Bad sway bar after less than 100 miles

Sharing my frustration, and wondering if this has happened to anybody else. I bought my v on Friday and drove it a lot over the weekend, so it has about 100 miles on it. It started knocking/rattling/creaking pretty badly with every bump on the way to work this morning, so I took it back to the dealer this afternoon. The dealership says it has a bad sway bar link causing the bar to pull to one side and rub/knock the frame. It sounds like before deciding it needed a new link the tech first pulled the bar back to center, drove it around the lot, and found it went right back to the side. That leaves me to believe the link at least wasn't obviously broken in half or disconnected or something. I'm a bit concerned that such a basic part could go bad after just 100 miles. Could hitting a pothole be enough to damage it? I haven't hit anything substantial, but I got the car with about 20 miles on it, and the roads around the dealer aren't the best. If somebody busted it up in the first 20 miles, that doesn't bode well for the future, given Indiana winter roads. If it came bad from the factory, do I need to worry it's not the only thing rigged to fail? They didn't have the link in stock, so I'm stuck driving a camry loaner for at least a day.

 

On a brand new car, though? Surely it would be less headache and better for the dealer to fix it properly if they knew anything before the sale. It is all under warranty from Toyota.

 

This is a real possibility, I'm sure. The part they ordered is coming from California, so I'm still in the loaner waiting for it to arrive. They told me Tuesday morning they hoped it would get here Friday. I've prepared myself for the possibility that they get it installed and realize it's not the fix (or, worse, send me home with it and I have to discover it for myself). In the meantime, I emailed the guy who sold me the car (who I was told to use as my go-to contact by the general manager, even for setting up service appts) and asked if they could change the reverse beeping to the single beep for me as a favor since they've got it all week. He's convinced you can do it through the touch screen, despite me sending him the page in the manual that lists it as a dealer-only configurable option, and wants to go through it with me to show me how. "If we can't do it together", then he'll make sure their people to get it done for me. I'm fully expecting it to turn into a fight with the service manager while I wait there wanting to leave with my car.

 

Have the car back, no noises on the drive from the dealer to work. The repair slip lists the sway bar as being replaced, so I'm not sure if they did the whole assembly or just the bar (instead of the end link, like I was told by the CS rep). Sample size of one, but it seems like I might be getting better gas mileage now. Best I hit on any trip between getting it last Friday and dropping it with them Tuesday was 49.9, and that's where I ended up pretty consistently for any trip longer than 5-10 min. On the trip from the dealer to work today, I hit over 54.

 

Also, sales guy was MIA when I was there - left to run an errand - so the reverse beep will have to wait until the last of the options come in and I take it back for installation of those.