My dealership...am I being taken advantage of?

I have a question. I bought undercoating and chemical rustproofing from the dealership. Afterwards I noticed that the chemical rust proofing area wasn't checked off on the TRICARE warranty. I called the saleslady (who did the final paperwork for the car purchase) and she told me that they do not do chemical rustproofing at that dealership, so I do not have it...only the undercoating (but then she tells me that "undercoating is really considered a chemical rust proofing, so you do have rustproofing"). I told her that this was not right, as she shows you the TRICARE brochure with both procedures (chemical rust AND then undercoating as separate procedures) in one box, and then shows you their rust module in another box, and points to each, "it's this or this"...no mention of chemical rustproofing not being part of it...she finally says to me, "you're just getting caught up in the advertising".
Next I had bought a touch-up pen for $28 from them...then when I see that the pens are around $15 on-line and a friend of mine was given his free with the TRICARE package, I questioned the dealership on this...I got all sorts of excuses that I had a different pen, "we don't know why the on-line prices are still at that price", etc, and that the cost was different for my special pen because I have a different coating....but I know have the same paint pen as everyone else does.
Next I got a slight scratch in my upper passenger side door during the install of the security system they put in, and I spoke with the installer who said it must have been someone else at the dealership who moved my car after he had it.
I lodged a complaint to my initial salesman, and here is his responce...

"Hi – I haven’t forgotten about you. I do apologize for being late in the return email.
**** in parts printed me your receipt for the pen; it says you were charged $24.95 plus tax for a final price of $28.20, which is our standard charge for any pen.
I have no answer about the scratch. However, you had said **** was willing to buff it out.
**** informs me that you did get rust proofing and as I said, I know the chemical rust was installed, because I saw it installed. However, **** did say that she may have made a mistake on the paperwork and that you should come into the dealership so that the two of you can clear this up.
Let me know when you are available to come in and see ****, at the same time I will look into buffing the scratch."

I've lost trust here, so my questions are these...how would I be able to tell if the car has been rustproofed vs undercoated, ie, what is the difference in the look of the substances?
And have any of you bought Mitsu paint pens? Cost?
How should they be fixing this small scratch that is down to the metal?

Thanks for any advice...

Re the chemical rust protectant - as long as you have the documentation that you paid for the chemical rust protectant then if you see rust they are liable to fix it.

They should have some evidence that the chemical protection was applied if it was applied.

Rule #1 - always compare dealer prices to others - either online or brick-and-mortar. 9 times out of 10 the price will be cheaper elsewhere.

I was looking for some weathertech mats. They list on the canadian weathertech website for $236 ( 2 pieces front and back) including shipping.

The dealer charges $150 for the front and $125 for the back = $275.

Re: the scratch
If the scratch goes down to the metal then it cannot be buffed out. It's the responsibility of the dealer to fix that issue, regardless of what they need to do.

I went out and checked, and noticed that there is a white thick substance around corners under the hood area...would this be the chemical rust proofing? Undercoat should be black? If this is so, then they probably did do the car. You're right, regardless if they did the process or not, as long as they put in the correct paperwork to TRI-CARE, then all is good. I wonder if other's noticed that this same person isn't submitting to TRI-CARE that the car they do has chemical rust protection, as she told me that this is not done at the dealership, so it is therefore not marked on the TRI-CARE warranty forms...interesting, as she says this is the same speil she gives to everyone. I also got the rust module installed...don't want any redish brown colors on my black car... .

Here's my two cents worth. I suggest that you:
a) forget the touch up pen issue, it's a small annoyance. It's unfortunate, but typical, that dealers take us to the cleaners on parts prices. Bringing this up with the dealer actually distracts attention from the important issues.
b) call several rust proofing companies in ottawa, ask for an explanation of what options are available, how they compare, and what they cost. Once you feel you are well infromed on the options, establish what you thought you were getting, and what your paperwork indicates you are getting. If necessary, tke the car to a rust proofing company and ask them what you got. Then go into the dealership with a clear statement of what you want them to do to make things right with respect to the rust proofing.
c) If the scratch actually goes to metal (and it may appear that way when it has not actually done so), the only solution is paint. If the dealer accepts that it happend while in their care, your recourse includes everything up to having the door re-painted. That said, it's more likely the scratch is actually only a clear coat scratch, in which case buffing and wax will mostly hide it, and all is well.

