I think that business probably deserves the classification of "stealership" often used on this board. Glad to hear you seem to like the way your cars feels now, but sorry to hear they chiseled $98 bucks out of you.

I found an interesting link that explains the difference between recall and TSB, but I have never heard of a stealership asking a customer to pay to perform a TSB, and I don't beleive they can legally charge to perform a recall. I just had a recall performed by my local dealer on my old 2003 Ford F250 4x4 diesel, and I was not charged anything. If there was a recall on your SRS, that would have to be considered a safety recall and fall under the perview of mandatory recalls directed by by DOT/NHTSA, and of course Mitsubishi would be obligated to comply with the NHTSA mandates summarized below:

Each notification letter must contain the following information:

• describe the defect or noncompliance;
• the risk or hazard posed by the problem, including any warning of the problem;
• a brief description of the free remedy, including when the remedy will be available and how long the repair will take; and
• a description of what the owner can do if the owner is unable to have the problem corrected within a reasonable time and without charge.

Personally if I were you I would be angry about this, and I would dispute the charge with the stealership. I would print the data regarding safety recalls from NHTSA on the attached link, and provide it back to the stealership and politely request the payment be refunded. I would also plan to escalate this to Mitsubishi, and then NHTSA until I got satisfaction.

Frankly handling this with a letter to the stealership with CCs to Mitsubishi and Natl Highway Traffic Safety Administration might be the easiest way to handle this. Providing a written letter with these CCs might get their attention, and might also instill a sense of urgency for both the stealership and Mitsubishi to get you the satisfaction you deserve.

In your case if you don't get local resolution with the stealership, I would let it be known that you are alrasdy planning to escalate this injustice until you do get it resolved in a fair manner consistent with NHTSA mandates.

Review this link, and the link to NHTSA regarding safety recalls.

Good luck.

http://www.intellichoice.com/carBuying101/RecallsWhat

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...llproblems.cfm

 

Going in order is always a good thing. Mitsubishi may resolve it without need to contact the NHTSA but CC'ing both isn't a bad thing.

The other thing I'll add is it's so easy for someone to quote something out of a manual but tends to be harder to show it in writing. If the dealership says, "Oh it's supposed to do that," my counter would be, "show me that in writing." Don't trust word of mouth. If the dealership can't show you proof, then you escalate it.