Owner of Jeep left at dealer for oil change is sued after tragic accident

[Mister Lamb]

Owned a Jeep Patriot years ago that I bought primarily for the factory lifetime powertrain warranty. This was in 2007, when Chrysler was struggling to stay afloat and desperate to get vehicles sold. At 93,000 miles the transmission went out. If not for my oil change records, one of which showed that transmission oil levels had been checked, then my claim would have been denied. Both the dealership and the Chrysler rep. told me as much. There was only that one documented record, but it was enough to show I had not been "negligent in my maintenance" of the vehicle. I can't imagine many warranties today covering much without a record trail. We're just too litigious of a society, unfortunately.

Question: If you go as far as purchasing the manufacturers' recommended lubricants (Mopar brand) and retain every receipt (easy enough with online ordering), can they still claim negligence on the owner's end?

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[Diarmuid]

Question: If you go as far as purchasing the manufacturers' recommended lubricants (Mopar brand) and retain every receipt (easy enough with online ordering), can they still claim negligence on the owner's end?

I have no idea, though I imagine it's a matter of who you draw as a representative for your claim. The right jerk could simply say you have no proof that the lubricant was actually put into the vehicle by purchase receipt alone. Maybe video yourself each time you perform a maintenance task for proof? That sounds like a lot of additional work to me, filming and storing videos, but to each his own.

 

[hjdca]

Unfortunately, it is a generic law. You own the car, you are libel if any one drives it... Unfortunately again, they rely on the courts and lawyers to work out the "fairness" aspect.

there are some weird cases - like, car is stolen, keys are left in the car and stolen, car is left running and stolen, car is taken by family or acquaintance without permission, but, this is the weirdest one - dealer kills someone with it.

 

[IANDHUNT98]

I always laugh when people are too lazy to change their oil and put their expensive vehicle in the hands of complete idiots.

That is sort of an ignorant thing to say. I would guess that most people on these forums can change their oil but I, for example, have a work schedule that is 50+ hours a week and sometimes I just don' have time without causing some sort of issue. Also, going to a dealership is hardly placing your vehicle in the "hands of complete idiots" since they are a large company who should, by all common sense expectations, hire qualified people. The dealership should be held liable either way.

 

[ShastaJT6]

That is sort of an ignorant thing to say. I would guess that most people on these forums can change their oil but I, for example, have a work schedule that is 50+ hours a week and sometimes I just don' have time without causing some sort of issue. Also, going to a dealership is hardly placing your vehicle in the "hands of complete idiots" since they are a large company who should, by all common sense expectations, hire qualified people. The dealership should be held liable either way.

I think a lot of this is going to be on a "Case by case" basis. Some folks have competent dealerships / technicians at their disposal, and some dont. I dont think theres a one size fits all answer to this.

I took my JT to the dealership 2 weeks ago to try and use one of my Wave oil changes, pulled into the fast lane literally as they were opening the roll up door first thing in the morning. They quoted me 90 minutes for the oil change. I told them they could pay me to train their technicians on how to do the job and improve productivity tenfold... and I dont have a lift / all the other shop equipment they have. In the time it took me to drive over there, laugh at them, and drive back home I could have done it myself.

I have a busy schedule, and work lots of hours, like many of the folks here - but I have found that it is both faster and easier for me to change the oil myself.

Edit: I actually had the oil changed by them once, since I was going in for my 10k "servicing" and they actually overfilled it by about half a liter. Knuckleheads.

Edit 2: Just to clarify, I absolutely agree with IANDHUNT98 that the dealership SHOULD be hiring qualified technicians, and be reliable.. unfortunately thats not been the case in my experience. I do most of my work myself or take it to an independent jeep shop in my area.

 

[DrPlastic]

My forever powertrain warranty states that it has to be changed by a dealership to be valid.

That is a violation of the Magnusson-Moss Warranty act.

 

[Hootbro]

That is a violation of the Magnusson-Moss Warranty act.

Unless it was one of the actual "lifetime" warranties that Chrysler offer around the late 2000's to original owners, most of the so called lifetime warranties are are not true warranties per the contract language and are just extend maintenance coverage contracts once the original manufacturers warranty has expired. Magnusson-Moss Warranty act does not cover those.

Sounds like one of those add on dealership lifetime warranties that are not true warranties and are rife with contract language that for coverage, all scheduled and sometimes a more stringent made up schedule maintenance has to be performed at the dealership.

 

[DrPlastic]

Magnusson-Moss does indeed cover that. The dealer CANNOT state that if they do not perform the service , they will void the warranty. the only caveat to that is that Magnusson-Moss states that said services are free to the customer.

 

[Rahkmalla]

Its no more dumb that the person who successfully sued McDonalds for burning their mouth on hot coffee.

Corporate has bought and paid for the fact that you think that was the McDonald's hot coffee case. Their lobbying team is responsible for the lie being told often enough by the media that you think that was the facts of the matter.

The real story is McDonalds hired actuaries to determine if it was cheaper to overheat (above OSHA regulations) cheap beans and serve coffee so hot that people wouldn't be able to drink it fast enough to get free refills, or to settle all expected lawsuits from burns. The woman who won the famous lawsuit nearly died from her burns and had her labia fused together from the heat. The jury heard that McDonalds thought injuring people was the cheaper option and said "we're going to make it NOT the cheaper option, fuck you"

Tort Reform wa sold to the public to stop frivolous lawsuit lotto cases, but really it just prevents the people (juries) from assessing damages in excess of the money corporations make by breaking regulations and laws. Thus making breaking the law the fiscally responsible decision. Who do you think paid for all the lobbying for tort reform? Giant corporations. Here's a hint, they don't spend millions upon millions lobbying if they don't expect to make it back and then some.

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