If there is anyone in this world that has worse luck than myself (so bad that I’ve considered writing my own book entitled: Point and Laugh!), it’s my friend Keith (XPTB)… especially when it comes to cars. Let me give you a brief background…
1. Back in high school, he buys an automatic Formula Firebird. V8, exhaust, sounded great! Had a mechanic inspect it, clean bill. All is well until you step on the gas… the RPM gauge gets near redline, and when it should shift… nothing, it just bounces off the rev limiter.
2. Trades in the Formula and his old V6 Firebird for a manual transmission Mitsubishi 3000 GT. Things go well for a while until the tranny starts acting up. A tranny rebuild was in order, but according to him, they did a horrible job and it never acted right again.
3. Sells the 3000 GT and gets an old Dodge Charger (1971 I believe). The car was in bad shape and needed a lot of work… and when I say a lot, it ended up being more than he could afford which led him to sell it. Too bad, as the Charger had a massive 440 engine… would love to have seen it running strong.
4. Some time passes before he wants to try his luck again. This time, a 1993 Mustang LX with the 5.0 engine. This car was NICE, had some light mods already done to it. So one day Keith takes it to Midas for an alignment. He picks it up the next day and notices it isn’t driving right. To make a really long story short, one of Keith’s friends saw a Midas employee driving the car around town, at the bank, etc. Keith takes it back there, argues with the employees back and forth. Turns out, they had “got on it” while driving it (which they denied) and Keith was left with a cylinder misfiring. The culprit? A burnt valve. The solution? A new engine installed at the local Ford dealership. But alas, the car was never the same… problems arose with the clutch and a whole slew of other things. Much like the others, this one was eventually sold…
5. Moving to more present times, a new job gave him the idea to try yet again. This time, a 2004 Mustang GT. A few minor visual mods and the car was already looking really nice. Keith saves up enough money and the time comes to add some go-fast mods to the car: MAC Longtube Headers, MAC Prochamber, Flowmaster American Thunder catback exhaust with Super 40 Mufflers, JLT Cold Air Intake and Eibach Pro Kit lowering springs. Total cost: ~ $1,500.00
Not having the time, tools or knowledge to install all of this himself, he takes it to a local mechanic. He has dealt with these people before and has had nothing but good experiences with them… until now.
On Monday he drops the car off to have everything installed. The mechanic calls Monday evening saying they ran into an issue with the pipes and the Prochamber. They would have to cut and weld in the correct pipes so the car would not be ready by Tuesday at 2 p.m. Keith tells the guy that if he doesn’t think it will be done in time, just skip the lowering springs and do the pipes as first priority.
Tuesday, Keith calls and they are going to need another day because they are halfway done with the springs and still have to do the exhaust… the exact opposite of that he asked them to do!
Wednesday rolls around and he goes to pick up the car. He gets in, cranks it and all you hear is CLANKING noises. They claim they didn’t hear that when they backed it out of the garage. Right. So they take the car back in and come to find out, the guy who put the headers on didn’t reconnect half the stuff under the car. Good job champ.
Thursday, Keith calls around 2 p.m. and speaks with the mechanic. The guys says he got it to “quiet up” but thinks the header gasket is leaking from the previous guy not installing it correctly. So now, they have to reinstall the entire header.
Today, Keith calls and the guy hasn’t had any time at all to work on the car because he is too busy working on other people’s cars. But, his car is in pieces so he can’t come get it and take it elsewhere.
Now, correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn’t you consider this grounds for a refund? If not a full refund, at least a hefty portion of the original cost…
