- Report: #1533582
Complaint Review: Firehouse Vintage Vehicles - Statesville North Carolina
Reported By:
Daniel -
Chandler, Arizona, United States
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Confirmed
Why?
Firehouse Vintage Vehicles
2997 Wilkesboro Hwy Statesville, 28625 North Carolina, United States
Phone:
828 490-1880
Web:
firehousevintage.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(1)
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good?
Firehouse Vintage Vehicles racecityrestoration False and misleading description of vehicle sold on Ebay Statesville North Carolina
1992 Firebird was purchased from an Ebay listing showing racecityrestoration as the selling party. Arrangements were made to ship the car to my home in Arizona. Upon arrival the car was inspected and I found that the seller had not disclosed a significant number and severity of faults with the vehicle. The listing had said the car was "completely stock bumper to bumper. It also said that the speedometer, all instrumentation, power windows, locks, and cruise all worked as they should. What wasn't stated was that the A/C was inoperative (in fact, most of the a/c system was missing from the engine bay), the headlights were inoperative, the radio was inoperative, and the horns were inoperative. Discovered later was that the smog air injection system is also mostly missing as well as a non-factory exhaust system that will need some rework to clear suspension components.
I called the seller to seek compensation for the missing a/c system (I had already repaired most of the lesser items) and was given a run around until I told him I would report his poor business practice to and any all gov't regulatory agencies in North Carolina. Then I received (and rejected) a token settlement offer of $1k which represented just a small percentage of what repairs are necessary to get the vehicle up to the advertised factory stock configuration.
The car was purchased for $12k and approx. $6+k will be required to replace the a/c and remaining other inoperative items. Since the seller is a professional vintage vehicle restorer and reseller, I believe he intentionally hid the defective and missing equipment by not disclosing it in the Ebay listing or in either of the presale phone conversations we had. In fact, he later admitted that he knew the a/c was inoperative but tried to dismiss it by saying that since it was missing from the engine bay, the car did not come from the factory with the a/c option. However, the dashboard instrument panel clearly shows a/c controls, and portions of the factory installation are still in place under the hood. The original listing showed racecityrestoration as the seller, but subsequent paperwork shows Firehouse Vintage Vehicles as the actual seller. This seller is, in my opinion, quite unethical and should be avoided if you are looking for a vintage vehicle.
