Complaint Review: Brand 1 Autos

My husband and I purchased a 2000 Toyota Solara SLE from Brand 1 Autos in Tucker, Georgia on July 24, 2008. We live in Indiana and we originally found the car advertised on Yahoo Autos! as a good condition car and it was priced accordingly.

My husband talked with a salesman at Brand 1 autos and he stated that the car was in good conditon and that he didn't know of any problems with the car. We ran a carfax history on the vehicle and the title came back clear.

We then purchased the car by mailing a cashier's check for $6900 ($6500 for the car and a $400 dellivery fee). It was delivered to our residence in Indiana three or four days later.

My husband and I looked the car over that day and found that the whole front of the vehicle had been replaced and none of the body parts matched up right. There were big gaps between the doors and front bumpers, a big gap between the hood and grille, the hood didn't latch down right, and the lights were crooked and didn't fit together right.

There was a parking light and the license plate light burned out. It had four different brands of tires on it and the rims were in horrible shape.

The air conditioning didn't work and the interior of the car was covered in black filth. The wheels had locking lug nuts and we didn't get a key to be able to unlock them.

Under the hood, there are electrical parts (the anti-lock brake system, the cruise control system and two fuse boxes) without their covers and without their supports and they are just flopping around everywhere. The radiator and the battery supports are missing so these parts are also flopping around. There are no hood supports and no horn.

We won't even drive the car because we feel that it is unsafe.

We got in touch with the salesman who sold us the vehicle after we found all of these problems who then put us in touch with Rukhsana Najam, the licensing agent/manager for the business. She has given us nothing but the runaround for about 40 days now if she even decides to talk to us at all.

We received the title to the vehicle 29 days after we purchased it. The title looked very strange to me and after some research, I found out that the car had been severely damaged in an accident on 08/02/07. So severe that the insurance company totaled the car and bought it from the owner.

I also faxed copies of the title to the Director of Title for the state of Indiana and he did some research and found that the title was never stamped salvaged by the insurance company who totaled the vehicle.

The vehicle had also been through a salvage auction and was purchased by Brand 1 Autos. It was taken to the state of Georgia and put back together very sloppy. This car then should have been inspected by salvage inspectors in Georgia.

If the inspectors feel that the vehicle has been brought back up to standard then they wash the "salvage" off of the title and then "rebuilt" is put on the title. This car was never stamped salvaged and never inspected after it was rebuilt from the wreck so if I register the title it won't come back as salvaged or rebuilt.

After we called Rukhsana Najam and told her what we had found out about the title, she agreed to give us $6500 back if we brought the car and the title back to Georgia but that they would have to inspect the car before they would give us the check.

She faxed us paperwork stating this five days ago and we have not been able to get ahold of her to turn down the offer. So this is where the matter stands right now.

Pamela xxx
Tell City, Indiana
U.S.A.

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