Wow! This has been an exceptionally interesting thread. I would expect the dealer would unhappily put in a new engine for two big reasons: They made the mistake, and a new engine is the right thing to do. Good luck and keep us posted. I know many of us would like to know the outcome.

 

Again thanks for all the information but i need anything you can give me in writing or from a website. Like where is mentions that i dont have to have them do the work. If you have any of this information or where i can find it please pm me or email it to me at jrosco7@msn.com. Thanks again. John

 

I don't know how its done in Arizona, but in California if someone runs into your car and causes damage their insurance company will pay to fix it. Their insurance company will either ask that you get 2-3 estimates and cut you a check for that amount plus rental car etc. Or they will say if you do not want to fix it using your favorite bodyshop you can take it to shop XYZ that does a lot of business with us. YOU have the option of where YOU want to have it fixed. This is no difference than what happened to your truck. It was damaged by someone who has insurance and the insurance carrier should have no authority in determining where it gets fixed. Take it to Cummins. I agree with everything Harvie said.

Squeek Squeek Squeek. Send your wife down there in the morning when all of their customers are dropping off their vehicles and tell her to go balistic on them. It's always best to send the wifey at the right time of the month. Amazing how fast things can get done during that PERIOD of time.

 

"Now that's funny right there! I don't care who ya are" Larry the Cable guy

 

Hmmm, the dealer couldn't do a simple oil change without screwing it up.. and now we are talking a motor swap? Does anyone see something wrong with this scenario? Or is it just me? Your turbo is junk

 

You have made the right decesion to put the lawyer on them. A smiple letter from a lawyer usually gets most people going but I doubt the dealership will think to much of it, until you get a court date. Then they should start worrying about more than just replacing a motor or making this right.

I am not sure why they didn't try and slide it through under warranty and push a few $$ under the table to you. This dealer is weird in a wacky way.

I am not sure what the big deal is other than they are gay ***** (no harm ment to the homo's on the board ). Find out the name of their insurance company. Go straight to them with a letter from your lawyer. I garuntee that will get someone motivated at the dealership.

Personally, no way I take a new motor from those guys. Everyone knows your situation at the dealership and many of the mechanics are on your side but there will be one that wants to stick it to you.

I would take an '06 with heavy rebates (enough for fair market vaule of your truck) and call it a day. Defintely not the popular answer but lets face it. You have a life and move on before you age 20 years over this bump in the road. Move up a model year and enjoy free miles on their ride for a while longer even if you are only getting 5 mpg in that Hemi-crap motor buggy.

 

We are still waiting to see if the Dealer is going to do the rite thing. Our attorney has fired off the first letter to them and we are waiting on there responce if any. .Meenwhile im racking up 200 miles aday on there truck,3400 miles as of tody. they are going to love me when they get there truck back, but not much i can do about it got to work to keep making that truck payment ,The bank still wants there money whethere truck is running or not. We also found out this week they did put 10 miles on the truck with a dammaged motor after filling it with oil.So i dont know if this would have caused futher dammage.

 

All dealers buy their vehicles for less than invoice. Don't let them tell you any different. I have bought many new vehicles including my latest 2006 2500 CTD 4x4 Big Horn edition. I bought this for $3000 under their "invoice"... no trades. Is the dealer that messed up the oil change also the dealer that you bought the truck from? If so.... I hope you didn't sign that arbitration clause in the sale contract. If you did.... forget about a lawyer. Clause says that all disputes will be settled by arbitration. Word of warning to anyone buying a new vehicle. Do NOT sign the arbitration clause.... you would be signing away your future rights to a lawyer or lawsuit for any negligence.

 

I think those arbitration clauses are between the customer and the manufacturer, not the dealership. In this case, DC is not involved.

 

I just bought my truck a few weeks ago. The clause in my contract was between dealer and buyer. Any discrepencies that could not be resolved were to go to arbitration. I didn't sign it. Created a bit of a hassle since they tried to tell me that they wouldn't sell to me unless I did sign it. It took quite alot of discussion to explain to them that it was a cash deal, and that the contract just refers to the sale and that I should not be made to sign anything other than the contract of the sale. Sorry to get off topic... it looks like the problem in the topic refers to a dealer that he didn't buy the vehicle from anyway?

 

There is another route that you can take and that is the BBB (Better Business Bureau). Assuming the dealer is a member (99.9% chance) then the BBB can take the whole thing to arbitration. But both parties at that time will have to sign that the aribitration is binding.

If you do this, there will be several meetings prior to the final arbitration. For the last meeting you should have: A deisel expert that can testify to the damage that has been done (or may have been done) to the engine and associated components (turbo etc). As someone mentioned, not a short block but everything that touches oil. The dealership will have the service mgr. there so you need your own expert because the BBB arbitrator may or may not be a complete gearhead.

You also need to show how their offer of a trade-in would cause you financial loss through no fault of yours. ie long life truck with X number of payments remaining.

In other words, have your ducks in a row when you go in to counter their verbal BS. They can make it sound like they are offering you the world.

Many years ago my dad had a GMC 1T that would lock up into 4WD while he was towing on the highway. It finally scrubbed a set of tires off on 1 trip and even though the dealer said there was nothing wrong with the truck (could not duplicate) they replaced his tires. He had the truck in 5 times with always the same results.

Finally he took it to the BBB. The svc mgr. and sale mgr. came from the dealership and my dad and I. The svc mgr. insisted that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the truck .... they had checked and checked. I on the other hand I said that I had experienced the same problem when using that truck.

I finally suggested that they send the truck up to their Denver test facility and have the vehicle looked over before any final judgement was made. The dealership was totally against it but the aribitraor liked the idea.

A week later we learned that the problem was the viscosity of the oil in the transfer case was too thick. Vibrations during extended driving would cause the cams that locked the hubs to be bumped until they finally engaged. They changed the oil and truck never had a problem again.

When meeting with the arbitrator on the final meetnig, my dad brought in the service records on the truck. He had had the truck in for service complaning about drive line noise. The dealer had put in heavier oil to dampen the noise of both the truck and my dad!

Long story short, the BBB is a freebie but the arbitration IS BINDING! Have it together before that meeting!

Good luck

 

IMHO I Don't know of many in the big cities that check the BBB before buying a car on a lot.

 

My truck was finally towed to my dealer in Tucson from dealer in Benson AZ. Hopefully the teardon will start this week, there ins is now renting me a truck cause the dealer wants there truck back . So we will see what there adjuster says when he goes to inspect the truck. I hadnt seen my truck in over a month I sure do miss it, cant stand that Hemi.

 

Horsepoor, I've had my fingers crossed for a long time now. Any good news, I hope?

 

Any updates?

Goodluck!