Complaint Review: Cactus Jack's Auto (Scott-Manager)

Cactus Jack's Auto knowingly sold me a lemon.

In April of 2007 I purchased a 1999 Pontiac Grand am from Cactus Jack's in Mesa. Within a couple of days, during the 15 day warranty, there were several problems. The transmission was slipping, the seat springs pierced through the seat and right through my son's leg and there were a lot of electrical problems. I took the car back, they exchanged it for a different one, a 2000 chevy malibu LS.

Within a couple of days I noticed the engine surging, and overheating. Almost as soon as I noticed these things the water pump blew. I called Scott the manager, and told him of the situation. He was very rude, swearing at me, and told me he's already bent over backwards exchanging cars for me, and as far as he's concerned the 15 day warranty was good only for the first car, not this one. That I gave up that warranty swapping cars. So I replaced the water pump myself (Im one of the few chicks that works on cars).

During the course of this past year, I've replaced the fuel injectors, thermostat, the fuel filter, all the hoses, the spark plugs, engine coolant temperature sensor, every circuit in the relay box, the oxygen sensors, cleaned out the gas tank, replaced the radiator and the coolant overflow tank trying to solve the mystery of the engine surging and overheating. Nothing worked, the car just wasn't running right.

Recently, last Saturday, the heat gauge read halfway which is normal, but the engine started smoking real bad. I could smell oil and antifreeze burning off the hot engine. I stopped the car, antifreeze and oil all pouring out from around the oil pan, the coolant resevior filled with oil, the dipstick grey with antireeze and oil mixture all over it. I tow the car home with my truck, take off the intake manifold, all the s**t in the way, examine the heads, the block, the freeze pluge etc. The head gaskets were almost new...The leak is not coming from there...Upon removing the heads, I see a pretty good sized crack in the block...FILLED WITH BLUE SILICON AND PARTICLES OF WHAT LOOKED LIKE STOP LEAK!!!! I have a real hard time believing the previous owner of this car, would have gone through all the trouble of filling in that crack with a bunch of junk, buying all new gaskets, and tear down that motor, then slap it back together only to go trade it in. I'm pretty positive, especially given the attitude Scott the manager has over there, that they did this themselves.

Another reason I believe Cactus Jack's did this to this car, is because when I called about the water pump, it was literally the 15th day from the time I purchased the pontiac, the first car.. Scott was all defensive, and paranoid and inferring that I was accusing them of purposefully sabatoging the engine.

I had to explain to Scott that I was not calling about the engine, I was calling about the water pump......That man only expected that car to last a couple weekes in that condition. I'm not sure why it didn't blow out sooner than it did. Though I think the amount of stop leak I found in there well exceeds the normal dose. I think that might be what held it together for the last year. It's just CAKED onto everything. This is why my resevior tank was clogged with it, the radiator had to be replaced, clogged up with it. This is ridiculous.

So now, I have a car that is worth less than what it would cost me in parts to buy and rebuild the whole d**n thing and I'm stuck oweing 5k still on the loan.

Cactus Jack's takes on cars that should NEVER be sold. They slap on the window dressing, take advantage of people like me, victims of ID theft who have no other choice than to go to a "buy here pay here" and pay 24.9% interest, just to have a way to get to work. Its disgusting! I think the entire state of Arizona deserves the truth about this dealership and the kind of twisted things they will do in order to make a sale.

Angrycarbuyer
Arizona City, Arizona
U.S.A.