It all begins with three years of no airconditioning in Texas, it’s hot and only getting hotter. I have worked at my job for two years and felt I have earned the right to buy a new to me car. I have a qwerks like everyone else and mine is with cars and my phobia of driving and it has taken years for me to be ok about driving. I live 5 miles from work so in Austin terms that’s about a 45 minute drive, but I do appreciate the never going over 30 miles an hour. But yeah time to buy a car and knowing I am car sensitive I really wanted to make sure I went to the right place but it also helped that I was also located less than 5 miles from a CarMax. The ads got me and I thought I was doing the right thing being a single girl buying a car, oh and yeah the car. I have a love for the Fiat 500, I am 5 foot 2 and I have never really fit in a car, except for the Fiat and my heart was overjoyed when I found it online and it was less than 5 miles away. I also could afford it, and so off I went with my PT Cruiser that never let me down but also had no air to CarMax.
So I figured I would get a female sales person, girl to girl please make sure I don’t regret this. We test drove a couple of cars but it was the Fiat 500 I came for and it was the one I wanted. Drove great, had a few cosmetic blemishes it fit me and I don’t care about marks on the car and chipped radio buttons, but it needed to run and be reliable. Being it was still under factory warrenty I didn’t need to get another but I did add a 60K mileage one on and a low deductible because I have a phobia about driving and the car has to drive well. I was so thrilled about my little Fiat 500, washed her twice in one week. Even though there were a few things that I had to take her back to get fixed, like a bubble on the outside of the tire and the car seat didn’t work. And CarMax fixed those no issue, and the customer service is appreciated. I spent a lot and it helps when you are going through car issues with a new car or any car that they are nice.
Tuesday September 5
43 days in…get home nothing was crazy on the way home, no sign of any issue. Got in the car to go to the store and it would not turn over. Kind of felt like a battery issue but everything worked. I was happy I had top insurance for a tow and double warranty, but 43 days in…not what you expected but sometimes things happen. Tow guy comes it’s about an hour later, he tries to start it and on the phone is Jeremy the sales manager hearing it won’t start. So we tow it in I get a ride and we think ok this will just be a battery fix or something like that but no worries I am sure they will fix it.
Wednesday September 6
Next day I call to check to see what the issue is and they tell me they can’t get the issue to replicate and it has a historical issue in the computer and the Fiat Dealership will have to fix it. I am also told they will be responsible for towing it there.
Friday September 7
Fiat dealership calls and tells me to pick up my car nothing is wrong with it. I say no it wouldn’t start, how can nothing be wrong with it? CarMax said it was a computer issue and that is why it’s with you. He says nothing comes up so he can’t fix anything and my car was driven here so CarMax knew there wasn’t an issue. That throws me because that is the first time I hear nothing is wrong with the car. And it’s the first time I realize I might have a real issue on my hands now.
I called CarMax corporate office customer service because I need to have help I am hearing different stories and I am hearing I am not getting my car fix and I just have to take my chances and hope it starts. So I get Emily from corporate she calls both places and lets me know basically Fiat will keep my car for a while and try to replicate the issue so we can get it fixed.
Sam calls me from the CarMax service center to confirm my fear that this was not just an easy fix. How long I asked will it take. Knowing the answer. I don’t know he said and he didn’t want to tell me that and I appreciate that from that I assumed at least they are on my side to resolve this so we can move past it.
Monday September 10
Sam calls to let me know that the Fiat mechanic is out and the other guy can’t access his notes.
Tuesday September 11
Alex from CarMax calls and in a very nice way says basically I will need to take my car back because there is no error message and they drove it and tried to replicate the issue. Meanwhile the loaner car had a light come on and the tags are 1 day away from being out. So I explain this and tell him I’ll be up there so we can talk about it and exchange the current car for something smaller. (It’s hard for me to get use to vehicles so this changing cars is extremely distressing.
I make it up there around 5:20 and again in a very nice but firm way I am told I have to take the car back or they can appraise the car and do a buy back. I don’t want to do a buy back I need the car fixed it’s a computer issue obviously. He says we can just keep track and that got me thinking there has to be a record of this and I got home and stated looking.
Did CarMax knowingly sell me a car with a historical software issue? Did I just get played with a bait and switch? Certainly needs to be looked into, and so I did. I live in Austin Texas and small cars are the way to go. I have to park in small places and my PT Cruiser was just too big for this city. So finding one and being able to afford it was amazing and I felt so lucky. But I went looking. Here is a the site I used it’s like car CarFax but you can get pretty deep on your car’s information. Here is the history I found.
So you can see we have this logged so being told we will log it so we can fix it doesn’t seem to have worked. Also Why would a professional car buyer for CarMax buy a car with this history unless they were looking to hook with this car and sell you another, even after you purchased it. This was disturbing and I was told that Alex would talk to the GM and get back to me the next day on how we can come to a resolution that would work. And I knew that a appraisal and buy back and sell me another car and add more to the debt was what they were thinking but I wanted to believe they would have seen the above and given it more consideration since I only had the car 43 days before this not starting issue started.
Wednesday September 20
I never got the call at noon so I called around 1pm. Was told Alex was at lunch and they were short handed and he would have him call me. I took it upon myself to call Fiat’s corporate office and got ahold of customer service since it’s still under factory warranty and it’s at a Fiat dealership certainly they can do something, like replace the computer so it can diagnose itself. I did get my case escalade but the car would have to stay there so I called Fiat and let them know please keep my car one more day so they can review my case. Doing my research the Fiat 500e has a similar issue so maybe they have information on recalls that haven’t taken place but are under consideration. Basically hoping for a miracle but the stress of the situation is taking it’s toll. I couldn’t eat today and I cried at CarMax and all night. I exchanged a working car for a car that we all agree has starting issues and at some point I will be stranded. Stress is maxed and I hope to hear something helpful tomorrow.
So How this ended?
I got an atourny with this post I was able to explain cleanly what had happened.
The lawyer made 3 calls, showed them this page as well so they bought the car back and paid off the loan. Raising my credit rating, I call that a win!
So the car I got instead, Nissan 2009.