Many dealers have no loaners left. It's another fallout of the supply chain shortage – no loaner cars.
Amy Fredericks knows this all too well.
“It's eight weeks later, and I still don't have a vehicle."
Her 2017 Hyundai has been in the shop two months, waiting on a recall repair.
"The issue I'm having is that there are no loaner cars to give anybody, and I am supposed to do that on my own," she said.
The dealer said they would try to reimburse her, but, Fredericks said, "I've had prices that are $50 a day to $120 a day, which are adding up to over a thousand dollars at this point in time."
It used to be that when your car was in the shop for a repair, the service manager would walk you out front and hand you the keys to a shiny new loaner car.
But given what's happening in the new car market these days, those loaner cars are getting harder and harder to find.
“In general there is no statute I know of that say they have to give you a loaner car in a recall," Will Ourand said.
Ourand is an automobile litigation lawyer at Newsome Melton Law.
He said customers face two problems right now:
- One, shortages of replacement parts
- Two, dealers selling off loaner cars, due to the new car shortage.
He said dealers do not owe you a free loaner. So his advice: make sure they have repair parts before you leave your car there.
“Look around to see if there are other dealerships to see if they have the part available sometimes you can call the manufacturer and they can send you somewhere," he said.
After we contacted Hyundai, they found Amy a free loaner. She just wishes they would do that for everyone.
“This is a warranty issue that they need to be helping their customers with a little more than they are," she said.
So ask a lot of questions before you make that appointment, so you don't waste your money.