[ChrisJ]

Ok here is my little rant and speal about Crown Acura in Richmond, VA.

I bought my 2008 Acura TL Type-S from Crown Acura in Richmond, VA on 1/26/2011. I bought this car with 30K miles on the clock and with a squeaky clean carfax; I was so in love with this car and I felt that I was getting an outrageously awesome deal. Was told it was bought at Crown, Serviced at Crown, and had never had any issues and as the carfax showed had never been in a wreck or anything. It was a certified pre-owned which means it went through a 150 point inspection and had the 100K mile warranty on it. I bought the car and have loved it ever since. It took me 2 weeks and 4+ phone calls to get the second set of keys however I got them so I was happy.

The last time I was having my oil changed at Tischer Acura on 12/2/11 I spoke with the service manager about some white spots on my passenger side rear quarter that looked like sealant pop to me and to which he responded the quarter had been resprayed and that it would not be covered under the warranty and it would be a somewhat costly repair. This was news to me as I was told this car had NEVER had body work done and it was the same thing carfax said. After I got him I called Crown Acura and spoke with an employee who stated the service manager Mike was out for the day and he would leave him a note to call me back the next day. I never received a call from Mike so I called him the afternoon of 12/3/2011. Upon speaking to Mike he told me that the car looked great when he sold it so he didnt know what I was expecting him to do and that I needed to understand I bought a used car and he cant help that it seems to have been repaired on the previous persons own accord (who was a leaser) and that he would ask the GM and Acura what his responsibilities would be to me on the car and said he would also contact the previous owner to check about the repair. He then said the only way he could possibly help me out was if I drove down to Richmond, VA (3 hour drive) and let his people look at it. I told him I could drive down the next day or the next Saturday and Mike said he would set me up a time and date after he spoke with the GM and Acura. However I have still not received a call from Mike or anyone at Acura regarding my issue. So now I am left out in the dust to either live with it or spend my own money to fix a car I was sold as never having any accidents and such.

Here are some pictures.
Acura TL Type-S Paint Failure pictures by kingalaobe - Photobucket

Needless to say I am far from happy with Crown Acura as they are not standing behind the car they sold me. I will not send anyone to buy anything from them unless this issue is resolved. I have been sending all my friends to Hall Acura in Newport News for any of their needs involving purchasing or maintaining an Acura.

On the dealerrater Crown Acura has 5 stars and that was actually one reason I went to them to purchase the car. They actually have a great name everywhere I have looked so I never questioned it. I did get a great deal on my car and even though the sales experience with Mike and Ken was not the greatest the experience I had with Robert Baylor the Finance Manager was one of the best experiences I have EVER had at a dealership. On dealerrater they have 18 days before a negative feedback goes live. If the issue is rectified I will be changing my feedback to a positive one. If it doesn't get rectified then my negative feedback will stay and I will be forced to pay out of pocket to get it repaired.

DealerRater - Car Dealer Reviews, Car Dealer Directory, Vehicles For Sale, Vehicle Recalls

And amazingly they called me within 5 minutes of me posting it there...

Well the general Manager James Williams called me about 5 minutes after I posted this on the dealerrater.com site. I however didnt know he called as I work in a secure building and cant bring any electronic devices in with me. So I called Mr.Williams back. At first I thought it was going to be a waste but it might actually turn out good...Here is how it went...

Me: Hello Mr.Williams sorry for not getting back to you right away but I can not have my phone on me at work

Mr. Williams: Well you was able to write that review about my dealership on the dealerrater website though.

Me: yes sir that is the internet and is allowed in my building. But sadly no external electronic devices

Mr. Williams: I see. So why did you jump straight to the website and not talk with us about this?

Me: Mr.Williams I did talk to your dealership about this via the sales Manager Mike. He told me that he was going to talk to you and then talk to Acura about what can be done to make this right.

Mr. Williams: I see well I never heard from Mike about this <he puts me on hold for a minute> Mr. Jobe?

Me: yes sir

Mr. Williams: I do remember talking to Mike about your issue but he said we were waiting on you to come down and let us look at it but you never called back or came down.

Me: Sir I was never told that I needed to call back and typically as a customer I would expect Mike to call me back seeing as he said he would call me back and let me know. I was completely unaware of a determination on the subject.

Mr. Williams: So when can you come down?

Me: this Saturday works fine for me

Mr. Williams: Hold one second sir I am going to get my Service Director Ken Windsor.

Me: Ok

Mr. Williams: I have Ken here with me and he says the Acura rep is here on Tuesdays and it would be best to come down then.

Me: Ok next Tuesday?

Mr. Williams: I will let you speak to Mr. Windsor.

Mr. Windsor: Hello Mr. Jobe my name is Ken Windsor and I am the service manager here at Crown Acura. I understand there seems to be an issue with the paint on your 2008 Acura TL Type-S.

Me: Yes sir. the passenger side c pillar has white specs on it that extend halfway down the body panel all the way to the tail lights and there is a blending mark on the middle of the c-pillar right above the door.

Mr. Windsor: ok well lets set up a time for you to come down. Better yet Mr.Jobe do you have any pictures of this damage?

