Northcutt Chevrolet

Northcutt Chevrolet, Enid Oklahoma - in April 2006 we purchased a used 2004 Dodge Stratus locally from Northcutt, have had ongoing issues with rear-end suspension that the dealership has never been able to resolve despite having the car in for work at least 5 times, several months after buying the car it appeared we had an issue with the starter that would have been covered by warranty, but after having vehicle towed to dealership found that it was actually a bad cell in the battery which was not covered so that had to be paid for to replaced - understandable although the issue seemed misleading, but main issue is damage out vehicle seemed to receive while in their care.

LAST time we took the car in for them to look at the rear suspension to figure out where the crunching/grinding noise is coming from, they had the car from Thursday to Tuesday of the following week and on that Tuesday morning they called to tell us there was nothing else they could do and "By the way, did you all hit a pot hole or something? Your wheel is damaged." Surprise to us, but we figured maybe they had seen something inside the wheel when they had the car up on the rack, so perhaps we just hadn't noticed anything previously.

Well, we went to pick up the car and after taking a look at the wheel, we realized the damage wasn't there before. It was highly noticable from the outside, the car in motion hit the wheel hard enough on something to put a stress crack at the base of one of the spokes and grind (apparently a concrete hit) into the wheel rim and hit the tire itself, you could still see the mark on the wheel itself from where it rubbed on whatever was hit and there were grains of concrete or sand in this area confirming that it was fresh from whatever was hit. Northcutt said, after going back to advise them of this and speaking to their service and general managers that they simply don't know what they could have hit and that their service mechanic just happened to notice a sound from the bearing and so reported the issue (which they didn't tell us from the first day they 'noticed' it - the day we dropped it off - until the day they called us to pick up the car).

Complete he said/she said situation, they are not going to claim responsibility for damage incurred while car was in their possession, said they will have to send it in to their insurance on a claim and that we would be contacted by them for their investigation - and of course we've heard nothing in the month since then, so we're looking into taking other action.

I'm not claiming the car was in perfect shape and I don't just want northcutt to pay for something so we don't have to, the car has other paint and body damage that we need to get taken care of and know is our responsibility, but we have had ongoing issues with this car since purchase and this is pretty much the final kick in the ribs. Going forward, we are not taking the Stratus back to where it was purchased for any service or repair, nor are we taking our Toyota truck to their Toyota division for any assistance. We feel as though we have been abused and disrespected in this ongoing situation, so buyer beware, keep records of all your dealings here and it wouldn't hurt to take before and after pictures of vehicles when going in for service to verify if damage to your vehicle was in fact there before being serviced.

Perhaps we somehow missed this highly noticable wheel damaged 4 days before taking the car in when I was washing it, or that morning when I was cleaning the car out and looking things over, but that seems unlikely as NO ONE recognizes it from before, the hit definitely would have been hard enough to make us look at the wheel, and it now makes a very noticable road noise once you hit about 39 miles an hour.

We take care of our own responsibilities, and just want the businesses we deal with to do the same. Our local Dodge location will be replacing our wheel for us as soon as we're ready to do so, not Northcutt.