Paul McCarthy

STEVENSON AUTOMOTIVE GROUP
2325 NORTH MARINE BLVD
JACKSONVILLE NC 28546
[protected]

I have spoken with the Smith's on a number of occasions in an attempt to resolve this situation. I have spoken with all of the Stevenson employees involved with this matter and I have made the following findings:

Mr. Smith came to the Toyota Service Department with a complaint that his vehicle was losing coolant. He told us that he suspected that a bad head gasket was the problem. We performed a free diagnostic courtesy inspection. In addition we diagnosed that the head gasket did need to be replaced and received authorization to perform that repair.

We commenced the repair and did diagnose in the course of the repair that a new timing belt would be in order. The call to Mr. Smith regarding the cost of the timing belt was made due to a lack of understanding of the repair on the part of our service writer and I take full responsibility for that. I expressed this to Mr. Smith in our conversations.

In the course of the repair we became aware that the head gasket, while a contributing factor was not the sole cause of the coolant leak. Another factor was the fact that the lower part of the engine block had "pitted". This was incorrectly relayed to Mr. Smith as a crack in the block, but semantics aside the fact was quite simply that there was a problem with this part of the engine. Mr. Smith had done some research on his own in this area and shared with me that he was aware that this problem was not uncommon in this particular engine.

As a result of this additional problem we felt unable to warranty the repair if the work was to be solely restricted to the head gasket repair. Our standard warranty on any repair is 12 month 12000 miles but this warranty can only apply if all recommended work is performed. As the Smith's declined our recommendation for additional work because of the damage to the engine I feel it unrealistic for them to expect us to warranty a part of the vehicle we have advised them is defective.

As a gesture of good will, in the course of my conversation with Mr. Smith I did inform him that Stevenson would be willing to warranty the repair for 30 days.

I returned a call to Mr. Smith who had asked to speak with the owner. As we are a reasonably large corporation Mr. Stevenson employs people to attend to various areas of the business and is unable to attend to all of these areas in person. As the Onslow county manager for Stevenson Automotive Group a serious customer concern such as the Smith's would be a matter that I would attend to. Mrs. Smith on our initial call did not express any desire to speak with me but simply told me that Mr. Smith would return home in 30 minutes.

An area of great concern for me is the suggestion that we treated the Smith's in a different manner because of Mrs. Smith's ethnicity. As an individual who is also a member of a "protected class" I find the suggestion that I would treat anyone differently because of their ethnicity to be very offensive.

With regards to the alleged comment made Mr. Koballa I can find no evidence of this and the limited and spurious nature of Mrs. Smith's recall of what was supposedly said do not give much credence to this allegation. In fact the only person that I have heard use the "N..." word in the course of all of these events was in fact Mrs. Smith. She left me a voice mail in which that word was used along with other threats. I have saved a copy of the voice mail should we need to review it. Despite the offensive nature of Mrs. Smith's message I did return her call and left a message to call me at her convenience. There has been no response.

If I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me,

Yours Sincerely

Paul McCarthy
Stevenson Automotive Group