Complaint Review: Charbonneau Motors

My pickup went to Charbonneau Motors for the last time - to fix a minor oil leak (still covered by the 100,000 mile warranty) on my Dodge diesel pickup. I have 98,700 miles on it. When I dropped the pickup off last night it was running fine and the leak was minimal. At 2:00 this afternoon I got a call from their service manager, Justin Meyer, telling me my pickup had a bad injector which caused me to blow a piston and it was undrivable and needed a new engine. I had just traded the pickup off (over the phone with another dealer) this morning. I called them to let them know what was going on and they were as suspicious as I was. You don't blow a piston driving it from the street into the shop when it's been running perfectly fine. I decided to pay Charbonneau a surprise visit. I went to the dealership at 3:00 and asked them to start my pickup. What a surprise, they just couldn't find the keys for it!!! I told them I'd find my spare set in my purse. After another five minutes of stalling, they came up with my keys, which were right in front of them on the counter the whole time. My pickup started right up, purred like a kitten, no sign of a leak underneath it. I took my "undrivable" pickup to another shop in town and he checked it out to confirm what I was thinking all along - no major leaks, maybe a minimal rear seal leak, no injector problems, no blown piston (believe me - if you blow a piston you can hear if a half mile away). Charbonneau Motors was trying to pull warranty fraud. They had told me the engine needed to be replaced. At the very most there is a seal that needs to be replaced. Nice try Charbonneau but you will be investigated by Dodge. I've loved my Dodge pickups but this dealer shouldn't be in business. I immediately contacted Consumer Affairs at Dodge and they will investigate!

Not Born Yesterday
Western, North Dakota
U.S.A.