Yikes Oly! Your experience sounds like a worst nightmare! I can only say that my calls would be focused on the Seattle dealer. My thought is that surely they can work an arrangement with your local / closer dealer. But, all you’re looking for is an answer to your question - is it a computer glitch or a problem?

Im having problems with Airlines AI. The booking sites are not as clear and precise as they seem to use to be. The airlines automatically placed the cash fees, after points to my airlines card. I was expecting a question " how do you want to pay for these fees?" And since they didnt ask that, I thought the ticket purchasing process was not finished, and it caused me a huge amount of unneeded stress. Boo. Sometimes the "virtual assistant' is easy and helpful, other times not so much. I end up desperately trying to speak to a human being.

Is all of this inhuman?

o j

I'm surprised to hear of having trouble getting through to a service advisor.

I think the two metro areas I spend my time in are each more populated than where you are. My wife and I have our cars serviced at dealers at each one at different times and we never have trouble getting through or getting appointments. When it's an automated answering system, usually repeating the word "agent" or "representative" works.

Maybe the fact that I'm in more populated areas, with more proximate dealerships for most makes, gives them more competition with one another and makes them more responsive to giving good customer service? With 40 miles separating the two in your area, that would mean less competition and perhaps less concern about customer service?

Anyway, warning lights and dashboard messages rarely trigger for no reason and rarely go away. It sounds like you have two choices - the closer dealer for a free tow but the need to rent a car, or the more distant one with a charge for the tow and a free loaner.

I personally would choose the closer one - the rental car may only be needed for one day. I also wouldn't continue to drive the car if the person you spoke to said it should be towed. That's also not said when it's not warranted.

Good luck.

Yes, of course, I am aware of my choices. I'll see if the error messages return or if it was just having a glitch moment. I wouldn't drive it far if the message is showing, but since it's not, I am willing to take the risk. I did make it past the virtual assistants and went directly to Vm with just the one call back telling me I could make an appt but couldn't have a loaner car until 3 weeks from now. That same dealer sells other brands and my old car was purchased there. When they ran out of loaners they rented me a car. I expected the same, but suspect that perhaps since I didn't buy the car from them that they are not willing to do that (tho they aren't going to say that). Anyway, I'll be back here bemoaning the fact that the lights came on again and I have to have it towed to Seattle, lol.

" but suspect that perhaps since I didn't buy the car from them that they are not willing to do that "

Maybe it's like that, maybe not. Service departments and sales departments are like silos these days, you'd think there were different companies.

An authorized dealer gets paid well for doing warranty work. Either they want the work or they don't.

(Maybe it's different at these stores but I've found that much better rental rates can often be had sometimes just down the street than from prices a dealer offers. They have a captive market and no need to charge competitive prices. Or, to go out of their way to have more loaners versus having fewer and getting more rental business. I bet they're not out of available rental cars)

I always rent from Costco.

That's a good choice. Even better pricing is available if you're a USAA member. I've found the pricing through USAA Perks is significantly lower than Costco.

No I’m not