Legal advice regarding a friends Mach1

[Denny]

car is on craigslist

Already down?

[SS Junk]

If you get an attorney to represent you be prepared for a lot of stone walling. I filed against Frank Parra for trying to pull the same bullshit on my bitchin' Camaro with an optispark issue. They told me my aftermarket heads were the reason it failed and to give them a credit card number so they could start exploring the "problem." They tried to charge me for a compression test and said the entire right bank was reading 60psi. A court date was given and they settled about a week before. IIRC it took around 3 or 4 months from the time I sent a letter giving them the opportunity to make it right to them admitting fault. With the several phone calls my lawyer placed to the dealer he got the service manager to admit the heads were not the problem. You are going to have to consider the cost of this and whether or not it is worth it. That's why dealerships pull this shit.

[VaderTT]

If you get an attorney to represent you be prepared for a lot of stone walling. I filed against Frank Parra for trying to pull the same bullshit on my bitchin' Camaro with an optispark issue. They told me my aftermarket heads were the reason it failed and to give them a credit card number so they could start exploring the "problem." They tried to charge me for a compression test and said the entire right bank was reading 60psi. A court date was given and they settled about a week before. IIRC it took around 3 or 4 months from the time I sent a letter giving them the opportunity to make it right to them admitting fault. With the several phone calls my lawyer placed to the dealer he got the service manager to admit the heads were not the problem. You are going to have to consider the cost of this and whether or not it is worth it. That's why dealerships pull this shit.

Yeah, he is just trying to figure out the best route with the least OOP expenses and LOL @ " bitchin' camaro".

[BP]

Contact the attorney general's consumer protection division, they'll send a general inquiry and sometimes it's enough to scare a shop into paying. Bill Utter probably has an attorney though and it won't work. You never know though.

https://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/cpd_regionals.shtml

Have you considered calling your insurance company? Depending on why the engine failed they may be able to cover some of it. Obviously it was in fine running condition or they wouldn't have released it, then it wasn't. Something catastrophic happened to cause the failure and if it's really a short time frame it's obviously not your fault. If nothing else they may subrogate it with Utter's insurance.

[Sean88gt]

Well hell, that sounds familiar.

I'd like to make a sizable investment, I won't hold you responsible, but what do you recommend???

[Dave586]

I wouldn't trust an "Utter" dealership to work on anything. Blake Utter Ford in Denison fucked me over pretty good on a car I had taken there. It was a 2003 Eclipse. The cold air intake sucked up a pretty good amount of water during a thunderstorm - the highway drains were clogged - and it upchucked the motor.

New Motor - car died while trying to get out of the parking lot at the dealership. I knew I was fucked. After a lot of replacing parts - and they got me for a new clutch too (because the engine was out). It was the MAF sensor - then all the other sensors, then they hit me up for a new computer - and I was like WTF - don't you test? I drew the line there, and they refused to help me any further on it.

After another $2000 (after the 3K motor) I unloaded it for a loss and got something else. Car never did run right again. Best they could do is get it to run where it wouldn't die as much - it smelled like it was burning rich - and it got about 12 mpg highway milage - down from 28ish.

My advice - either sell the car, or take the loss and take it somewhere else to get it fixed. You will spend more money and time trying to get them to do the right thing - then you would just getting on with life.