"Lost" Van Found at Corwin Ford

Yesterday I was at Corwin Ford, waiting for some cosmetic damage to the bumper of our new van to be repaired.  As I've already described in earlier posts, the van that we ended up buying was not the one that we had special ordered six months ago.  A week ago Saturday we were told that particular van had been scrapped by Ford and that the VIN no longer existed.  Well, as suspected, that was total bullshit!  Our special order van is sitting on the lot at Corwin.  

Being a bit bored after sitting around waiting for a couple hours, I started glancing around the lot and happened to notice two white Transit Connect vans on the lot.  The first one that I walked up to was the one that we had special ordered!

I went and talked to the manager (Mario Wierzchowski) about what I had found, and it seems that they had already figured out that I had put two and two together.  They quickly stated that the van had been delivered this morning, which based upon where I found the van is a plausible explanation.  And the false explanation that I had been given last Saturday was attributed to information given to them by the area Ford rep, which I think was probably truthful.  

So, they were squirming a bit over the truth being laid bare.  I related the story about our rock chip incident yesterday, and the fact that I hadn't wanted the expensive Quickclear window defroster option ($495!) in the first place, and now there was some possibility that I'd be paying for it twice, since we have a $500 deductible on our insurance (only if it can't be repaired - repairs are fully covered by our insurance).

There were lots of calls made to sort out options, first of which being that they would replace the windshield for free while I was waiting for the work on the bumper to be finished.  As the minutes ticked away at researching that possibility it quickly became clear that wasn't a workable solution (not only did it need to be a Quickclear windshield, it also needed to have the integrated rain sensor - not something likely to be stocked locally).  So instead they are cutting me a check for $500 in case the windshield is not repairable, as a way of apologizing for our experience in purchasing our van.

So I think this likely will put an end to the bad van mojo - we ended up with some extra options that we like (particularly the oversize side view mirrors with integrated blind spot mirrors), we ended not paying for the expensive defroster (which is most appropriate for climates far colder than we have any interest in visiting), and we've finally been told the truth about things.  

With that chapter concluded, it was almost time to hit the road and start having fun...

But first we stopped back at Wrap World Ink, where Casey Clair very graciously re-installed the polka dot graphics on our rear doors, which had been installed too high, resulting in the rows of dots not aligning with those on the side.  While there, another vehicle owner was having some tinting installed.  Casey and his team installed the rear window tinting more than a half dozen times before succeeding in not having a small crease in one corner.   That's probably something that a lot of installers would simply hope that you didn't notice until after you had paid and there was little that you could do. Basically, Casey and his crew do top notch work and are great to deal with.

Casey Clair admiring his work.

So we're finally on the road and will be camping somewhere in NE Oregon for the night!