Good luck

I've been thinking about changing dealerships due to trust issues, but I'm hearing all sorts of stuff from others (even Honda dealerships), and maybe they are all the same?...I don't know, this is my first brand new car ever.

Ok, I'll let the paint pen issue go, although that was the biggest tick off for me as this was the one thing that I feel they intentionally went out of their way to rip me off with...the paint pen was just handed to me by a sales lady when I picked up my car from the dealership and my responce was, "at least I get something for free here, with all I've spent", which started a flurry of people looking at each other (mental note for future dealings with dealerships...keep mouth shut when handed free things)...the guy before me had just been given a free paint pen...then the salesman and the parts person had a sidebar discussion, and came back saying the $28+ was what I owed for the paint pen. He said that the other guy had negotiated the paint pen into his deal and that I hadn't...then I found out afterwards (from another dealership) that the paint pen is included there when purchasing the TRI-CARE and he said, "I don't know what 'magic' pen you have, but I think you've been ripped off $28, mitsubishi doesn't sell a pen for that price, and it comes free with the TRI-CARE". Intentional rip-offs are hard for me to take, and especially with the incorrect info they said afterwards justifying about the increased price from Mitsu's on-line price of $15...ie, "I don't know why they haven't changed the on-line prices from $15, because they have increased the price", and that I have a "different paint pen" from everyone else for the EVO, etc! All rubbish!

That's why I have no trust about the rustproofing, and of course which person there is going to admit to putting the scratch in the door.

The scratch appears slight on the clearcoat on the front of the outer/upper edge of the door (which can be buffed out). Then at the actual edge at the door you can see it's at the metal (no paint), which of course can't be buffed. I won't need the entire door painted...it will just need the buffing on the front (visible) areas of the door, and then filled in and touched up where it's not...or at least that's what it looks like to me, but I don't know for sure.

As for the rustproofing...any suggestions on where I should take it to get it evaluated for what's on there?

Thanks for all your suggestions...I want to get to the bottom of it. Anyone know a good dealership? I have to take the car in for the recall fuel pipe, and I'm afraid of dealerships now.

I bought my MR from Bank St Mitsubishi. I hesitate to give them a big thumbs up because I don't know them well enough to say yea or nay to them yet, but they have seemed pretty reasonable throughout my short relationship with them, and they seem to give me a little more personal attention whenever I am in for having bought their premier product. No complaints ... yet. Also, I didn't pay for any rust proofing etc. so I guess in a few years we can compare notes. One observation that I hope won't get anyone's back up: in my experience Japanese makes have A LOT less issues with rust than US makes, and European models come somewhere in the middle.

I understand your hesitation in recommending any dealership. I also spoke with them at Bank and they seemed to be a bit more on the ball, and they say that they will look after me if I want to deal with them...they had nothing but bad things to say about my dealership. With my dealership, anytime I have a question, I'm told they will get right back to me and then I never hear from them...hence, that's why I sent them an e-mail about my complaints, as I had telephoned them to speak about the complaints initially...you can see that the responce is, that they appologise for not getting back to me quickly, but then that's everytime I'm dealing with them (I have to always call them back). Takes putting things in writing to get any responce back, so if I stay with them then I know what I will always have to do. I'm not feeling the trust there, and especially after sinking all my $'s into their dealership with their most expensive car...it's been a disapointing experience, but that somewhat changes as I take a look at my beautiful car.

I can recommend Bank street mitsu. I bought my Outlander XLS from them in august 2007 and I always got good service. Peter and Barrie at the service desk are really good and know their stuff the tech are good in the garage too ! And if you shoot me a private message with your VIN # full name and model of car I will make you a membership card which will help you save on parts and service at Bank street !

If it's not to personal which dealer are you talking about ?

Roach wrote:I can recommend Bank street mitsu. I bought my Outlander XLS from them in august 2007 and I always got good service. Peter and Barrie at the service desk are really good and know their stuff the tech are good in the garage too ! And if you shoot me a private message with your VIN # full name and model of car I will make you a membership card which will help you save on parts and service at Bank street !

