The Cube is gone!!!!

Today we surrendered the car to the Nissan dealership. Surrendered. That's the word they used. It sounds so defeated. I was a valient soldier in the War of the Lemon Cube. I won the Battle of the Arbitration but Nissan won the whole war in the end. I'm sorry for them though. I mean that truly. I think of the Bolsheviks who won the revolution, but what did they really win? What did they do with what they won? They simply opened themselves up morally to face charges of crimes against humanity and became accountable to God (one day) for their horrors wrought upon mankind.

Nissan is nothing really. They make cars. A car. It gets you from point A to point B. That's a good thing. But when they make a mistake, they don't own up to it. They don't treat their customers respectfully. They try to squash them, they lie, hope to wear them down so they'll give it up. They never apologize and they don't make the situation right.

Let's pretend Nissan was a teenager.

Mother: Nissan, did you make a mistake and make a broken car?
Nissan: No.
Mother: Are you sure? It's not working right.
Nissan: It looks fine to me.
Mother: Well, I tried to start it and it wouldn't go. Later it started up all by itself. That's not good, is it?
Nissan: Well it never does that to me.  If I don't see it do that,then  I don't believe you. You probably are just too dumb and don't know how to do it right. Why don't you read the owner's manual and look at the page that tells you how to start a car.
Mother: Listen here, Nissan. I've been starting cars for 25 years. I'm not so dumb as you think.
Nissan: Yeah, but  you're old fashioned. You don't know how to go from a key-turned ignition to a push button.
Mother: My 1974 Saab was a push button, you little stinker. It's not that tricky. Now, what are you going to do about the broken car? You can either fix it or replace it.
Nissan: Ummm, how about if I give you an extended warranty?
Mother: Do you hear how silly that sounds? What good is an extended warranty on a broken vehicle?
Nissan: Well, it's an awesome warranty. 100,000 miles, free oil changes and tire rotations.
Mother: Does that mean that I'd have to keep taking my vehicle in for 100,000 miles with the same problem instead of just the 36,000. No, I really don't want that. I want you to fix the car or take it back.
Nissan: Ummm, do you know how stupid that is? I'm offering  you something awesome and you're saying no. If someone pulled up to  your house with a car full of diamonds and offered them to you, would you say no? This is a car full of diamonds! Don't be stupid!
Mother:This conversation is over. You don't talk to me like that.
Nissan: Take it or leave it.
Mother: Just fix the car.
Nissan:No.
Mother:Then take it back.
Nissan: No, make me.
Mother: Okay, I didn't want to have to involve your father in this, but here we go.
Father: (Arbitrator) What's the deal here? What's all this back and forth he said she said?
Mother: Nissan made a broken car and won't fess up and take it back.
Father: Is that true Nissan?
Nissan: No. She's just stupid and doesn't know how to start a car.
Father: Do you have proof it's broken?
Mother. I do. Here are my videos, and my firends are here to tell about when they saw it start all by itself.
Father: Nissan, you clearly made a broken car. You need to take it back.
Nissan: Alright, alright. But I'm not giving the money back. In fact, I'll make you pay!
Mother: I don't think so.
Nissan: You'll see. You think you've won , but you haven't.
Mother: Okay, Nissan. Did you get all the money that I paid for car ready?
Nissan: No. And Dad told me that I don't really have to give it back to you. By the way, I want my allowance please.
Mother: You're nuts. You're not getting a thing.
Nissan: Then I'm going to make your life miserable. I'm sending you a bill for $3,000.
Mother: For what, may I ask?
Nissan: For ticking me off. I'm going to charge you for using the car, for everything I can think of. Mostly it's to show you that I'm not sorry and I'm not giving you a penny.
Mother:We'll see.
Nissan: Hey what's the deal? Why are all your stupid friends and family writing me all these e mails?
Mother: Because they're really appalled at how horrid you,ve been. They said they'll never buy a car from you.
Nissan: Well, I just blocked everyone! I couldn't care less what they think.
Mother: IS that why you sent  me a new lower bill?
Nissan: Maybe. But y ou'd better pay me that money. I still want my allowance too.
Mother: You know, I' think that somewhere someone has failed you. You have an enabling father, an enormous sense of entitlement, you make up all your own rules and you have no moral character. You haven't even apologized for all this mess.
Nissan: And I won't either. And if you press it, I'll just say it, but I won't mean it.
Mother: Look, I've been thinking hard about this. I'm going to pay you your money that you're demanding. And then, I'm kicking  you out of thie house forever. You are a pathetic, dishonest person. Did I say person? You aren't even human. You have the weakest and worst kind of character. Time will tell, liitle Mr. Nissan. You can't keep this up forever. I don't care how cute you are, how clever you are, or how nice you dress. Eventually, too many people will figure you out. They always do. You'll shoot yourself in the foot somewhere else.
Nissan: How about I get you into a new car at my cost.
Mother: Out!
Nissan: It's a good deal.
Mother: Out! Take your money and be sure that you are not invited for Thanksgiving!

Now that's some tough love!

Not all car dealers are crooked. In fact some of them are awesome!!!

