Well, after 9 months of dealing with intermittent reverse problems, and two dealerships (neither one where I bought it) unable to replicate, I found the posts on this site about the clutch problems in some 2008 builds. 2 weeks before warranty was out, I went back to my local dealer for the clutch problems. They were not familiar with the issue, and they were unable to replicate any problems with my car. Nothing was fixed.
At this point I was very upset. Somewhere I got the advice to call smartusa, and I did. I called smartusa, and asked for assistance. They opened a case for me, documenting the trips to the dealer, and the lack of problem duplication. After 3 weeks of calling smartusa every 2nd or 3rd day, one of the representatives pointed me to speak with her manager. Last week, I spoke to him multiple times, each time with a little less cool than the time before. By this point in the ordeal, I found the posts here, knew the problem, but could not get the attention - and now my warranty had run out.
The last time I spoke to smartusa, the manager promised to get back to me by Friday. In the interim I spoke to the dealership where I purchased the car (relocation between then and now), explained the problem, and he told me to bring it in - they knew of the issue. He also told me there is a TIPS case on this problem, and any smart dealer can look it up. Smartusa has access to this database, and can also get this information. UNfortunately, I live too far away to go to this dealer, so I was stuck with my local and smartusa.
Finally my local dealership called me to schedule an appointment to review the car. I took it in yesterday. When I went in, I was armed with two videos of the car misbehaving. One from my cell phone, and one from my digital camera. Two videos of two occurrences. I provided the lead tech the videos, and he said he would research.
Today I picked up my car, complete with new clutch! Covered under warranty! I am thankful that smartusa did the right thing, but mad as can be it took this level of effort to get it resolved. To boot, I was put in an '09 cabrio loaner. Nice to tool around for a few days in a rag top. Glad to have my coupe back. On the way out of the shop tonight, my service adviser told me a second '08 came into the shop with the same problems. Low and behold they had their second clutch job in one week, after never seeing one before. Go figure!
Sorry about the length. I hope this helps someone that might be suffering this fate, to get the car fixed under warranty - as it should be.
J.
tmater
1 - LT N FLFY
2 - Forests ride
3 - Little Blue
4 - Big Red
Today
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