If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video is worth a million...

[Hulk]

About two months ago I purchased a 2003 Alero for my wife. A week later, upon first rainfall, there was an inch of water in the passenger footwell. I took the car to the dealer for service. They claim to have water tested it for 4 hours and found no leaks. It sounded suspicious but hey, maybe I left the door cracked or something.

A week later it rained and the car leaked again. I took some photos of the leak with my digital camera and took them and the car to the dealer. This time they said they detected a leak and sealed the roof/body seam. Okay.

About a week later the leak reappeared. Again I took photos and returned the car to the dealer. They removed the floor trim and let the car sit under the hosed for a half hour while I waited. No leaks. After having some words with the floor manager of the body shop I left. I knew the car leaked but couldn't prove it. The floor manager said, "I can't fix what I can see."

This morning I woke to the sound of rain and immediately ran out to the car with my video camera. Of course the car was leaking and I was able to videotape the leak in action! I quickly downloaded the footage to my computer, added a tiltle showing the date, and compressed to MPEG-2. Then I transferred the footage to my laptop computer and was off to the dealership.

Well, the floor manager had a completely different tone about him this time and is basically going to rip the car apart to find the leak. He suspects something under the dash is filling up with water and then overflowing.

I know that the lemon law comes into effect after 3 unsuccessful repair attempts, and I haven't pursued that since they are really trying to fix this mysterious problem. I'm going to give them one last chance.

The power of video is amazing. As they say, "seeing is beliving."

We'll see if they can fix it.

Mark

[K6-III]

A video seems to have the effect....hope it gets resolved for ya.

[wkulecz]

I'd cash it in on the lemon law. Leaks generally can't be fixed for long at the dealer level. No "garden hose" test is worth squat compared to driving 60MPH in the rain!

--wally.

[Brian Ellis]

At least, it's not coming in through the rusted floor - yet

Sounds as if it may have been an old Morris or Austin. Buy Japanese and help the yen, while keeping yourself dry.

[Sasq]

Yes, yes, help then yen, please help the yen

[RichL]

Nothing to do with video at all but....

Citroen BXs are notorious for the rear footwells filling with water after heavy rain. The cause of this is the sunroof drains getting blocked which makes the water flow over and along the pipe rather than through it. This tends to run off down the C pillar and into the rear footwells.
If your car has a sunroof, its possible that you have a similar problem.

[Dr Mordrid]

We had a different sort of problem solved by video.

Last summer my middle son was called in by the police for a turfing investigation at a local apartment complex. Turfing is driving across a lawn and leaving ruts. Someone had seen a green pickup (his is also green) leaving the scene of the turfing incident at 10:00 pm.

He had been there earlier in the day distributing ads for a pizzaria to get some extra $$ and had a run-in with the manager. Of course the cops blindly zeroed in on the 19 year old kid thinking he had "taken revenge" for the arguement by turfing their lawn and charged him with turfing and reckless driving

Problem is that they did a lousy investigation...and you-know-who got royally PO'ed about it. Within the hour I was at the apartment building with one of my cams and a 2" wide tape measure.

Firstly he was home at the time of the incident & talking on the phone to his girlfriend, but apparently that wasn't enough.

I started by taping the measuring of the inside and outside width of the tire tracks and finished by measuring the width of each sides track. I also took a photo of one isolated tire print on a sidewalk (the lawn was muddy, which left a perfect print).

Next I took some black ink and applied it to the tires of my sons Dakota pickup in order to get some tire prints on a long piece of butchers paper. When I compared the width of the tracks to the tire prints I had taken there was an 8" disparity in their width (the Dakotas prints were wider). Also; each side of the Dakotas print was almost 2" wider, indicating a larger tire size than the vehicle that did the turfing. The tire prints tread pattern didn't match either.

Not being satisfied with this alone I did an internet search and found that a perfect match for the tracks left at the apartment were Chevy S-10 pickups made since 1996. We went back to the apartment complex later that night and found no less than 3 green S-10's parked in various locations in the complex.

When we went to court the prosecutor was told we had strong evidence to contradict his case, but he wouldn't even look at it and a trial date was set. We demanded a jury trial instead of leaving it up to a judge because half the $$ from such a conviction goes to the court for their "expenses".

The prosecutor should have listened because by that time I had produced a 15 minute videotape outlining the evidence and I had come in with not only one of the tires (to show a differing tread pattern) but the tire prints.

