J
Joey Goldstein
So I just bought a 2000 Sonata from a used car dealer here in Toronto.
The car appeared to be in good shape, still had 10 months and 30,000km
(I'm in Toronto) left on the power train warranty and was about $1k
cheaper than similar cars at other dealers.
I had the car inspected at a local service station that I've dealt with
for many years. The guy running this place also has a Hyundai dealership
so I was looking out for any potential conflicts of interest in what he
was telling me about this car. His dealership didn't have anything in my
price range at this time and he knew this so there really should not
have been any conflict.
His inspection pointed up a few things, some of which were safety
related and some of which were reliability related. Upon seeing the
inspection results the dealer agreed to fix some of the safety related
stuff. The right front bearing and front balljoints had some play in
them. He fixed them before I bought the car, but he hemmed and hahed
about to no end, like it didn't really need to be done and that I was
putting him out.
The inspection guy had also shown me how there was some minor leakage
("misting" he called it) of tranny fluid at the seal where the metal
coolant line (the other line is rubber I think) goes into the radiator.
He said that the coolant line might just need to be replaced, or,
worst-case-scenario, that the seal itself (made of aluminum) might be
bad. If the seal was bad there is no way to fix it except to replace the
entire rad. He said the only way to know for sure one way or the other
was to wash the area down and then look for the specific place of the
leak in a few days.
When I took this info to my dealer he poohed poohed it skillfully enough
that I trusted his opinion that my inspection guy was overdoing it and
was trying to scare me into buying a car from his dealership. He said
that unless there was a more substantial leak, like where tranny fluid
is seen on the driveway, that I had nothing to worry about. He says that
this is what his own mechanic had told him after I brought the car back
to them following my inspection. So when I bought the car I knew I might
be taking a bit of a gamble regarding the rad.
But now I've taken it to another Hyundai dealer and had them check it
out. They say that the rad needs to be replaced *for sure*. That the
seal could just blow open without warning at any time and I would lose
all my tranny fluid and ruin my transmission at the same time unless I
was real quick to pull over to the side of the road and turn the car
off. But whether or not I would even notice the seal blowing is
questionable. They said that my transmission (automatic) would just
begin to shift funny. If I was on the highway I don't think I'd notice
anything at all until I started to slow down. They've made me feel like
the car will be dangerous to drive (not life-threatening dangerous, just
big-damage dangerous) until I get the rad fixed.
Now, my dealer is acting like he still wants to please me, but it might
just be an act. He says he'll have his guy look at it again on Monday,
but I expect them to be pooh poohing me again and that this will just be
a waste of my time. The best I can hope for is that this guy will agree
to split the cost of a new rad with me.
Now why am I posting this here? Misery loves company? Maybe.
By all acounts this is not a typical problem at 67,000km on this car.
The Hyundai dealer thought that maybe there had been an accident with
this car and that the rad had been removed when fixing it and that
juggling the rad around had compromised the integrity of the coolant
line seal. This metal hose would remain attatched to the rad as it was
being moved around. My Carfax report on this car said that it was
accident-free. The dealer has to warrant that it was accident-free too,
I think. Maybe the accident wasn't reported to a DMV-like place. (MTO in
Ontario. This car spent its first few years in Quebec though.)
I think I know now why this car was $1k cheaper than the competition.
So, anybody out there have any insight into this sad story? Advice?
Tips? Anything welcome.
The car appeared to be in good shape, still had 10 months and 30,000km
(I'm in Toronto) left on the power train warranty and was about $1k
cheaper than similar cars at other dealers.
I had the car inspected at a local service station that I've dealt with
for many years. The guy running this place also has a Hyundai dealership
so I was looking out for any potential conflicts of interest in what he
was telling me about this car. His dealership didn't have anything in my
price range at this time and he knew this so there really should not
have been any conflict.
His inspection pointed up a few things, some of which were safety
related and some of which were reliability related. Upon seeing the
inspection results the dealer agreed to fix some of the safety related
stuff. The right front bearing and front balljoints had some play in
them. He fixed them before I bought the car, but he hemmed and hahed
about to no end, like it didn't really need to be done and that I was
putting him out.
The inspection guy had also shown me how there was some minor leakage
("misting" he called it) of tranny fluid at the seal where the metal
coolant line (the other line is rubber I think) goes into the radiator.
He said that the coolant line might just need to be replaced, or,
worst-case-scenario, that the seal itself (made of aluminum) might be
bad. If the seal was bad there is no way to fix it except to replace the
entire rad. He said the only way to know for sure one way or the other
was to wash the area down and then look for the specific place of the
leak in a few days.
When I took this info to my dealer he poohed poohed it skillfully enough
that I trusted his opinion that my inspection guy was overdoing it and
was trying to scare me into buying a car from his dealership. He said
that unless there was a more substantial leak, like where tranny fluid
is seen on the driveway, that I had nothing to worry about. He says that
this is what his own mechanic had told him after I brought the car back
to them following my inspection. So when I bought the car I knew I might
be taking a bit of a gamble regarding the rad.
But now I've taken it to another Hyundai dealer and had them check it
out. They say that the rad needs to be replaced *for sure*. That the
seal could just blow open without warning at any time and I would lose
all my tranny fluid and ruin my transmission at the same time unless I
was real quick to pull over to the side of the road and turn the car
off. But whether or not I would even notice the seal blowing is
questionable. They said that my transmission (automatic) would just
begin to shift funny. If I was on the highway I don't think I'd notice
anything at all until I started to slow down. They've made me feel like
the car will be dangerous to drive (not life-threatening dangerous, just
big-damage dangerous) until I get the rad fixed.
Now, my dealer is acting like he still wants to please me, but it might
just be an act. He says he'll have his guy look at it again on Monday,
but I expect them to be pooh poohing me again and that this will just be
a waste of my time. The best I can hope for is that this guy will agree
to split the cost of a new rad with me.
Now why am I posting this here? Misery loves company? Maybe.
By all acounts this is not a typical problem at 67,000km on this car.
The Hyundai dealer thought that maybe there had been an accident with
this car and that the rad had been removed when fixing it and that
juggling the rad around had compromised the integrity of the coolant
line seal. This metal hose would remain attatched to the rad as it was
being moved around. My Carfax report on this car said that it was
accident-free. The dealer has to warrant that it was accident-free too,
I think. Maybe the accident wasn't reported to a DMV-like place. (MTO in
Ontario. This car spent its first few years in Quebec though.)
I think I know now why this car was $1k cheaper than the competition.
So, anybody out there have any insight into this sad story? Advice?
Tips? Anything welcome.