Marsh
Porter Corners,#2Author of original report
Sat, January 24, 2009
Subsequent to the above, in an additional conversation with an INDS person, I was given two other reasons that they would not honor the warranty. 1) Instead of replacing the steering gear assembly with a new one, the dealership should have had the threads on the damaged assembly shaft re-cut! (Is this a standard procedure for a damaged part of vehicle steering? I think not!) I asked if INDS had suggested this action to the dealership tech or manager and was told that it had not been done. 2) The inspector from INDS noted that the pickup has a trailer-hitch, thus it had been 'modified'. They claim that this excluded by their contract, even though the trailer-hitch was a factory-installed part and the pickup has a factory 'Tow-haul' transmission and a factory installed electric brake controller. The person stated that this didn't matter. The steering could have been damaged by some unusual conditions caused by using the trailer-hitch for towing! It is now obvious that they have absolutely no intention of honoring the warranty.