It's bad enough getting stuck on the side of the road, but wouldn't it give you real rage to find out that your car manufacturer knew about potential faulty parts, but wouldn't pay for the costs unless you threw a red-faced screaming fit?

Happens all the time. According to this column by the Baltimore Sun's Eileen Ambrose, when car manufacturers find out that there is a part of the car that is likely to break down due to a problem that the manufacturer has discovered with its design/construction, the manufacturers will alert dealers but NOT consumers. What that means is that if you bring your car in to a dealer and it's not under the original warranty, the dealer will charge you to repair the known faulty part UNLESS you pitch a fit. The dealer will not tell you that this is a known problem and fix it for free if it appears that you are willing to pay for it. And they are instructed to do this by the manufacturers themselves.

The story uses a particular example of a known issue with Volvos, which upsets me as a I own one and used to think of Volvo as a safe, reliable car from a manufacturer that would not let you drive around with known defects. Perhaps I was wrong.

Some states are now cracking down on this manufacturer strategy and are requiring manufacturers to alert car owners at the same time they alert car dealers' repair shops. Maryland is the latest. If your state has no such law in place, it's up to you to figure out if the manufacturer is cheating you. To protect yourself, I'd suggest going ballistic every time a dealer tells you the cost of a car repair, just in case it's one of those things that the squeaky wheels get done for free.