Dealer Issues / Rusted Brake Lines

[redjewel2ss]

looks like your taking the right steps, instead of going in their guns blazin'!

 

good luck!

[wavery]

just an update. i am going to be mailing a letter to the dealer, ill post a copy with all of the names and dealer info taken out once its finished. im going to send it certified mail with an acceptance receipt and signature required. the letter is going to inform the dealer the letter was sent certified and they will have 1 week from the date of acceptance to have a meeting with me before legal action is started. thaughts before i send this off?...looking at wavery...poke...

 

and i do plan on updating this fourm as events occour i want to document this whole process for anyone else on this site that may have these issues in the future. maybe in the end ill release the dealer... depends on the outcome.

I am certainly no source of "Legal" advise. I used to spend too many days in the courtroom (as a witness or defendant representative) because I worked for a large conglomerate of dealerships in Los Angeles. We advertised on TV a lot and sold thousands of cars a month. We were a constant target from swindlers and cons. I would like to say that I have seen and heard it all. However it has been a long time. The one thing that I continually learned was to expect the unexpected and stay calm through it. I often heard statements from judges and verdicts handed down that I didn't understand (on our cases and others) until I went home and reflected for a long time.

 

Anyone that has ever been in a courtroom can tell you that you usually hear many other cases besides your own while you are waiting for your case to come up. One of the things that I have learned is....BE VERY CAREFUL about what you put in writing. Once you write something and give it to the other party, you can't take it back. More often then not, a guy with a valid case would shoot himself in the foot by something that he wrote and it was presented into evidence by the other party and used against him.

 

You don't seem like a confrontational kind of guy but I would merely suggest that you make no confrontational, threatening or accusatory statements in your letter. If you must write a letter, I would make it as brief as possible and simply state facts (fact 1, fact 2, fact 3 etc = logical conclusion) that you can prove. If you make any statement in a letter that can be disproved, that will be the center-piece of their defense. I wouldn't even state that the lines were obviously bad when you bought the truck. Let him draw his own conclusion on that. Besides, that isn't something that you can prove...... it's just common sense, so don't state it.

 

You may want to use a dated timeline in your letter and spell out the facts as you have here. Use names, dates and times for each event. Stay away from, "He said". Present them with copies of all documents and pics. Don't try to correct the way that the Dealer does business or even presume that you know how his business should be run. Just try to recover your loss........

 

If I were the dealer, I would rather send you a check for $1K then have to even hear about it again. I think that you may have a winnable case if all is as you have stated here. If the dealer thinks that there is any chance that these facts can harm him, he will pay you off. They do not want the name of their dealership being mentioned in any court.....

 

BTW........ if you do go to court, you would do well to have the guy that changed those brake lines show up. He doesn't even have to offer an opinion, he just needs to verify that those are the lines that came off of your truck. The brake lines speak for themselves. You were very lucky to retrieve them.

[T1ME_Killa]

I'm not looking for any legal advice but thanks, I ment any more steps before jumping to the legal route anyone can think of. at this point I purposely have not been giving the dealership name out so I don't get into any possible slander issues. All of my letter information is facts about how long i've used the dealership and all the times I went in for service with the new truck with my various issues. More than just this brake line will be mentioned in court if it comes to it. Anyone here have a clicking noise along with something hitting the bottom of their driver footwell? I do and according to my paperwork from this dealership its to gm specification... My truck was apparently designed to smack under my feet... I always fear something is going to snap when I hit a bump but nothing so far. I I'm gonna have the new shop look into the issue soon, but maybe give me some more ammo with the case.

[wavery]

I'm not looking for any legal advice but thanks, I ment any more steps before jumping to the legal route anyone can think of. at this point I purposely have not been giving the dealership name out so I don't get into any possible slander issues. All of my letter information is facts about how long i've used the dealership and all the times I went in for service with the new truck with my various issues. More than just this brake line will be mentioned in court if it comes to it. Anyone here have a clicking noise along with something hitting the bottom of their driver footwell? I do and according to my paperwork from this dealership its to gm specification... My truck was apparently designed to smack under my feet... I always fear something is going to snap when I hit a bump but nothing so far. I I'm gonna have the new shop look into the issue soon, but maybe give me some more ammo with the case.

 

It sounds to me like you want to beat up on their Service Dept and change the way that they do business instead of trying to recover your loss.

 

If I were you, I'd pick my battles. The brake line issue appears (from where I'm sitting) to be a decent one. If you start muddying the waters with all sorts of other crap, it sounds like you are just venting your frustration rather than trying to resolve a specific issue that could have caused a serious accident and indeed did cause you financial harm.

 

After you get your $ back, just shop somewhere else. You are NOT going to change that way that they do business. So if that's your goal, you are going to lose my friend. You need to speak from your wallet. More Americans need to learn that lesson.

[T1ME_Killa]

no no i know i will never be able to change the way they do business, its just up to the general consumer to realize that themselves. im just trying to get items ready to show that they really just seemed to not want to do any business with me or help me out in any way.

[wavery]

no no i know i will never be able to change the way they do business, its just up to the general consumer to realize that themselves. im just trying to get items ready to show that they really just seemed to not want to do any business with me or help me out in any way.

 

Good luck with that one..... I'm sure that they will have the opposite opinion and that's not going to do anything but detract from the issue that you want to resolve. That's what is called "Muddy water".

 

I hope it comes out well for you......

[T1ME_Killa]

ok so just stick to the one issue... and only things attributed to the single main issue. one front instead of fighting multiple. ok ive got some changes to make on the letter...

[MikeInCtown]

+1 on what Wavery said above. Very good advice. Only list items you have proof for.

[T1ME_Killa]

OK, i got a response from the business via the BBB but nothing from the letter i sent out yet. the response is below. please correct me if i am wrong but the rust on my lines look to be corroded and pitted not just surface rust. Is that the same thing?

 

Dear Mr. M,

 

It is very common in New England and our harsh weather conditions that these brake lines can corrode. It is also possible they could go at any time. Based on the surface rust we see on all truck undercarriages (all makes, all years, all manufacturers all driven in New England) we would be recommending unecessary repairs to many customers if we did what you recommend. I recently had a Ford truck that almost crashed into my house because of the same problem you experienced. There is no way of knowing. Did you purchase an extended warranty for your truck? I would be happy to try and process any claim with an insurance company if you have one. I am very sorry for what happened to you.

[ChevyTech77]

Sounds familiar............

[dlstewart01]

Soooo, as they used to say in Vietnam..xin loi, prouounced sin loy, (tough sh!t)

[T1ME_Killa]

Just an update, I have spoken to 3 lawyers and they have all stated that something like this is almost unwinnable I don’t know if it’s a this state thing or in general. To sum it up I was told to expect just be a game of catch with the blame game mixed in. I am just going to go with karma on this one and take the hit. Who knows maybe the NHTSA recall will go through in a year or so.

 

Edit: I would like to thank everyone for the advice I was given with this issue. It is nice to know there is a place where you can collaborate on an issue, at least truck related ones, for advice and assistance.