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Remember our blown head gasket from two months back?

Yeah, well.

Two dealerships later, Lance has still had no work done and he’s about to be moved to dealership #3.

 

Let’s back up; here’s a quick refresher.

Lance had his overheating incident 30 minutes outside of Bakersfield CA. We took him to the local RAM dealer in Bakersfield, where they wanted to replace our engine (to the tune of $10k), but wouldn’t put in a request for warranty work to cover it… remember that? (We certainly do!!!)

The last time we updated y’all, Lance had been towed from the Bakersfield dealership to Stoneridge Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram K-Car DeLorean Edsel Matchbox (maybe a little name embellishment there, since who can keep all the brands straight?!?). We had HOPED there the warranty would be honored, the repair would be uneventful, and that would be the end of the story.

NOPE.

Instead, the story has gotten funnier.

At least in that humor-in-other-people’s-misery sort of way.

 

 

Here’s how it’s gone with Stoneridge:

1. Stoneridge claimed they could not duplicate the problem. Van was fine!!! Go home, people! Then, Gordon (from Edge Motorworks, he’s been handling everything for us) demonstrated the problem for them. They acknowledged the head gasket failure and agreed to fix it. PHEW! ONWARD!

2. Weeks later, with no repair work begun, Gordon learned the original technician no longer worked there. The new tech couldn’t diagnose the problem, so once again Gordon had to go back to them and demonstrate how to diagnose Lance’s blown head gasket. IT’S LIKE THAT GROUNDHOG’S DAY MOVIE!!!

3. Stoneridge (after having Lance waiting there more than a month) decided they’re concerned their 2-post lift can’t hold him. We have pics of Lance up on Haddad Dodge’s 2-post lift so this had us confused. Plus, we’re told that head gasket repairs are typically done from above not below, since they’re, you know, on top of the engine. Things that make you go hmmm…

4. To top it off, we were told, “yes the head gasket is leaking, but it’s not bad enough to fix”. LOL!!!! Considering that it had consumed over 2 gallons of coolant in 30 or so miles, well, it doesn’t really take a rocket scientist (HA!) to know there is a very serious problem here.

Anyways, at this point we are pretty confident that Stoneridge is Stonewalling… after so many excuses on their end, we can’t help but feel they just don’t want to deal with Lance.

So, here’s where the good news starts (at least hopefully?).

Just this week, we escalated the issue.

FCA Corporate is now involved, and we’ve got a case worker. He’s verified that we should be covered under warranty.

Gordon will be moving Lance over to Hilltop Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat Ferrari Harley-Davidson Tonka. Another Travato-owning friend recently had great service at Hilltop, and we’re hoping for the same. So that’s where things are now, headed to our 3rd RAM dealership. AND ‘ROUND WE GO!!!

3rd Time’s the Charm, Right?

Big shout-out to Edge Motorworks’ Gordon White who has been managing Lance’s service for us! He’s given soooo much time to dealing with dealerships, and has been an incredible advocate for us. If only all auto shops were so customer-focused. All you Bay Area people, take your cars to Gordon! (…well unless you need warranty work from your dealership, and in that case you should probably hire Gordon as your agent anyways, lol)

 

Hilltop, we’re on our way and our hopes are high!

Though I have to admit, the bar is set pretty low, LOL!!!! We’ll keep the updates coming. Thanks to our FitRV community for all the support; you’re the best!

Happy travels all! Fear not, we’ll be rolling again someday soon… it’s all just part of the adventure.

xoxo, Stef

To read Part 3 of the Lance saga, CLICK HERE.