If it's not to personal which dealer are you talking about ?

That would be great. I'll pm the info tomorrow when I have it in hand.

Having had experience with Donnelly before, and being aware that they had a phantom black in their inventory, I'd hazard the guess that...

... had a Ford Taurus station wagon, dealt with Donnelly Ford. It's a very long story of breakdowns under full warranty, including having the complete 3.8L engine replaced at 34,0000km, and then having to have the cylinder head gasket on the new engine replaced at 48,000km. Add to that: the main wiring harness (dead car, required a tow to dealership), the alternator (dead car, required a tow to dealership), two electric window motors, a suspension bolt that snapped leaving the car undriveable that took two weeks to get on special order because no one stocks it (because it never breaks). After two years and 50,000km, I had nearly two months of loaner car time, two tows to the dealership, and a wide variety of "other charges and taxes" not covered under the warranty. The cost to me was outrageous. I wrote letters to Ford; they said they just make the cars and that it was up to the dealership to provide satisfaction. I wrote to Donnelly; they said they just sell the cars and it was up to Ford to provide satisfaction. They both agreed my circumstance was "not normal". In the end, I asked Donnelly if they would get me into a new car at cost or otherwise give me a super deal to resolve the problem. They said no, but they would be happy to sell me a new car at the regular price and give me diddly for the trade-in. Suffice it to say that I'll never do business with either Ford or Donnelly again - I'm not wealthy enough. I contemplated using the lemon law, but in truth, the process is so time consuming versus what I stood to gain that it wasn't worth it. I bought the aforementioned Toyota Sienna minivan and traded in the Taurus - the only time in my life I didn't sell privately because I couldn't sell the car in good conscience. The Sienna went 10 years and 150,000km with me doing nothing but routine maintenance, and then I sold it for 11,500 (Caravans of the same age were selling for 6-8k so what does that tell you?). Since the Sienna, every car I have owned was manufactured in Japan (though I would be happy to buy a Canadian made Toyota or Honda). It is sad.

I can certainly sympathize with you...once they get your money, they just try to get more of your money. What's happened to customer service and satisfaction? Perhaps we should start an annonymous on-line evaluation of dealerships?...I wonder how long it would take for them all to smarten up?

The clear oily rust proofing is much better then the black undercoating, black undercoating will cause rust in the long run.

This is why we are in business.... to put the customer service component back in the business. We focus on our clients, and providing them with the service they deserve... in that order. The problem lies within too many places focus on sales and profit first, with client/customer satisfaction taking the backseat.

I am definately sorry to hear of your negative experiences 'coryl', and if there is anything my team or I can do to help you out in any way, please let me know!

Regarding the 'rust-proofing'.. Most dealers sell the 'tar/wax' based products to clients, or the 'modules'. None of them work. They are simply a back-end profit margin for the dealer (cost on the module is $5 in plastic, $2 for an L.E.D, and maybe $5 in wiring - thats it). I dare ANY 'dealer' to show a client a vehicle that has had one of those units for 15 years... but, they cannot. Why?.. all of them are rusting/rotting somewhere in a junk/scrap yard (or still on the road rusting just the same). What you have to remember is that most vehicles do not start to seriously rust until year 5 or 6 of ownership, which is typically one buying cycle. So, what this means is that by the time you have had and enjoyed/paid off your vehicle at the end of the 5/6 year finance, you typically trade it in and the buying cycle starts all over again. The ONLY thing that is tried and true with regards to rust-protection is having an oil/inhibitor product applied on an annual basis. When we sell used vehicles to clients, we do not offer 'traditional' rust-proofing. Instead, we offer a 5-year pre-paid package which includes 5 annual RustCheck applications, 5 annual fabric protection applications (to be used after a complete detailing) and 5 paint care treatments. This way, WE know and the CLIENT knows that their vehicle is being fully protected vs. one-time application GARBAGE. There is NO such thing as a one-time application for 'quality' rust-proofing, paint sealants, and the latter. With our paint treatments we have the client come in annually so that we can wash, clay bar the vehicle, and re-apply the Meguiar's #21 Synthetic Paint sealant.