Certified?

We'd driven a handful of these vehicles both new and used over the last couple weeks. The only difference with this one was that it had 80k miles on it.

Ok. Whatever. It's certified right?

We jump in with the salesman and head down the road with me driving. First road he takes us down is a grooved concrete road.

"Uh. You got a better road? I can't hear anything over the road noise."

The salesman says, "Sure. Take a right here."

That's better.

Wait? Huh? What's that noise?

"You guys hear that?"

Jen and the salesman both reply, "Hear what?"

"There's some noise coming from the right front of the car."

The salesman says, "it's probably a wheel lock in the glove box."

"No. This doesn't sound like a wheel lock and doesn't sound like it's in the glove box. The noise I hear is kind of hollow sounding - sort of like when your lugnuts are loose."

Jen and I switch, so now she's driving and I'm sitting in the passenger seat. When she hits shallow bumps like little potholes or pavement ripples, not only can I hear the sound, but now I feel it in the floor board.

"Dude! Something's not right with this car. If my own car was doing this, I'd take it to the shop."

Jen and the salesman still don't acknowledge hearing any sound. We take it back to the dealership and roll it right into the garage. The salesman grabs a mechanic, tells him I heard something weird then asks me to describe it. The mechanic jumps in and takes it for a spin.

In typical car dealership fashion, we're whisked away to some other part of the building to discuss what it is we're really looking for and how much we want to spend.

I ask him if he's got anymore of that model. He says yes. There's a silver one with 19k miles on it.

"Too new. What else you got?"

He says he has a green one with 50 something thousand miles on it, but isn't sure where it is.

I tell him to find it.

At this point I'm more interested in whether I'm right about the noise in the first one. I figure if we drive the 50k one and it makes the same noise, then it's just something they do and maybe I over-reacted. Meanwhile I notice the 80K one is back on the lot and sitting out front. Hmmmm.

The salesman finds the green one and we take it out. I don't even bother driving. I'm more interested in this noise. I strain and strain to detect it, but it's not there. About the same time, Jen says, "This one doesn't make a noise. I didn't really hear it in the first one, but I do hear that this one is quieter."

The salesmen agrees.

In the course of our discussions later that evening, he finds out that indeed there was something wrong. The idler arm was screwed up and possibly stripped.

Idler arm? Certified?

Whatever.

- b