GREENSBORO, N.C. — Shopping for a new car is certainly more convenient at home. Scrolling through websites to find the car you like is often easier than driving from dealership to dealership.
When Katie Blake needed a new car the internet was the perfect place to start.
“I went looking because my old car was having issues. It was pretty simple,” Blake said.
It didn’t take long for her to find the car she wanted. A day later, she went down to the dealership and purchased a brand-new Honda Pilot with plenty of bells and whistles.
“I needed something dependable to take my children to school and get to work,” Blake said.
The SUV was a great fit and had all the features Blake needed. It seemed like a great purchase until day two of driving it.
“On my way to church with my husband, I heard a very odd noise coming from the front of the car,” Blake said.
She took it back to the dealership and the mechanic discovered a serious problem. The SUV was in need of major repair.
“They determined there was a bolt in the transmission that fell off during the manufacturing of the car,” Blake said.
It took almost two weeks, but the SUV was fixed, and Blake finally got it back. While the transmission seemed to be running OK, more problems started popping up. There was an AC issue, problems with the seals on the windows, and a rattle near the dashboard.
At that point, Blake asked for a full refund, but the dealership only offered a partial refund. Convinced the SUV was a lemon and would eventually have more problems Blake reached out to News 2.
“My friend told me to reach out to you guys and that’s what I did,” Blake said.
Our Call for Action team contacted the dealership about the issues. We spoke with the general manager who assured us he would reach out to Blake and try to resolve the problem. About a week later, Blake called to tell us she had a new car.
“I agreed to trade in my car in for another car, they gave me MSRP value (for the Honda Pilot) which is more than I paid so I was happy with that,” Blake said.
Her new car is an Acura MDX. She swapped the color black for a shiny white SUV.
“I love it, it is everything I want in a car,” Blake said. “Thank you so much I appreciate what you did.”
