Consumer complaint received 2017-07-20
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Problem with additional products or services purchased with the loan
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (FL)

I purchased a XXXX XXXX a little over 2 years ago. I had a problem with the car about 5 months ago where the car lost power and was making a noise and it ended up going to the XXXX dealership to look into issue and the local dealership reported to corporate and it ended up being an issue with the motor that was a problem with a lot of the XXXX XXXX, but not yet a recall. XXXX corporate agreed to put new motor in it, but it was actually a refurbished motor. It had a 10,000 mile warranty on it. And after a few days I returned to the local XXXX dealership, XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX, FL to report that the rpm 's was dropping and going up & down, they checked it out and said it was nothing, that it was ok. I reported back to them several times over the next few weeks or so that it was still doing it and questioned some other things it was doing as well, they threw it off and kept saying it was nothing. My 10,000 mile warranty has now ended. I was traveling at about 45-50 mph last week, and my car completely stalled on me in the middle of the road, it would do absolutely nothing and would n't crank back up. I had received a notice in the mail about a recall on my car from Department of Savety Motor Vehicles that it would stall at a high rate of speed and could cause a serious accident to take it to the nearest dealership for the recall to be fixed. I also looked online and entered my VIN number and confirmed it was an open recall on the type of motor they just put in, my previous motor was a short block and this new one was a long block, so it was in fact a new recall on the new motor put in. I took it to the local XXXX dealership again to have them fix the recall, they checked it out and said nothing was wrong with it, said they have a special tool that XXXX designed to stick in the motor to see if motor is bad, also tells them if it will have future problems even if motor is good now. So they declined to fix the recall on my vehicle. Advised me to drive it until something happens, so I asked them, so you are saying you want me to drive this vehicle until something happens and risk getting into this serious accident, and I was basically told yes. I advised them that I will be contacting the Department of Safety Motor Vehicles who sent this notice out and I would be putting in other complaints as well, them they said why would I do that, and so on. I tried to go get another vehicle today and was approved but this car had too much left over to add onto new car loan, and the dealership did n't want to be bothered with it knowing what was going on with it, and said that it 's not my credit, it 's the car, I was approved to get a brand new car with {$0.00} down, but they said I need to get this car off my credit. So I ca n't do anything. I ca n't get the vehicle fixed and it has me where I ca n't get a new vehicle, this is too much going on with recalls with XXXX 's and now them not wanting to fix them. I just want another car, I have so much money stuck into this car, I 've never been late on a payment. I need for my finance company, Santander, to agree to remove this vehicle from credit, finance me another vehicle which they are the ones the dealership just tried to get new loan with, or something, I would like to get some of my money back, if possible, but I definitely need them to work something out, I ca n't drive a car that has a safety recall on it. I also need something filed against XXXX not wanting to fix recalls in their vehicles, especially when it 's a open recall.