[SRT8outtaLA]

I've been a fan of Dodge for as long as I could remember. I've only ever bought Dodge vehicle in my entire existence. My latest purchase was a 2017 Dodge Challenger Scat pack on 10/3/2017. After buying the vehicle I wanted to protect it right away by putting on a clear-bra film but i've been having a very difficult time doing so. The first obstacle was fixing some paint issues that came with the car from the factory so I could correctly have it installed without issue by a professional as recommended by the one I was using. I brought it to the dealership to fix 3 issues, but came back with 3 new issues that wasn't there to begin with including chipped paint, deep scratches in multiple areas that require the car to be repainted. So I had to bring it back to have them fix what they caused. Then they told me it was ready and that they fine combed the whole care to make sure it was immaculate. When I get there I find that the problem was not fixed. I do not live close to the dealership it's at least 40 minutes away each way without traffic. So I was forced to leave it there again for weeks. I get it back and again more issues, such as new scratches, and now trapped dirt in the paint. So at this point i've had to take the car back over 3 times, each time I get it back they cause more damage to the paint requiring them to touch the factory paint. I really did not want that to happen, and it is terrible that new areas have to be touched. Because I had 3 terrible experiences getting my car back worst each time I bring it in to fix one issue. I lost confidence in the dealership in protecting my car. This has been my dream car for 10 years. It's something that I hope to keep as long as I could. I even purchased the 5 year 85,000 mile extended warranty from the factory, hoping to do lifetime. I insisted that they let me use a bodyshop in my area that I could trust that was recommended to me by my clear-bra installer, but they would not let me. So now i'm left with a car with paint that has been destroyed, many weeks of time wasted, many miles driven back and forth to the dealership without the issue being solved, in fact returning worst than when I brought it in. I also believe that my car was taken on joy rides as the milage on my car was exceptionally high when I got it back. The bodyshop is only a block away but I found that it was driven what looked like 30 miles.

Today I came to pick up the car for the trapped dirt in the paint to find that not only did they not paint the door at all to blend it correctly. All they did was sand down the area and put touch up paint over it very poorly and left a deep scratches in the front of my car, my chin spoiler, part of my lights, a spot on the rear as far as I could tell briefly looking at the car with one of the service advisors. Now I have to bring it back at least for the 5th time. It may have been more but at this point I have lost count. I haven't been able to fully enjoy my car experience since the day I got it. I'm very disappointed with my experience. I absolutely do not want to bring the car back to have it worked on there. If possible please let me take it to a bodyshop I trust to finally resolve the issues. Who could I contact for help? Dodge Cares? the headquarters? JD Power?

 

[SRT8outtaLA]

I'm really fuming upset right now. I'm open to advise from anyone in the forums as well. These are photos from just a few other spots not an exhaustive, there's more of the other damages that I were shown one I got it back. Almost every time they never brought it up to me until I had to tell the dealership about it when I did my walk around.

 

[Yellow Jacket 2012]

That brings back a bad memory for me, I got so worked up my heart started to beat irregularly and in the emergency room over a dealer and bad paint. In the end I traded it in on a new same model car lost a little money but was behind me. Hope they make this right and get it behind you, don’t have a meltdown like I did, it only harms your health.
Good luck.

 

[movnviol]

From the 3 photos that you have posted......these should be a 15 minute fix. The first is a minor polish job, the second may be a tiny bit more if it hasn't penetrated the clear coat. The last pic looks like some wax and grease remover will clean that white mark off. That is my opinion as a former auto body repairman. You could have taken care of these yourself if you even took it to a car wash. I don't know why the dealer is giving you a hard time. Since your car appears to be black.....you are in for a rude awakening, trying to keep the car immaculate. The darker the paint , the more labor and money to keep it clean. I will never buy a black or dark blue car, unless I have a man cave garage. *****I just saw your second post of photos. Your car appears to be blue. I don't know if you are one of those Type A personality guys or not, but, I used to have customers that would bring in their car for some minor thing like changing a headlight. Then they would come in and go over the car with a fine tooth comb and find stuff that we never even touched . My family runs a business where the car goes out better than it came in and we would fix things that the customer didn't even know about. There are always a very few customers that no matter what, can never be pleased. All of these problems you show are very minor and you should be able to take care of yourself, if you are a car guy and do more than just wash your car in the driveway. You will be having a short life if you are having a coronary over these minor things. Hope I haven't offended you, sorry if I have. Its the military Officer in me. The stuff I keep in my trunk would solve 99% of your issues.

 

[SRT8outtaLA]

From the 3 photos that you have posted......these should be a 15 minute fix. The first is a minor polish job, the second may be a tiny bit more if it hasn't penetrated the clear coat. The last pic looks like some wax and grease remover will clean that white mark off. That is my opinion as a former auto body repairman. You could have taken care of these yourself if you even took it to a car wash. I don't know why the dealer is giving you a hard time. Since your car appears to be black.....you are in for a rude awakening, trying to keep the car immaculate. The darker the paint , the more labor and money to keep it clean. I will never buy a black or dark blue car, unless I have a mancave garage.

