That's about the best argument against a purchased warranty I've seen. Even if they honored it, it would still be a net loss.

It would have still been a loss at that point, but the warranty period runs for a few years so there's a chance it would have paid for itself. It was still not something we would have advised him to do. Paying in advance to cover repairs that may never happen is not the best way to handle this, especially considering it was rolled into the financing and now he's paying interest on top of an already overpriced plan.

It hurts when you see your kid make stupid mistakes like this that will cost him lots of money. Because he ended up with all the add-ons like this essentially worthless service plan, he'll be upside down on this car for many years.

He could have bought a brand new car for less than what he'll end up paying on this one, and it would have come with a factory warranty that actually covers things.

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Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!

Did he pay cash or finance it? If he financed it, thru whom?

What state?

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"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." John Rogers

It could have worked out, but it almost never does. There is a reason they sell them so aggressively. $5300 will cover a lot of repair costs.

Trade in of $1000, small down payment, financed the rest. I think the financing was through a company called Premier. I don't know where they're located. The dealer is in Colorado Springs.

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Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!

What is the name of the dealer? We are the 2nd largest subprime lender in CO....I might be able to help.

If you want to PM me who he financed it with I might be able to help there as well. A LOT of finance companies have 1st payment recourse -- if the customer doesn't make the 1st payment then the dealer has to buy the car back.

In my experience, if you get the finance company involved & throw enough of a shit show, 99% of dealers will simply unwind the deal. An unethical dealer, and this one sounds like they are, will probably just keep the trade in/any down payment (hope he didn't pay in cash b/c if by CC or debit you can reverse that). Especially if you start elevating the issue with the warranty (what warranty company? There are some really good ones, and there are a LOT of crap ones) company -- they HATE bad reviews & bad press.

At the end of the day, your son did everything possibly wrong when buying a used car......

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"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." John Rogers

PM sent

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Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!

Kids. I got nothing to add other than he can get a new 2022 golf GTI for that price. Good luck.

https://www.vw.com/...MEAAYASABEgK8HfD_BwE

here's one in Colorado Springs

https://www.vw.com/...MEAAYASABEgK8HfD_BwE

Lessons can be learned.

Looking on the bright side, if he can get the stuff resolved and fixed, the GTI is a fun hot hatch.

Have a local VW indie mechanic check it out to see if it ever had an aftermarket tune. Those cars are one of the #1 cars people buy the "$500 chip tune, add 75hp 200tq" kind of things to. If that's the case and that wasn't disclosed, that may be a way out. As sometimes if it's not a reputable company or owner, they can screw up the engine.

I used to do the VW chip tune stuff on an older one I owned.

Or, prior owner tried a DIY of adjusting the boost pressure and either blew the head gasket OR adjusted the rev limiter and dropped a valve into the piston and the valve is bent and not closing/opening fully. Seen that on those also.

And....the DSG transmissions on all those are expensive to work on if they have issues. Fun and technologically pretty sweet, but expensive.

But if there was a tune on that thing and they didn't disclose it, you may have a small chance.

How in the world did your son pay $5000 for a warranty?!

That isn't a typo??

Prior used-dealership GM - look at the extended service plan for details on the cancellation policy. The extended service plan company will not be the one issuing the refund, but the seller may be obligated to do so. The reason for this is the dealer has to forfeit whatever profit they included above their cost basis. Likewise for other after-the-sale products. Unless your son paid for the extended service contract out of pocket the monies will reduce the principal amount on the loan. He can always buy another plan elsewhere. He might even be able to re-finance the loan elsewhere to secure a fair priced extended-service plan, consequently it would likely cause the dealer to forfeit any back-end earnings on the financing.

Detailed reviews with judicious use of emotions can be very helpful for holding the dealer accountable. Just be careful in putting the review together so that it cannot be considered libel / slander.

The only reason they can sell that to anyone is because it gets rolled into the financing.

Unfortunately it was actually just over $5,300.

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Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!

How can there not be legislation protecting consumers from selling such an expensive warranty that doesn't cover repairs?

I guess now I know why I get all those phone calls trying to sell me an extended warranty.

If he hasn't, I hope that he leaves reviews for this dealership on all social media web sites.

My understanding is that Carnax and perhaps others sell “as is,” but they also allow for returns within a certain periods (7 days?). That gives time to take to the mechanic for an inspection if you didn’t do so beforehand.

Carmax also sells its own warranty and has its mechanics, and that warranty can be pretty extensive.

Don't think it's been mentioned thus far, but one could wager a guess that the dealership cleared all codes to get rid of check engine lights etc.

Not sure if it's within the scope of OBD2 code readers, but do they store timestamps of last code clears? If so, then it would be pretty easy to find out if codes were cleared during the dealer's custody of the car, and then it's an easy case to make that they knew they were selling a car with issues.

(quick google suggests probably not, but perhaps a thread to tug on)

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Eliot
blog thing - strava thing

Returns, always hear about, assume does nothing for state registration/taxes which of course can be very significant.

I understand that, but I've never heard of a car warranty costing 5k. That is absurd. Hopefully something gets resolved.

Good point. I'm pretty sure the ECU stores historical data on all it's error codes, so dealers have a good picture of what's been going on. So if they han an engine error code, knew about it and simply cleared it without taking action then surely they'd be liable.

Cancel the warranty. With the $5300 you now have, fix the car and pay. Pocket the rest of the money for future repairs.

The warranty may have a grace period to cancel, or, they will only charge you the prorated time you had the warranty, which is very little.

Call the warranty company, not the dealer. Then, call the dealer and tell them you are not satisfied and you will be forced to write a negative online review based on your experience. Remind them that they still have an opportunity to make things “right” before you leave the review.

This. I once did it, and oh boy did they make it hard to cancel. They tried as hard they could to make it seem like cancellation wasn't possible despite the fact they go out of their way to advertise it during the sales pitch. They wouldn't let me do it over the phone or email, and I had to go to the dealership and fill out paperwork in person. And then it took weeks to get the money back. But at least I finally did.

Glad I did, because the car was gone way over every warranty time/mileage duration with zero problems whatsoever.