The jury took all of 3 minutes to return a "not guilty", at which time the prosecutor had the most dumbfounded look on his face I've ever seen

After the trial I informed him that his investigator couldn't find his own d**k in a brown paper bag

Dr. Mordrid

[Technoid]

LMAOTF

[gt40]

Originally posted by RichL
Nothing to do with video at all but....

Citroen BXs are notorious for the rear footwells filling with water after heavy rain. The cause of this is the sunroof drains getting blocked which makes the water flow over and along the pipe rather than through it. This tends to run off down the C pillar and into the rear footwells.
If your car has a sunroof, its possible that you have a similar problem.

Was gonna mention the same. either the drains are plugged or the drain hose has been disconnected.
Sometime the dealer won't even water test the sunroof, just the cowl/windsheild.

[K6-III]

If you can still bring it back, I would suggest a Japanese vehicle.....the quality is always far superior...

With Toyota you can almost damn weld the hood shut...

Nissan, Honda aren't too different from Toyota....

I'd suggest staying away from Mazda unless you're looking at the Miata or the Millenia and Mitsubishi for anything but a 3000GT...

[Hulk]

Believe me, I’m not a big fan of American cars, but I do try to give them a chance. I must admit that they are getting better. The Alero GLS is one of the rare American cars that is pretty good. The GLS model has a firm suspension, 225-50 series tires, 4 wheel disc w/ABS, nice leather interior, etc… plus my wife really liked the car. The Alero really surprised me during the test drive. The suspension is really tight, a bit of understeer but only what you would expect from a FWD car. Not the marshmallow I remember GM’s being. In addition, the body structure is really tight, I believe the twisting resonance is 25Hz which is really quite good. Although she only has 3000 miles on the car there haven’t been any other problems. The suspension reminds me of my Probe GT that I just sold on ebay. I really loved the suspension on that car.

In addition, the deal was really good. Invoice less $1500 dealer cash, less $2500 on my GM Card, less $1200 on my Citibank card.

I test drove the Accord V6, MUSH! Terrible suspension. Camry is much of the same. The Altima was going to be the car for her if we didn't get such a great deal on the Alero. She's an accountant and put 30,000 miles/year on her cars, she won't have it long.

Eventually, when her mileage comes down we'll get a REAL car, i.e. a BMW 3 or 5 series.


I am going to give the dealer one last chance to make good on this

[Dr Mordrid]

I've had 5 Dodge/Plymouths;

1. Dodge B350 1 ton stretch van. Sold with 240,000 miles 3 years ago & still running.

2. Dodge B250 3/4 ton van. Sold with 180,000 miles last year & still running.

3. Dodge Daytona Turbo (customized & tweaked). Has ~90,000 miles, looks/runs great. In storage for the winter.

4. Dodge Grand Caravan. Has ~65,000 miles & gets ~28 mpg on the highway with a 3.3 liter V-6.

5. Plymouth Voyager minivan (customized: blended running boards & wheel wells, engine tweaks etc.). Has ~70,000 miles & gets ~30 mpg on the highway with a 3.0 liter V-6.

None have required warranty service since we got them. Just the scheduled maintenance, fluids, brake linings, filters etc.

Dr. Mordrid

[gt40]

1988 ford mustang - 240,000 km - never had any major component fail, still driving this (original clutch still)
1984 lincoln lsc - 140,000 km - normal service- timing chain replaced, no other major component
1985 Ranger 360,000 km, - bought this puppy with 140,000 km - minor components replaced .
1995 Taurus SHO - 136,000 - this one cost me the most (JAPENESE components)- rad/alternator/waterpump (damn that foreign stuff is expensive)
1997 F150 offroad package 120,000 km-2 year lease - never saw the dealer once for any repairs
1999 Ranger - currently 150,000 km - normal service items
2001 Lincoln Navigator - currently 55,000 km -only ever had warranty item once(1 loose trim piece).

I have never had any of these vehicles cause me any more grief than just ordinary service/wear items.

I have worked for A japanese dealer and beleive me they have thier share of lemons.

[Sasq]

gtforty, its much cheaper here actually i can probably buy and ship a car computer for my MAXIMA (while I was in Australia) was $1500AUS new, and a new one shipped from Japan (thanks to relatives) would have been $800AUS new at the time.

[gt40]

Car computer for my Ford Mustang $200 rebuilt/ 400 new. $800 new with 8 injectors and new 75mm Mass air (all canadian dollars)!