Me: yes sir I do. The same ones I sent to Ken Littlefield

Mr.Williams: Why would you send them to him he only moves the cars in the parking lot

Me: He was the one that sold me my car.

Mr. Williams: I see.

Mr. Windsor: Mr.Jobe if you can send me the pictures maybe we can save a trip down here. If the pictures show what you are saying then bringing it for a hands on is not going to help. I can send the pictures to Acura and we can go from there.

Me: Sir I can do that what email would like me to send them to?

Mr. Windsor: email address here

Me: I will send them within the hour.

At that point Mr. Windsor said if he didnt get pictures by today he would call me. I just emailed Mr. Windsor to confirm he received the pictures and he said had them and would be calling me back today with information on where we go from here.

Tech is kinda my life so posting it on the internet was only a matter of time before I found the right place to put it for them to take notice. The 5 star rating is a big deal to them and everyone else as it should be. With the level of Tech we now have entwined in our everyday lives it is only plausible to think that one would want the best rating they can get. As when I was looking I searched the sites and found the ratings and felt very comfortable buying from them at that time. I got a great deal on my car and I couldn't pass it up. However if I had know it had been wrecked and resprayed I would have NEVER bought it. I wont buy cars that have been wrecked I just dont do it. I know alot of people will say cars are resprayed and people are never the wiser but so be it if I dont find out then I don't know about it.

Lets hope between Crown and Acura they decide that it is best to just fix the issue and let us all go along our merry little way...But just in case I have purchased web space to build a website devoted to documenting this issue if it doesn't get handled...I also let them that I am an Admin of a Mustang forum with 50K+ people and that I would be posting my story there...Even though it is a Mustang site I will make sure the names are tagged and listed on google...So let hope for the best...

I will update this post this afternoon after talking to Mr. Windsor.

[casper gt]

hope all goes well for you.

acura corperate is very good to deal with, I would be suprised if they don't go out of their way to help you out once they get involved.

sorry to hear about your having to go thru all this though.

[ChrisJ]

Yea typically Acura will go above and beyond...

[ChrisJ]

Here is how my convo with Mr. Windsor went last night. Mr.Windsor called me while I was at work so when I got off work at 430 I called him back.

Mr. Windsor: Mr.Jobe after looking at your pictures I can see that there is paint issues. But also it looks as if this is not the factory Acura finish.

Me: Sir I would have to agree with you and so does the Service Manager of the local Acura dealership here. I am not sure who did the work, how it was done or when it was done except I know I didn't do it and was not aware of it at the time of purchase.

Mr. Windsor: Also just so you know carfax is only a tool. As per our body man here if the total fix is 1% of the vehicles value or $1000 it does not have to be reported to carfax. Also some dealerships will drop their labor rates and such just to make sure it stays under the $1000 cap. At this point this seems to be what the previous person who had ownership of your vehicle had this repair done.

Me: I understand that carfax is not the end all be all tool. Truthfully I dont care about that. I just want the paint on my car fixed and I dont think that is too much to ask.

Mr. Windsor: I am sorry Sir but I am just the Service Director and if its not the factory paint I cant really be of help to you. You will need to speak with Mr.Williams our GM and see if there can be a fix to come of this.

Me: Ok will do thank you Mr. Windsor for your help in this manner.

There was some chit chat between Mr. Windsor and myself but nothing of importance...Mr. Windsor also recommended I go to a couple shops up here and get quotes for the repair and send them to him and Mr.Williams to see if it can be handled without me driving down to Richmond. So thats where I sit now...

I hope they understand that the longer it takes to make me happy the more forums I will be posting this on...

I posted it on ModdedMustangs 2 days ago and it is now the 6th result for Crown Acura per google...

https://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-...w=1280&bih=866

[MyGT]

Now #4

[futureMACH1racer]

I will never deal with Crown Acura now..

[ChrisJ]

They offered to pay half of the repair bill which is $290...Urgh

[brokenweasel]

Originally Posted by ChrisJ They offered to pay half of the repair bill which is $290...Urgh

Paying half is the bare minimum, short of telling you off IMO. Who would be doing the repair?

[ChrisJ]

Originally Posted by brokenweasel Paying half is the bare minimum, short of telling you off IMO. Who would be doing the repair?

Whoever I choose...They would be cutting me the check...

[03SonicBoom]

I understand that they don't want to warrenty the work because it's not the factory paint. To me the fact of the matter is that you bought the car w/ a warranty. That warranty should cover the car from issues. It just so happens that no one knew about the respray issue. But that shouldn't change the fact that the warranty should be covering the car as is sold.

They should take their own advice that Carfax is only a tool. Maybe they should more carefully look over their vehicles before they offer a warranty.

If it was me, I would cut my losses and take the half. I would still leave the reviews, but maybe 2 or 3 stars instead of 1. I would change it to say that after a lot of hastle and posting online for visibility they still only agreed to pay half. Even if they paid for all of it I still wouldn't give a 5 star rating. A 5 star rating would be maybe questioning it quickly, but then getting it fixed ASAP.