The Crittenden Automotive Library

"Serviced" at Viking Dodge? No, thank you.

Topics: Viking Dodge

"Serviced" at Viking Dodge? No, thank you.

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
June 15, 2009

On June 11th the Northwest Herald reported "(James) Samaras said Wednesday (June 10) that his Crystal Lake dealership remained opened for business as it winds down." Of course, that wasn't quite correct, since it was no longer a "dealership".

To me this sounded like a retraction by the paper of its previous day's Associated Press article and headline, "Viking Dodge closes door for good." Should the Northwest Herald now retract its retraction?

On Sunday a sign was displayed on the front door of Viking Dodge, now known as Viking Motors. I dropped by this morning to see if it looked like Viking Motors was really open for for business; i.e., were the service and parts departments open as usual and the sales department open to sell used cars? From the appearance of the interior and the lot, my guess is they are not.

While I was there to take this picture (click on the photo to enlarge it, then click on the Back button on your browser to come back here), a man in a minivan approached me and told me that he had bought the van there three weeks ago. He was promised $500 worth of window detailing and also told that he would save big bucks on his auto insurance premium because of the anti-theft package he bought.

He had called his insurance agent after making the deal and was told there would be no premium reduction. If you hear this from any other dealer, call your insurance agent right from the salesman's phone. Then walk out.

And his window detailing? He told me he figured he was out the $500 for that. But he bought his minivan for $12,000, so maybe his "good deal" was just $500 less than he thought it would be.

Oh, about the "servicing" part of the notice on the front door... Did you get "serviced" there? Some would say they did. What they were probably hoping was that they would get "served" there.