Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram of Winter Haven

On October 22nd, 2010 Tiffany Reeves, her two month old son Logan and her dog Bella left Jacksonville, FL heading home to Ft. Myers, FL to participate in a Breast Cancer awareness walk with her mother. Tiffany's husband Tyler is currently serving in Afghanistan and will be there for another year.

She left her home at 4:00 am in her 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser but only made it as far as Davenport when her car shut down at 6:00 am and left her stranded on the side of the highway. She got in touch with her husband through a Skype call to Afghanistan, Tyler tried to help her diagnose the problem on the phone when a State Patrol Officer showed up. The officer waited with her until the Road Ranger's shift began at 7:00am.

The Road Ranger quickly realized that she needed to be towed to a shop and after a few places refused to accept her she found her way to Dodge Chrysler Jeep of Winter Haven. One of our lead technicians, Mike Weigel soon diagnosed the problem as a broken timing belt and the lowest estimated repair costs would be $1,100, if it only required a new belt. But there was a high likelihood that the car would need a new engine at the cost of nearly $8,000.

Distraught, Tiffany didn't know what she was going to do. Through tears in her eyes she worked with sales representative Joe Gagnon to try to get her into a new vehicle and home to her family. After hours of trying to overcome various hurdles, by 6:00pm it was clear that we were not going to be able to get her into another vehicle.

The dealership closed at 6:00pm and Joe took Tiffany to get a bite to eat while sales manager Eric  Edwards watched Bella at the store. Eric and his wife Diana waited with Tiffany at the dealership until a friend of the family showed up at 9:30pm to pick her up.

Through the course of the day the entire dealership got to know Tiffany and nearly every employee was behind the effort to get back on the road.

The following Monday the entire story was relayed to Vice President/General Manager, Mike Mahalak. After hearing Tiffany's story mike instructed the service department to "do what it takes to get her reliable transportation", up to and including putting a new engine in her car. All at no charge to Tiffany.

 After tearing down the motor it soon became clear that the 2001 PT Cruiser's engine could not be revived. The next day a new motor arrived. The technician, Mike, replaced the motor, the mot mounts and installed a new engine control module and the PT roared back to life.

The following Saturday, Tiffany, Logan and her mother arrived at the dealership bearing pizza and arm loads of fresh baked goodies for all the employees that helped to get her back on the road and back into reliable transportation for her family.

The entire dealership came together to come to the aid of someone in need and I feel we are all better people for it. A huge thank you to Mike Mahalak for helping Tiffany and her family.