Complaint Review: Naples Dodge - Naples Florida

Dealers make you sign a work order that gives them permission to drive you vehicle  for legitimate need. Wording varies from place to place but it is one of the things you agreed to. Any ethical dealer will only drive your vehicle as needed and this sounds like what happened. By the way dummies that abuse the customer cars get found out in a hurry and don't last long, so the likely hood that any harder use than a high throttle setting as described above is very unlikely. and finally don't be a putz, if you carry on like this with out evedence I doubt this dealer will ever work on your car again anyway. This kind of post and or verbal abuse is considered a poisoned relationship and Dodge will allow them to refuse you on this basis. By the way a SRT Challenger is not a peice of art to be polished and admired, it is a toy to be used and enjoyed.

I worked for Dodge not long ago (I'm now Retired) we had a recall on the Challengers I was told to take the car and DRAG RACE (With restrictions) 30 times from 5mph to 60mph.Restrictions were to NOT burn the clutch, Put it in gear and roll slowly, then floor the gas and let the engine rev. (There's a rev limiter built in, it cannot overspeed)

What happened is that they were afraid some engines got out of the factory without the Piston Pin retaining clips (That will destroy an engine) and this was to find IF that engine was one, I was told Any "funny noises" and the car gets an entire new engine, so I went to an abandoned service road beside the dealership and Thrashed the car as instructed, had to test three cars, no funny noises so they were OK, I did NOT "Slip" he clutch.

(I love my Job)

Possibly this was done (Dealer warranty, they wouldn't normaly mention it unless they needed to put another Engine in) and the Mechanic wasn't a Master?

I'd mention the soft clutch to the service manager immediately He may know this (Or Maybe your car wasn't a recall engine car) either way the Manager will know.

By the way the clutch is hydraulic, look at the Smallish Brake Master Cylinder and see if the fluid needs topping off (Uses the same brake fluid as the Brakes DOT4)

Sounds minor to me, hope it's minor as well, Check the fluid FIRST. Low fluid makes a soft pedal.

Have you ever put a car with a clutch on a flatbed or seen it done?  I did this when moving.  I will tell you - for sure - that taking you car, putting it on a flatbed, transporting it for repair, removing it from the flatbed for repair, placing it back on the flatbed, transporting it back to the lot, and then removing it again will burn your clutch much more than just driving it to the repair shop - even if they beat on it a little. When you put a car with a clutch on a flatbed it is impossible not to burn the clutch - you can smell it burn.

Go out and enjoy your car - don't worry about this.  I would also point out that the computers in new cars would make it pretty hard to do anything that would really hurt the car over 10 miles.  If anything they did in 10 miles really hurt anything then the car is junk to begin with!

Thank you for your comments and please allow me to answer your questions.

Yes you are right I did not look for the body shop.  I did not know, nor was I told that I should or that it was not on the premises.

This was a new car and it comes with a warranty, part of that warranty is free towing (which by the way I paid for). If they had to move my vehicle 5 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles they should have put it on a flat bed to deliver it. That is what i paid for.

Yes you are right again they do get to drive Challengers and Chargers and Vipers but none of those that they drive belong to the dealership, no no my friend they belong to their customers like me and my situation is proof positive that they love to drive SRT and vipers ect

You are right once again I do not like to use spell check as I feel its a crutch, I rather show my imperfections as Im an honest man and what you see is what you get.

It is not my contention that everyone that works there is not honest. I direct my grievance at Naples Dodge management. How do you justify that there first answer to my question on the excess miles was that they took it for a test drive and once I pointed out that a bumper repair does not warrant a test drive they just shrugged their shoulders.

By the way they were aware of the recall and as a matter of fact there was two recalls on this car that they where suppose to take care of before they sold the car. They did not. I had another dealership deal with the second recall and they were surprised that naples dodge did not do it before they sold the car

You state that you do not work there. You choose to make excuses for them. You should re-consider your career path, you would be perfect in their customer service department or management, believe me, you would fit right in with your friends.  I have yet to find a thief that cannot justify their actions whether they are stealing from the public or stealing gas or stealing mileage, they always have a good excuse.

Good luck to you.

that can't be trusted too, correct?

First of all... let me say that I don't work for them But I know people who do. When you dropped your car off at Naples Dodge...Did you drop it off at the Body Shop? Did you walk the property to see where the body shop was? They use a Body shop that is roughly 4 miles away. In my estimate...4 miles down ...4 miles back and then moving the car around both lots would be about 8.5 - 9 miles....get over it and learn how to use spell check already...And by the way,  everyone there gets to drive 6 speed SRT's on a daily basis so I really doubt that they singled out your car to "beat on"