Complaint Review: Haldeman Ford & Subaru of Hamilton

Be careful if you decide you want to purchase a used car from Haldeman Ford Subaru in Hamilton, NJ.  I had worked with a salesman who my family has been dealing with for well over a decade and well over 200,000 spent with the same person, he always was a straight shooter and my family and I trusted him very much.

I purchased a 2001 Ford Lightning from them in 2006, I had no issues with it whatsoever.  After having it for a few months, I had it up on a lift installing an exhaust on it and noticed that the bottom of the drivers door was much thicker than the passenger door, upon further investigation I found it was filled with body filler.  It appeared as if this repair job was done by the previous owner and was never reported so the dealer had "no previous knowledge" of the accident. 

In 2009 I purchased a 2006 Ford F-150 Harley Davidson Edition from them, I was told by the same salesman that he knew the kid that previously owned the truck, that he drove it back and forth to work out of state, which explains why the truck was 3 years old and had 66k miles on it.  He also stated the kid left the bed cover open one day and backed it into a tree, this caused the bed cover to crack, he then brought the truck into Haldeman Ford and the bed cover was repaired by the techs there, the repair required the fiberglass cover to be filled in and repainted.  He said the cracks are still evident but fully sealed and don't hamper the functionality of it.  He then stated to me that the truck was in great shape and everything was fine with it, he also tried talking me out of the warranty that came with the truck, saying that it was in such great shape it didn't need it and he could shave a lot of money off the price to save me some cash. This past month I tried to sell the truck to another dealer and they refused to take it, when I asked why they stated that the truck had been in 2 major accidents requiring a tow and that the previous owner had it registered as a commercial vehicle.  One accident had the truck hitting another vehicle, running up the curb, hitting a fence, going through that fence, and hitting a tree causing damage to the front end.  The commercial registration had the truck registered in the state of NJ not a different state, both of these descriptions are a fry cry from the stories that the salesman told me.

I have emailed the dealer on several different occassions explaining the situation in a very friendly and non-confrontational tone, asking them to work with me for a fair resolution to both parties.  I have been ignored with every single request I have sent to them. 

I know someone is probably going to jump in and say, you should have asked to see the CarFax prior to purchase, hindsight is 20/20, and I agree with you, if I had asked to see the CarFax, I never would have bought the car and wouldn't be in this situation but I am writing this now as a warning to all potential customers of Haldeman Ford, the used cars there may not be what they seem and the sales people do not hesitate to hide the truth if it will impact their sales even with customers that are long time, repeat customers.