O Brien Volkswagen of Urbana
I live in Chicago, IL. My family and I drove out of state for the weekend. After about 200 miles away from home, my Hyundai Santa Fe experienced problems so I had it towed to the nearest Hyundai dealer, O'Brien Hyundai in Urbana, IL.
We left the Santa Fe there and rented a car to continue our trip. The service department and I were in constant contact during that weekend hoping to have work completed, or at least a complete analysis of the problem, by my Monday evening return to Illinois.
O'Brien Hyundai informed us that they had no loaner cars even though they are an Auto Park with 12 auto brands and dealerships in nine cities. The link labeled "The Journey" of their website boasts:
"O'Brien Automotive Team locations are in nine cities and four states and include Peoria, IL (2 locations); Normal, IL, Urbana, IL, Champaign, IL; North Pekin, IL; Ft. Myers, FL (2 locations); Naples, FL; Chamblee, GA, and Cathedral City, CA (3 locations). Automotive brands include Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, Scion, Jeep, Volkswagen, Dodge, Chrysler, Subaru, Chevrolet, and Mazda." [violative content deleted]
How can you have this many dealerships and and not offer loaner cars?
The work that needed to be completed was covered by my warranty. It took from February 5, 2010 to March 1, 2010 for the service to be completed. They kept trying to find additional stuff they could fix and charge me for, and when I gave them the go ahead to fix it, they would break something else and tell me it would take an additional week to correct.
The total car rental cost was $1,018.80. If I'd known the service would take as long as it did, I would've had the vehicle towed to my preferred dealer near my home where I would've been offered a loaner and not have to make a 2.5 drive to pick up my car.
I really would like to hope that in this day and age my ethnicity had nothing to do with why I wasn't offered a loaner, but I was born and raised in Illinois so I know better.
So you are thinking this had to do with your race? Obrien is a fantastic dealership who actually employs all kinds of people from different races. You didnt even buy your Hyundai from them? Why would they be on the hook to give you a car when HYUNDAI the manufacture DOESNT offer or pay for loaner cars when warranty work is being done. If you should be bashing anyone it would be Hyundai correct? As far as the other work they recommended you to do was probably recommended so that you didnt get stuck on the road again. You also said you gave them the OK to fix the problems. If you weren't ok with the repairs all you had to do is say no to them. Sometimes its not the dealerships fault that parts are not readily available from the factory so that could have been part of the problem. I have had great experiences at Obrien and it sounds like you need to realize you are not entitled to something for free from a dealership you didnt buy a car from. Thats like me buying a John Deere mower from Lowes and taking it to Home Depot and demanding a loaner mower from a store that NEVER sold me the mower. Sounds like Hyundai should be called and complained to about not giving or floating the bill for a loaner car.