They say the third time’s the charm, but that wasn’t the case for a Hyundai owner in Springfield, Illinois, whose car sat in the dealer’s garage for nearly two months because the dealer kept ordering the wrong replacement part — seven times in a row.

It all began innocently enough a couple months back when the owner of the 2007 Hyundai Entourage noticed the flashing air bag light on his dash. Being a responsible driver, he took it right to the dealer, which is where Franz Kafka apparently runs the parts department.

The owner was told it was a simple problem — a sensor needed to be replaced — and that the replacement part would be there the next day. Except, the next day… it’s the wrong part.

They promise again to sort it out right away and order the right replacement part. But guess what? It’s not the correct part.

This continued on five more times, during which time the owner was told he couldn’t take possession of his car because the broken sensor was a safety issue. So he’s tooling around town in a loaner while his car sits waiting for a tab A to put into its slot B.

The owner called Hyundai’s customer service line several times, and each time was promised someone would return his call. But that didn’t happen either.

It took the efforts of the Chicago Tribune’s “What’s Your Problem?” columnists to finally get someone at Hyundai on the phone who could actually help.

Miraculously, the Hyundai rep says the right part had just been located right before the Tribune reporter called and that the car would be fixed post-haste.

Surely in his best “taking it seriously” voice, the Hyundai rep said the following:

We are sorry about the extended delay in repairing Mr. Reynolds’ van… After some research, it was discovered there was a one-off part number error that led to the dealer not being able to receive the correct part.

In all, the dealership had the Hyundai for seven weeks. The 84-year-old owner, whose wife could barely get in and out of the loaner, had to cancel a trip to Ohio because of the ordeal.

What’s the longest you’ve ever been put out by a mistake or a delay at a garage?

Eighth time’s a charm on Hyundai repair [Chicago Tribune]

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