Complaint Review: Cannon Auto Group

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I bought a very nice 2008 Hyundai Sonata Limited with 85,000 miles on 11/9/15, my birthday, from salesman Joe, who I couldn't be happier with. Cannon offers a free, 3 month, 3000 mile warranty on the major components. I turned down the offer for an extended warranty, which I have never purchased for a car in my 45 years of automobile ownership.

15 days later, my engine overheated and failed. 15 days! The third-party warranty company would not cover the damage, because the root cause was determined to be radiator hose-clamp issue. They would cover the damage if it was a radiator problem, even a radiator pin p***k, but not a hose-clamp issue. When a third-party warranty company walks away, which they make every effort to do, you find out what kind of people and what kind of dealership you are dealing with. Are they going to honor the 3 month, 3000 mile warranty or not? Did I say that this happened only 15 days after buying this car? While some of the "underlings" at Cannon were trying to help us and find a solution, the Cannon brothers decided to pull the plug on those efforts and totally wash their hands of the problem. "Tough luck, Don. You're on your own. Happy birthday, happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!"

Cannon's maintenance department inspected the car, found it to be safe and road-worthy, and sold it to me. I had the Lakeland Hyundai dealership perform a pre-buy inspection, which found no abnormalities - and I bought the car.

After the engine failure, Jenkins Hyundai in Leesburg, FL inspected the vehicle and told me they can't believe that two dealerships had given this car a clean bill of health, because there was clear evidence of dried, crystalized antifreeze at the hose-radiator connection points - and these were not hidden or hard to see. Jenkins Hyundai said this red flag was obvious and would have recommended replacing the radiator hoses and performing  a coolant flush of the system before purchasing it. If this had been done, none of the subsequent problems would have surfaced.

The best way to evaluate an auto dealership isn't after everything goes as hoped for and planned; it's when things go awry. Then what are they going to do? Well, I found out what kind of ownership they have at Cannon. My sense is that some of the support people at Cannon would lose sleep over situations like mine, but not the Cannon brothers...not for one single second.