I really needed this right now. I needed to meet a good dealership! I needed to get the icky dealer residue off and regain my trust in people again and I did. So obviously we needed to buy another car. Jose called me on Friday just before I left from work to tell me to meet him at Larry H Miller's in Provo where there was a tremendous used car sale. The salesman, Lee and his sales manager were honestly amazing. They got us a great car for a couple of grand under blue book. However, when we hit a glitch in financing (our Cube is still on our debt side of our credit and no one wanted to give us another loan at a decent rate) they knocked another grand off the price so we could get the car. They were never pushy. They really worked hard, especially Sherry, the business manager. She was so kind and worked nonstop to get us the best loan rate. No one made us feel bad, tried to convince us to buy more than we could afford and they were just really decent people. They agreed to fix some pretty spendy things on the car including getting us a second key!  When we popped back into sign the new paperwork, Lee even offered us some of his french fries.

I don't think that they earned any money on this car. But what they did earn was a customer with a big mouth. I want everyone to know that for all the horrible Nissan is and was, the Larry H Miller group has been fabulous, honest, generous and so human!!! And we have a super car!!

Now that's fast!!!

So yesterday I wrote my little post wondering when Nissan would ever take my car back..... and would you know? I got a call around 2:30 from the third party who manages the retaking. You just never know who's watching, reading, etc. Friday at 9:00 am at the Ken Garff Nissan dealership where the whole nightmare started. I will be there with my $1213.10 check with something meaningful written on the memo line.

Helllllooooooo?

A hypothetical letter.....

Dear Nissan,
Where are you?
I still have the car. Putting miles on it.

 It's May 26th and 51 days have passed since the arbitration. The representative on the phone said that we should keep making our car payments. When we balked, she promised that Nissan would give them back after we surrender the car. Somehow, we just didn't believe her. We asked for her to put it in writing. She never called back.

Well, at least I'm doing my level best at passive advertising a defective product. My husband says it's embarrassing and would I please scrape the vinyl lettering about the defective Cube off the back window?! I say, not yet. Let's just let a few more thousand people get a chance to read it.

So, we have decided that we'll take the ding on our credit. Although I'll for sure send a copy of the arbitration order to the credit bureaus. And now I have to think about getting a new car. Will I be able to get credit?????? Argh.
Nissan, you're past the due date on the arbitration order. You've made the last 8 months of my life so hectic and wrecked. I loathe you. Even the sound of your name makes me cringe and recoil.

But this all comes down to integrity in the end. I feel good about how I treat others and I haven't had to shift my moral code all around to do it. I have a faith in an afterlife where we will all come face to face with the creator of us. I don't want to say that this moment will be the end-all- be-all of what we did in this life, but it will be an opportunity to reflect back in a way that is free of false memories, misconceptions and forgetfullness. I believe that we will be able to see and feel the impact of our actions in this life. I have a few things I'm not looking forward to, some people I have offended and slighted, I am sure.

 But Nissan people and other big business people who squash innocent folks, do you look forward to that day of reckoning? Do you wonder what it will feel like to feel the pain of everyone you hurt in this life? Will you be uncomfortable when it's impossible to talk your way out of it or try to use logical and legal arguments ina place where they don't hold water? In a place where only the moral and ethical good that you do counts, what will you have to bring to the table? Do you think that a simple sorry will suffice and off you go?

Scarier yet, will you even feel sorry?
Well, I won't waste your time with my philosphy of what happens to bad people. You don't care, believe in it or even have time to read this. But you also won't be able to say I didn't warn you. See you in a few decades in the after life. I've got you in my planner!!!

In the late after noon, another offer

Yesterday I had a lengthy conversation with the BBB. I am beginning to realize something. When you sign your new purchase contract with a car dealer, the provision that you must arbitrate through the Better Business Bureau is there in the contract. At the time it looks like a good thing. But it is becoming more evident that the Better Business is Bureau is just that. To make it better for the business. Even if the consumer wins the arbitration, the business is not compelled to do anythng that causes a financial loss for them. The Better Business Bureau spouts the same double talk and ...oh.. I get it... why would the manufacturer want to steer you into a direction that would not be advantagious for themselves? THEY WOULDN'T. So, if you look at the Better Business Bureau's ratings for known scumbag businesses, you will see all these 4 star ratings. They claim that due to the high volume of business, the amount of grievous bad practices just don't make enough of a dent to fail getting a star. To me that's like saying, this criminal only robbed/raped/mugged one person and since there are so many people in the world that he could have also robbed/raped/mugged, he's not that bad.

The new offer from Nissan. We still have to pay. Only it's $1200. instead of $3,000. I'm still missing the part where they say sorry and give me my money back.

No news so far but....

I never heard anything from Nissan yesterday so it looks like it'll be Monday morning. I did inform the BBB that we have interviews lined up Monday afternoon with 2 tv stations so we need to get the offer we want. Actually, they aren't interviews as much as a cool news story. we have a nice publicity stunt ready! I Sort of hope we get to do it because I'm ready to unleash this anger, but, then again, I'd really rather they just buy my car back and send me an apology letter. Hmmmm. No one has said sorry yet.

News from the BBB

Yesterday I picked up my car from the Nissan Dealership for the last time. I faxed the repair order to the BBB and requested them to add a fourth repair order to the list. Today I received a letter from the BBB. Here it is:
Dear Ms. Silva,
We are working with Nissan to provide new figures for their offer for repurchase. The arbitrator did award you a non lemon law repurchase, however, it appears Nissan is willing to offer more than the awarded amount.
We have asked for a revised statement of amounts from Nissan and we will contact you as soon as this is received.
Nancy C. Loader | Senior Director, DR Programs, Policy and Service

I want to celebrate, but I know better than to do that. I can't help but think that all the letters have made a dent in Nissan's hardnosed exterior. Cross fingers!!!!