Help - Fender damage during replacement of tensioners on 06 Sonata

Pat,

Sorry to hear that. Isn't that just outrageous?

If I were the service manager there, I would have called the customer within 10 minutes. How in the world can you ever trust that dealer again?

Sometimes I get a little too excited over these things, but my first instinct is to tell them "Either fix it, or I'll expose you". In other words, they pay for a good body shop to do a competent repair, or you go the local newspaper, TV stations, Internet, e-mail and telephone Hyundai corporate, etc.

Maybe just ask the SM to let you talk to the owner. Tell him that all you want is fair treatment. It's hardly fair to ding up your car and try to hide it like a little kid. I don't think most owners would approve of the way you was treated. If he doesn't make it good, then he deserves to be exposed.

Good luck, and do keep us posted! -

Bob

I obviously don't trust him anymore.

I do like the car though, even with the initial hassles (see radio story below). I've only had the car about 2 1/2 months. It's actually one from a rental fleet a local independent dealer picked up from an auto auction. This dealer was recommended to me by friends. Only problems so far were the radio/CD changer and tensioners, everything else has and does work fine. A day after buying it I found out it wouldn't load CDs. Not an issue I thought since it was still well under warranty.

It didn't appear to use a drop of oil over about 4,500 miles while on vacation. I also averaged close to 28 MPG on the trip. In fact on one stretch of pretty flat roads at a constant 60 MPH and only a couple of stops I averaged 32 MPG. So I'm getting the EPA numbers on mileage.

The radio story is that it took four trips to this same dealer that did the tensioner to finally have a working radio/CD changer. The first trip was confirming the changer didn't work. The second was to install a refurbished unit, where it turned out the radio portion didn't work. On the third trip the second refurbished CD changer didn't work. The fourth trip was a new radio, which for some reason gave a disk error and wouldn't load CDs when at the dealer. He was going to have another new one overnight shipped because I was going to be going on a long vacation soon. Because of the vacation he said he would also look for a working radio/CD changer from the 06 Sonatas on his lot in case the next new one didn't work. For some reason on the way home from the dealer I tried "autoload" again and it started working and has worked since.

You know, sometimes 1 bad employee can make a very good business look bad. If the whole story about your paint damage came out, it may be that 1 goofy employee did the damage and tried to cover it up. The service manager may have been just as surprised as you were about the paint damage. However, he needs to take a close look at your paint, find out what went wrong, and make it right.

Good luck! -

Bob

The quickest I know of someone doing this repair is about a day (8 hours).

I don't have a good understanding of the damage/repairs to your car, so one of the things I wonder about is whether this was there when you purchased the car and you didn't notice it until now. Consider that any judge you go before will be in a position similar to mine. Of course, the pictures will help clarify matters.

Thanks Hyundaitech for this response and your many others in this group.

The story has just about ended. I took it to two collision shops and asked for a "fair and realistic" cost to repair the "repair". One was a little under $400 and one a little over $400. Both said on the estimates that the repair looked like it had been done quickly and they could turn around a car with very minor fender damage in about 1 days work. One of the estimators verbally told me that the sanding swirls suggest too little drying time between applying the paint and then the clear coat. He also told me that the swirls may not have been there right when the repair was finished, but they could have occurred after two days in the sun from drying shrinkage of the insufficiently cured paint underneath. The bad news is they both warned me that I may have future problems because of the poor underlying surface preparation of this botched repair.

I took these two estimates, along with one of Bob Adkins earlier posts indicating this work plus rear shocks (I suspect he meant struts??) can be done in about 6 hours, to the service manager. He called over the location manager and we basically had a heated discussion, including the idea about not seeing it when purchasing. That scenario is not possible because I used a Hyundai touch-up pen to fill in small stone chips right after I bought the car. One of them was where the "repaired" area is now and another one away from the damaged but re-clear coated area now has feathered edges.

As part of these discussions the dealer showed me his "time stamped" work papers for my job, which would very likely be used in court, that showed the car was in the shop from something like 2 PM Tuesday until about 3 PM Wednesday. Personally I'm pretty sure you could stamp papers any time you want for the most part as long as the timing is conveniently coordinated.

The near end story is that after about an hour of trading points the location manager said he'd pay $200 (basically half the estimate to save time and money on my part, for Small Claims Court filing fees, gas, vacation, etc., and his). I figured one in the hand is worth two in the bush, since I could lose the court case. So I'm expecting a $200 check to come in a few days.

Bottom line, if the check is good, is that I'm basically out $200 and the dealer is probably out what it should have cost him, the $200 to me and maybe $200 to whoever "repaired" it. So the dealer more or less won this battle.

But, as far as the war goes, my consolation is that I interact with a lot of what could be (could have been?) his potential customers, and I think I have credibility with many people here at a large company in Rochester as well as friends outside the company such that at least a few are bound not to buy or get service from him after seeing the photos and hearing the story. So ultimately I suspect he'll lose more than I did. In the end this dealership was a HUGE disappointment and I'll start going to the other one in town that's further away, but not by much, from both work and home.

All I can do is chalk this up to one of life's hard knocks.

By the way, I do like the Sonata. In a couple years, when it comes time to buy a new vehicle, I may trade-in my 2004 Mercury Mountaineer towards an Azeri Limited. This of course assumes the Sonata behaves well from now until then. I like to have a backup vehicle, and something that I can haul a bit of cargo with, so I may trade the Sonata in for a good used SUV or 4WD pickup about that time also.

He may have won the battle, but will lose the war. Step 1 is to cash the check.

Step two, of course, is to do what you are doing. Be sure we all know who the dealer is. He's already lost you as a customer. Be sure to send him a photo of you driving your new car next time you buy one. You may be out $200, but you can be assured with some devilish (but legal) thought, he can be out even more.

I'd cash the check, and still get a TV station involved, they basically screwed you over.