drtdncn
04-27-2010, 06:57 PM
After reading the 500 pony upgrade story, I felt compelled to share this one: The 'check engine' light came on 3 weeks after we got our new pony. Say what?! Our mechanic ran checks on it and said "here's your problem: there's no cats... and you have long tube headers and an off-road x-pipe. You're not legal & will never pass smog!" Yes, that's how we unknowingly bought the car. I asked several times during the test drive and "come on into the office" talks if the exhaust was legal. "Oh, yes... our mechanic looked at it and said no problem". Well, now the wrench was in the other hand after talking with our own mechanic...
Internet research re: State of CA's 'rules for fools', and we found how the dealer probably got away with not running smog check before selling it: less than 5 yrs old (no smog cert. required) and less than 7200mi = still considered new and no cert required. (No CA records on file per our smog guy it's every been done.) Randy talked our internet info over with the smog shop guy and he said even if the dealer didn't know there was an illegal exhaust, he still has to fix it, and recommended we file a Consumer Affairs complaint, especially after Randy priced original exhaust at the Ford dealership and it came in at $4700, without labor.
Soooo, rang up the dealer and said "We've been advised to file a complaint with the State, but we thought we'd talk to you about our exhaust issue FIRST and here's what we KNOW..." We supplemented the conversation with info we got from talking with a staff person at a certain 'Stang upgrade shop on our very recent visit to Vegas & pix we were quietly allowed to take of an '07's exhaust up on a rack when we said we didn't know what a stock exhaust even looked like for our car. The dealer's reply: "please bring your car right in so we can check it out... check, check, check.... Mr & Mrs A., it will be taken care of. We have the parts on order and will call you when they come in so we can install your new factory original cat/exhaust system."
So, while the car runs GREAT with the exhaust right now-- the only car we've ever driven that you can feel yourself being pushed back into the seat when you accelerate if you want to get that feeling!-- and you can hear it start up from a long ways off (underground valet parking gets a nice deep rumble) and we got 22.4mph on our trip back from Vegas, I just did NOT want to foot that "$4700 ya gotta fix it" bill 2 years from now when it failed it's first smog check and we had no recourse with the dealer. And that's our bass-akwards story... kind of sad, in way.... but satisfying at the same time :)
Internet research re: State of CA's 'rules for fools', and we found how the dealer probably got away with not running smog check before selling it: less than 5 yrs old (no smog cert. required) and less than 7200mi = still considered new and no cert required. (No CA records on file per our smog guy it's every been done.) Randy talked our internet info over with the smog shop guy and he said even if the dealer didn't know there was an illegal exhaust, he still has to fix it, and recommended we file a Consumer Affairs complaint, especially after Randy priced original exhaust at the Ford dealership and it came in at $4700, without labor.
Soooo, rang up the dealer and said "We've been advised to file a complaint with the State, but we thought we'd talk to you about our exhaust issue FIRST and here's what we KNOW..." We supplemented the conversation with info we got from talking with a staff person at a certain 'Stang upgrade shop on our very recent visit to Vegas & pix we were quietly allowed to take of an '07's exhaust up on a rack when we said we didn't know what a stock exhaust even looked like for our car. The dealer's reply: "please bring your car right in so we can check it out... check, check, check.... Mr & Mrs A., it will be taken care of. We have the parts on order and will call you when they come in so we can install your new factory original cat/exhaust system."
So, while the car runs GREAT with the exhaust right now-- the only car we've ever driven that you can feel yourself being pushed back into the seat when you accelerate if you want to get that feeling!-- and you can hear it start up from a long ways off (underground valet parking gets a nice deep rumble) and we got 22.4mph on our trip back from Vegas, I just did NOT want to foot that "$4700 ya gotta fix it" bill 2 years from now when it failed it's first smog check and we had no recourse with the dealer. And that's our bass-akwards story... kind of sad, in way.... but satisfying at the same time :)