Lithia Volkswagen of Reno

Wow! What a horrible experience. My daughter's 2010 VW Jetta was experiencing random intermittent stalling. She bought the car from a friend for $1,500 and it was not in the best condition, but it was her first car. She couldn't afford much better. She takes care of disabled people and has a kind heart, but the service tech and service manager took advantage of that. She had spent several hundred dollars at two local auto shops diagnosing the problem. The final diagnosis they gave was that they had traced it back to the ECM and it needed a new computer. They said only a dealership could replace the computer and program it. The service tech told us they would not accept any other shop’s diagnosis so they charged us $200 to tell us it would cost over $5,000 to fix it without any kind of diagnosis or repair itemization. They obviously didn’t want to work on it. She called and was told that she could pick it up if she wasn’t going to have it fixed there. She asked what time they close, and the tech said 6pm. She called me and asked if I could take her to get it. The dealership is an hour from where we live. I told her I would leave work early and we could get there around 5:30. The service tech called her back on our drive there and left her a message that they closed at 5:30. We didn’t get the message until we got there at 5:35 and the service staff had all gone home. I checked the internet, and two different places said the service bay was open until 6pm but their website said 5:30. Apparently it had changed. While trying to get someone to release the vehicle to us and pay the $200 the sales manager only wanted to sell us a new car, over and over and over, but said he couldn’t help us with the car in service (I could see the keys hanging on the rack easily accessible to anyone). We had to drive home and return the next day to get the car. We got it back and I found a company online that fixes/replaces auto computers. I shipped them the computer and they cloned it for $550. It has been running fine for months with no issues. Why would anybody want to buy a car or service their car from a place that takes advantage of people like this. I was never offered anything, not even an apology, for the miscommunication and will never do business with them again.