Contaminated gas at Wawa leads to thousands of dollars in car damages in Bucks County
The sound of a smooth start is what 17-year-old Connor Lenahan is used to hearing from his Jeep, but last Friday it was a different story.
"I was coming home from my friend’s house probably around 10:30 p.m. and it wouldn’t start the first time. I was having some trouble starting, so, it took me a few attempts, and then I got it on. It was just very, very slow and wasn’t accelerating correctly," said Connor.
That was the last thing his mother Joan wanted to hear, especially coming from her son, who, with no fault of his own, is now on car number three.
"He calls and says, Mom, Dad, something is wrong, and we were all having a heart attack," said Joan.
Connor adds, "I was just worried that my parents were going to have to pay for another car because I thought I did something wrong".
The blame falls on Wawa on North Second Street Pike in Richboro, where on Thursday Connor purchased gas.
That diagnosis came from Millevoi Brothers Richboro Automotive Shop, which is one of the area repair shops that’s been receiving calls from people with similar issues.
"When we brought the car we found out the fuel was contaminated, and then we had to do extensive repairs to fix that vehicle," said Greg Millevoi, the owner of Millevoi Bros. Richboro Automotive Inc.
Which Millevoi says they are very busy pushing car after car into the shop with the same problem.
"These are all invoices from today. On top of all these invoices, most of these invoices have to do with the Wawa issue," said Millevoi as he shows FOX 29 a stack of invoices.
Wawa has taken blame for the problem by releasing the following statement:
"Wawa is aware of an issue with the fuel equipment on one tank at our Richboro PA store. Once aware of the issue, and the potential impact to fuel, we took immediate steps to correct it and we are working with our fuel equipment manufacturer to investigate and understand the issue including the timing of any potential impact. At this time, we believe that this was an isolated incident that may have affected a very limited number of customers. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused."
The Lenahans have already filled out a form with Wawa to try and get reimbursed.
Now, just like the others impacted, we are hopeful Wawa will follow through with covering the steep bill.
"Not only does he have $4,000 worth of damage to his car, but he was without it for two days. He’s gearing up to take it down and start college, so, that’s two laptops, that’s a lot of money for a young person. It’s extremely unfortunate," said Joan.
Wawa says they have a quality fuel guarantee, and if any customer’s vehicle has had a mechanical problem caused by its fuel, they are encouraged to visit its fuel guarantee page to submit a claim.