It's not an issue of being black, it's more to do with the car being damaged while out of my hands. The spoiler scuffed up and so did part of the orange rectangular light piece. I believe there were a couple dents as well.

 

[spepin]

If the paint defects were warranty repairs, and they didn't get it right "after a reasonable number of attempts", try to get them to buy it back under the lemon law...

Just curious -- which dealer this was? If you don't want to post it publicly, PM me. I'm not far away from you (Corona), and want to make sure I avoid this dealer.

 

[SRT8outtaLA]

If the paint defects were warranty repairs, and they didn't get it right "after a reasonable number of attempts", try to get them to buy it back under the lemon law...

How does that work? would I just end up with a 2018 scatpack with all the same options then since the 2017 are probably all gone. I'm unsure if they will really do that even though it's been giving me headaches for months. I've put many miles just going back and forth the dealership and a lot of missed work time and hours of my time trying to get this issue settled.

 

[spepin]

It's probably a longshot anyway as the paint damage they caused would have to have substantially diminished the car's value, but a lemon law attorney could easily tell you if you have a case or not. Might be worth a call though -- I once had a car bought back because the factory alarm system would go off in the middle of the night.

 

[movnviol]

Unfortunately, most dealerships hire minimum wage flunkies to move cars around , who just don't G-A-S about someones car. Some of your damage looks like when an air hose is dragged over the car. The air hose is nothing but a rubber sander dragged on the ground. My Dad would have a coniption when he saw a hose pulled over a car! I'm lucky that my dealer has a General Manager that I used to work with and he knows if I complained about something, he knew that I was on point. I would go somewhere else after the second attempt failed.

 

[Bob Ricewasser]

Unfortunately, most dealerships hire minimum wage flunkies to move cars around , who just don't G-A-S about someones car. Some of your damage looks like when an air hose is dragged over the car. The air hose is nothing but a rubber sander dragged on the ground. My Dad would have a coniption when he saw a hose pulled over a car! I'm lucky that my dealer has a General Manager that I used to work with and he knows if I complained about something, he knew that I was on point. I would go somewhere else after the second attempt failed.

I would like to know as well, which dealer did all of this to your car. I am in the area as well and I am really having difficulty in trying to pick out a Dodge Dealership Service Dept. that will treat my car with respect and not damage it as well as repair it correctly and not make a mess. If you would mind, please PM the dealership to me. I will not pass on any of this information. Thank you.

 

[OregonScat]

Warranty repairs must follow OEM procedures. The mechanical side has OEM procedures and so does the body side.

They did not follow OEM procedures. You did not get warranty repairs. You need to push forward with customer care and use this argument.

You can also file a claim on your auto insurance.

I would also recommend contacting Collision Safety Consultants

I actually put most of the blame on you but I'm not going to explain why.

 

[Powerstick]

To the OP, you are not the only one this type of stuff has happened to. Back in 1992, I ordered a new Dakota extended cab - really loaded it up too. It came in & the driver's door body side molding was really crooked, so I took it to my local dealer (not the dealer I bought it from), & had them order a new one & install it. The one they installed looked worse than the OE one, so they ordered another - I left the truck with them. When I came later that day to pick up the truck, the mechanic who installed it figgered he'd show me - he had kicked the door in - it was destroyed. He had tried to pop it back out, but the damage was already done bigtime. I went into orbit with the service manager & then went to the GM of the dealership & told them to order me a new truck. Ah, no - they were not going to do that. "Calm down Mr. Customer - it's just a vehicle - we'll make it right." They sent it to a local paintless dent repair guy - what a joke. OK for a ding, but the entire door skin had been destroyed. Finally, they said they would replace & repaint the door with a new one. I went to the parts dept. when the new door got in & inspected it. Then I went to their body shop & talked to the shop manager & told him to paint JUST the door & not blend into the other panels! *The truck was gold, so almost impossible to match the color & grain in the metallic. He said they could match the paint PERFECTLY! OK - I let them do their stuff since they were so GOOD! 2 days later: "Your truck is ready." I went to get it. They had only repainted the entire left side of the truck & hood, and didn't even bother to remove the BSM's & wheel flares - there was gold paint on them. I swear, I wanted to lob a stick of TNT into the body shop. THEY GOT ME! I took the truck, gave the GM of the dealer a piece of my mind, but boy were they glad to be rid of me. I sold the truck to a guy I worked with about 6 months later.


NOW, I have learned my lesson. If you notice something BAD at delivery (body or paint or engine), refuse the vehicle - get a different one. Once you break original paint on a new vehicle, the value goes way down & it will never be right. If you ever go to sell it, a sharp buyer will notice the repaint & want to know what happened, & your selling price will be affected. OE paint on a vehicle is sacred.

