Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Ethical People Do Exist

I have shared a little on here about our "new car" as Abigail calls it. It's used but new to us. We bought it a few weeks ago on a Saturday. By Monday the check engine light was on and it smelled hot to me after I drove it. The temperature gauge was normal, however.

Andrew refilled the antifreeze during the week and that should have been our first clue!

By the end of the week, it was in bad shape. The car was shifting funny and making some weird engine noises as well. I took it to our local trusted mechanic on that Friday.

After diagnosing the car, it was concluded that the water pump was leaking (great) and that had caused the other problems. This was six days after our initial purchase of the van. I was bummed.

The mechanic ended up not charging us as much as he originally quoted (love that!). Andrew had the great idea to contact the previous owner to see if they had any knowledge of this issue and just to let them know about it and how fishy it seemed! We weren't expecting anything.

Well, long story short (ha, like I can ever tell a short story) - they appreciated our honesty because I told them the mechanics cut the cost for us and just honestly told them the cost for parts and labor, and they have paid us for 1/2 of the repair!

In today's world this is just inspiring. Someone is willing to take responsibility to help when technically and/or legally it wasn't their responsibility. We should have had the van checked before buying it (rookie mistake) but I'm so glad we bought it from upstanding and ethical people!

2 comments:

Amanda @ My Everyday said...

and just an FYI from one MPV owner to another, if the engine light comes back on and its some kind of code for a emissions valve, they all do it. we haven't fixed ours because its a couple hundred dollars and we heard they break all the time. Or so that's what I remember my husband saying. :) Glad all the repairs worked out well!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the tip! We'll definitely keep that in mind.