Muller's Highland Park Chevrolet, Highland Park, Illinois WRECKED MY CAR!

After saving money my entire life to purchase my dream car, a Corvette, I finally was able to purchase one on July 31, 1999. It is a used 1991 convertible. I purchased this car with 37,000 miles on it at Muller's Highland Park Chevrolet. After driving the car for a few days, I noticed a slight oil smell coming from the engine. Since I wanted my first Vette to be in top shape, I thought I better have this investigated. As I did not know of a good Corvette mechanic, I decided my best bet would be to take it to the dealer I purchased it from since they said they have a Corvette trained mechanic on staff. I made an appointment for August 16, 1999, which was two weeks after I purchased the car. I dropped it off early that morning to be checked out. That afternoon I received a call from a service advisor telling me that they had found the source of my oil leak and also found a slight transmission leak. He quoted me a price for the repairs and told me it would take a few days to complete the job. I agreed to have the work performed. So far, so good.

After having my car for two and a half weeks, I finally am told it would be ready for me at the end of the day. I told the service advisor I'd be by after work to pick it up. Later that afternoon, I receive a call from the service advisor. He tells me that they ran into a problem. He says that when the mechanic got my engine put back together and started it, he heard "an awful noise" coming from the engine. I was told that perhaps something accidently got dropped into the engine compartment. I was in shock! The service advisor told me they would have to take it back apart to find the souce of the awful noise. The next day I receive a call from the service advisor telling me that a piece of metal was found in the engine and he didn't know how it got there but now I would need a valve job at a cost of $3000.00! I refused to pay for this because I felt that since they dropped the metal into my engine, it was their responsibilty to repair whatever they damaged. He refused to accept responsibilty even though the car was in his care for almost a month at this point!

This is quite a long story, but the long and the short of it is this. After getting a lawyer involved and trying to work things out with the owner of the dealership, Mr. Muller, it is now August 16,2000, over a year after I bought the car, and I still have not been able to drive it. I have found a good Corvette mechanic who is now in the process of rebuilding the damaged engine, but it is going to cost me over $5,000.00 that I shouldn't have to pay! So, I wanr all of you in the Chicagoland area, do NOT trust the care of your car to any dealership owned by a Muller, especially Mike Muller!