 

[A Guy]

@DodgeCares

A Guy

 

[SRT8outtaLA]

I think the dealership and bodyshop did some sketchy stuff with the paperwork. I think the bodyshop and maybe the dealership is making a lot of money off Chrysler probably taking $800+ each time from Chrysler and not doing the full work they are suppose to do to paint my car. They are probably in cahoots and take a cut of it for referrals. All they did was sand it and put a very bad unmatching black color to cover it. They didn't even cover it as I could see where the pimples are. I was way better off never bringing it to the bodyshop. I now have almost no original car paint thanks! My clear bra installer could have done that for me for free with the correct color from Dodge and did a better job. So they had me bring it back for damages they caused and probably billed Chrysler for warranty work when it was actually damage from the dealership. Regardless I need to have everything made right.

 

[SRT8outtaLA]

To the OP, you are not the only one this type of stuff has happened to. Back in 1992, I ordered a new Dakota extended cab - really loaded it up too. It came in & the driver's door body side molding was really crooked, so I took it to my local dealer (not the dealer I bought it from), & had them order a new one & install it. The one they installed looked worse than the OE one, so they ordered another - I left the truck with them. When I came later that day to pick up the truck, the mechanic who installed it figgered he'd show me - he had kicked the door in - it was destroyed. He had tried to pop it back out, but the damage was already done bigtime. I went into orbit with the service manager & then went to the GM of the dealership & told them to order me a new truck. Ah, no - they were not going to do that. "Calm down Mr. Customer - it's just a vehicle - we'll make it right." They sent it to a local paintless dent repair guy - what a joke. OK for a ding, but the entire door skin had been destroyed. Finally, they said they would replace & repaint the door with a new one. I went to the parts dept. when the new door got in & inspected it. Then I went to their body shop & talked to the shop manager & told him to paint JUST the door & not blend into the other panels! *The truck was gold, so almost impossible to match the color & grain in the metallic. He said they could match the paint PERFECTLY! OK - I let them do their stuff since they were so GOOD! 2 days later: "Your truck is ready." I went to get it. They had only repainted the entire left side of the truck & hood, and didn't even bother to remove the BSM's & wheel flares - there was gold paint on them. I swear, I wanted to lob a stick of TNT into the body shop. THEY GOT ME! I took the truck, gave the GM of the dealer a piece of my mind, but boy were they glad to be rid of me. I sold the truck to a guy I worked with about 6 months later.


NOW, I have learned my lesson. If you notice something BAD at delivery (body or paint or engine), refuse the vehicle - get a different one. Once you break original paint on a new vehicle, the value goes way down & it will never be right. If you ever go to sell it, a sharp buyer will notice the repaint & want to know what happened, & your selling price will be affected. OE paint on a vehicle is sacred.

Yeah the value of my car has really dropped my poor paint has been stripped down.
I wish I had been more active reading all the advice before I took delivery. I didn't take delivery until almost midnight. I actually couldn't see the defects because the car was sitting in the lot and was covered with dust, etc and they took forever to actually charge the dead battery and wash it because they killed it. So I didn't get to actually see it until late at night and it was very dark.

 

[OregonScat]

You bought a Dodge, expecting it to have Mercedes paint, then you took your car to Walmart for the repair.

That's what happened and the outcome is always the same.

 

[Cuda340]

I sent a PM to Dodgecares to assist you.

 

[Booky]

You have started down the rabbit hole, may the Dodge Gods have mercy upon your soul.

Do NOT go back to that Dealership for any reason.

Do some research and find a different Dealership with a good reputation that works with an exceptional body shop. Call the Dealership and talk to the Service Manager, explain what has been going on and make an appointment to have them look your car over, keeping the Service Manager involved the whole time.

Good Luck.

 

[SRT8outtaLA]

You have started down the rabbit hole, may the Dodge Gods have mercy upon your soul.

Do NOT go back to that Dealership for any reason.

Do some research and find a different Dealership with a good reputation that works with an exceptional body shop. Call the Dealership and talk to the Service Manager, explain what has been going on and make an appointment to have them look your car over, keeping the Service Manager involved the whole time.

Good Luck.

thanks everyone! i've been mostly been communicating with the service manager but was being handled by one of his team members. he wasn't that helpful and the last time I went, he didn't work there anymore. i'm not sure if it was related or not. i need to see him in person to show him the damage on wednesday since he is off until then. before then i don't know if i should get an estimate for all the repairs from the bodyshop i was recommended by my clear-bra installer. i've met the guy and he seems really trustworthy as well. should i e-mail the service manager or just talk in person or both?

i hope it doesn't have to come to a lawsuit or some social media outrage for something to get done. i just want things to be made right. whatever damage that was caused taken care of.

 

[ShakinSkat]

My family was in the car business until my dad retired and I have seen bad work all over LA, with the exception of one shop.

The owner came from Saleen and I would highly recommend, its one of a few shops that are allowed to work on Tesla's as well.


Platinum Auto Body (Eastvale, CA & Corona, CA)

Have them do the work and fix it right and take the dealer to small claims court. Small claims is now up to $10k. Filing Small claims is $75 and takes about 15 minutes. Hell even DMV doesn't work this easy. Just be prepared with your documentation while in court, receipts, visits, conversations. After you file it's about a 4-6 week to be in front of the judge.