On a separate note this was rather amusing too:
http://www.boston.com/cars/newsandreviews/overdrive/2011/11/kelley_blue_book_best_resale_values.html
According to this and similar news articles, the 2012 Jeep Wrangler is supposed to be the #1 vehicle when it comes to resale value.
That's pretty much always been true.
This Rubicon had an MSRP of slightly over $38k. We paid $1,000 under MSRP and didn't trade anything in that would skew the numbers.
This vehicle is in excellent condition with 9,000 miles. The dealer only offered us $29k in trade-in value.
KBB states the trade-in value for a like equipped 2011 Rubicon to be roughly $34k.
I wonder how KBB calculates their vehicle value reports. Don't take this the wrong way, but given the choice to buy a used JK for $37k ($34k trade + $3k costs and dealer profit) or a new one for ~$42k, I don't think there's many folks choosing used. And every month that vehicle sits on the lot it looses more value and costs more in holding fees. But just like the new purchase price, trade-in value is negotiable.
The Jeep dealer also had the nerve to cite the engine problem as one of the reasons for their low-ball trade-in value.
Obviously there is no factual basis for this, but it is a negotiating tactic. Manufacturing defects are the manufacturer's liability during the warranty period. The dealer does the work right and any problem is fixed, while Chrysler reimburses all the costs including shop time and overhead. Dealers actually MAKE MONEY on warranty service, some times LOTS OF MONEY if they have good techs, because the actual repair time almost always averages out less than the book time. A TSB-related repair, once fixed, will rarely occur again due to the amount of study and testing done to determine and correct the root cause.
Today a BMW dealer only offered us $28k if we trade it into them.
Again, not surprising. People don't go to a BMW dealer looking for a used Jeep. To make it worthwhile, a BMW dealer has to pay a low enough price to resell to another lot or auction at a small profit, or advertise an attractive deal.
Reserve the rental on a credit card that includes coverage for rental cars and you don't need to pay rental insurance.
Read your credit card issuer's terms and conditions on this coverage. Usually this only applies if the full amount of the rental is charged to the card. So if you are paying the rental out of pocket and getting reimbursed by the dealer or your insurance company, then you are covered. BUT if you are only using the card as a guarantee against damages, or paying a portion of the daily rental costs, you probably are not covered.
According to the mechanic ... He went on to state that Chrysler won't repair anything that isn't over a 15% loss in compression.
I'd want to see the TSB on that, but wouldn't be surprised. A TSB documents a common failure mode and repair. But just because the problem is not within the parameters of the TSB does not mean it can't be covered under your warranty or service contract.
... he stated that TSB's are not performed on any vehicle unless the customer specifically asks for them to be performed or a problem described by a TSB has occurred.
That is industry standard practice. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If the amount of failures reported to the NHTSB doesn't indicate a recall, then prophylactic replacement of parts with a statistically low occurrence of failure makes no economic sense. Chrysler is doing the right thing with TSB's: making it easy for customers to get satisfaction for common problems without unnecessarily increasing their costs, which ultimately feeds back into the price of vehicles.
Apparently Chrysler has to pay for any work performed by a dealer and a TSB isn't mandatory work, so they don't get done unless they fit the above criteria.
That statement is a bit twisted. Chrysler has to honor its warranty and service contracts. Whether or not a defect or covered failure is documented by a TSB, Chrysler has to reimburse the dealer for the parts and shop time required to correct the defect. If your vehicle is experiencing performance problems, misfiring, or throwing codes, ESPECIALLY if they affect emissions, the dealer is responsible to repair them and Chrysler is obligated to reimburse the dealer. But Chrysler does get to set the threshold on when an issue is worth repairing. While we all expect our vehicles to run perfectly, there are reasonable margins of tolerance. If you disagree with Chrysler's definition of "reasonable," you can always pursue other legal options.
Dropped the rental off at Enterprise, who in turn was supposed to drop us off at the dealer, and got hit with a request to pay a $200 detailing fee to clean the vehicle.
The clown at Enterprise rental stated that because we had put our dog in the rental car, which of course caused dog hair to be in the rental car (a Dodge Journey) we had to pay for detailing to remove the dog hair so the next customer didn't get sick.
[...]
The Enterprise guy choked and agreed to drop the $200 cleaning fee...
That's pretty standard in rental car contracts, the same usually applies if you smoke in the vehicle. You signed the contract with Enterprise, not the dealer, you should have caught that before you signed. You got lucky that the Enterprise guy was reasonable. Lesson learned.
"as for the carfax thing... thats going a little far IMHO. just keep the service record if/when trade or sale comes up. should be easy to explain... although you shouldn't have to."
The Carfax thing is pissing me off. It's one more example of erosion of privacy. I don't think it's anybody's business when you get your vehicle serviced, oil change etc.
I'm very curious if I have signed something that allows my private information to be turned over to Carfax. Are they turning it over for free or selling it?
That's a valid complaint, IMHO. Police accident reports are public records, legally accessible according to the law. Vehicle service records are transactions between private entities, and do not fall into the domain of public records. The gray area is whether there's a case to be made that these records are PROTECTED private information. Generally, to be protected the data has to identify an individual and unique person. A VIN identifies a vehicle and CarFax does not reveal the owner's name or address, which would be considered Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Still, as a private transaction you should be given an opportunity to opt-out of the reports.
But a service record is a record of a problem fixed. If I was looking for a used 2012 JK and learned about common problems, I would choose a vehicle where the problem's already been addressed rather than one where it would be a possible future expense. Save your maintenance and repair records, write notes on them as necessary to document the work. A solid paperwork trail of regular maintenance and timely repairs should allay any concerns from a reasonable buyer.
Notice how they have a dealer version of Carfax and a Consumer version. Kelley Blue Book works that way and somehow the dealer ended up with a black book that has much lower values.
That's always been true. NADA Guides was the standard reference long before the Internet existed, and is still favored by dealers today. They were available in "Blue" consumer versions and "Black" dealer versions. The "Black" versions were available to dealer employees only by subscription, and were specific to a region and updated periodically. The "Blue"versions doe the same value calculations that KBB and CarFax use today, while the "Black" versions reported actual dealer buy/sell data.
Again, these are all pricing guides, not hard facts. Market conditions, the individual sales performance and guidelines at the dealer, and subjective determination of the condition and saleability of on individual vehicle come into play. A dealer that has 3 new and 2 used White JKU Rubi's on the lot isn't going to see a lot of potential in one more, especially if everyone is asking for Black. Also, trade-in margins are even more important than new sales margins, to make up for purchase-price discounts. The RIGHT way to negotiate is to treat each transaction separately and negotiate your best terms individually. Don't even talk about a trade until you've met your goals for your purchase price. Then negotiate the best trade-in value as if its a stand-alone deal.
sounds like the ideal candidate for the lemon law, especially since this visit has lasted more than 31 days. Good luck.
At this point the repair has been completed and the customer accept the vehicle back. But if this or another major problem comes up in the future, a case could be made.
