Buying American vs. Buying American

I bought a pickup last year; it was a brand new 2006 and I bought it well into 2007 so I got a great deal. It gets icy in the winter here, and we’re on dirt roads and hauling stuff for working on the house, so it seemed like a good idea. Only 2 problems: first, I bought it in Colorado, not my own state of New Mexico, and second, it’s a Dodge.  

It’s been in the shop since early December, we’ve had it back for a week or so sometime since then, and it has electrical woes that cannot be fixed. The dealership doesn’t really care, and from all appearances, neither does Dodge. I’ve heard all the outrage from friends and family. “But it’s still new! It’s under warranty!” True. But here we are. “Just make them give you a new one!” Great idea, fantastic. Only 2 problems: first, easier said than done, and second, no thanks – if you get a cup of chowder with a finger in it, you just send the chowder back and you’re probably over chowder for a while. I mean, if I get a call and they offer to somehow make things right, I’ll jump on anything they offer at this point, but I’ll have to wait until the monkeys stop flying out of my ass and until the flock of pigs flying by clears out to make the drive into town. 

“But what about the Lemon Law?” you ask. Well, this has been a time of learning and growth; part of what I’ve found is that new car buyers in America are basically powerless. Yes, there’s a thing called the “Lemon Law” in most states, and yes, the idea is that it protects you from uncaring manufacturers and incompetent local dealer service, but it’s not exactly like ordering a pizza. At the end of the day, it’s nearly impossible to make a dealer or a manufacturer do anything at all, ever. That’s not to say that some dealers or manufacturers will not go the extra mile from time to time, “do the right thing” as it were. But after 4 months of nothing, I’m not holding my breath in my own case. And anyway, Lemon Law goes through the state you bought the car in, not the state you live in, so if I lost a Colorado Lemon Law case, even on the most asinine technicality, I’d be responsible for the legal fees Dodge/Chrysler had incurred. I’d be stuck with a bill, potentially in the thousands, in addition to an unsellable, unsafe, unfixable vehicle with barely a year of use and not even 5,000 miles. Your best bet is to just not buy a lemon to begin with, easier said than done. 

I have no choice but to stick with the process until the car gets fixed. I can’t make them go any faster than they choose to go or to, well, to actually care in any way; they don’t, and I can’t make them. I cannot and I do not have to tell people not to purchase Dodge products or warn anyone about the dealership; they just see what we’re going through and draw their own inevitable conclusion. It didn’t have to be this way, but here we are.

On the other hand, I bought a hot tub a little over a year ago. A Softub, designed in America and built in America. After about a year of solid service, it started acting up last fall, and we’ve been back and forth with our dealership in Albuquerque. Yes, it’s been a little frustrating that it broke, and yes, it’s a little frustrating that each trip to the dealer involves a 70 mile drive each way. But the dealer has been amazing, constantly above and beyond, wouldn’t give up and wouldn’t let us give up. (And the timeline is artificially long; it’s dragged out because we’ve been very slow about making the trip down there and back.) On Friday, I got a call from him and he uttered those 3 little words I’ve been dying to hear from Dodge – “I found it.” Long story short, he finally tracked down the problem, which was rare and difficult to find as a result. He’s been helpful every step of the way, returns phone calls, and wouldn’t stop until he was confident that we’d been helped, and apologized repeatedly (and needlessly) about the inconvenience. Just the opposite of my Dodge experience. So I’m confident that the hot tub is fixed now, I’m still confident in the brand, and I still feel good about my purchase. I’d recommend the product and this particular dealership without hesitation.

Problems happen, and how a company helps you with them is even more important than the fact that something happened to begin with. A lot of people are down on American cars and I’m starting to understand how they end up that way, but it’s great to know that there are some versions of the “buy American” thing that still work out well, like with our hot tub. It’s been nice to have these 2 lessons side by side so I don’t ease into that pessimistic attitude of “Americans just don’t make things like they used to” or some variation on that theme. When we’re given even the tiniest chance, we make great products and provide great service and maintain great relationships; I just hope the Big 3 can see this for themselves and turn things around. They’ll have my emotional support and my good wishes, but for now, my monetary support will have to go elsewhere.

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