchase a vehicle… there’s a lot of dealerships in Spokane… pick a different one.

** Update ** 12/23/03 04:11 pm

I’ve since been called back from Patty at Wendle’s warranty contract department.

She claims that since the vehicle was still under warranty from the manufacturer (it had 4,000 miles left), that qualifies it as “new” and therefore I only had 60,000 miles total on my extended warranty, not mileage at time of sale + 60,000 as explained to me when I purchased it.

I can not understate how pissed off this makes me.

We’ll be spending the evening going over our paperwork, trying to find anything that states what we were told when we purchased the vehicle, but I have this sinking feeling in my gut that we’re screwed.

If that’s the case, and Wendle won’t back what they sold us, I have little recourse. I’ll file a complaint with the Spokane Better Business Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Ford Motor Company… but there’s not much anyone can probably do. I’ll have to eat the cost of the repairs myself (and they’re a tad spendy).

Thank you, Wendle, for making my Christmas dreams come true!

0 Comments to “The continuing saga of a Spokane dealership”


  1. What the gal from the service department who called you back told you is pure HORSESHIT! Take your case to the local news media. I’m sure one of your TV stations has a consumer watchdog reporter. Might also do some checking on the insurance company that backs the extended warranty program as I have heard that at least one of the major extended warranty companies has gone bankrupt lately and the dealerships who sold those extended warranties are doing anything that they can do to get out from under the problem. Or find a good shyster lawyer who hates auto dealers and will take the case on a percentage basis. And give the dealer all the negative publicity that you can without resorting to any libelous statements. Cheers!

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  2. Aww Dude….

    Your story with the durango sounds curiously like our story with the isuzu rodeo. We just went to look and we came home with the car (slick little…well, you know). Christy and I have since heard that other folks call them “Swindle Motors”, We just call them “lying $%@*+%^ ;#&^@#!!!!!”.

    I grieve with you…

    Mike G.

    (PS, love movable type so far!)

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