Complaint Review: City Cars Warehouse - Van Nuys California

City Cars Warehouse did contact me and stated the car was available. I went down to the dealer and was promptly told the car had been sold which was extremely disappointing. The dealer seemed like a nice guy and I looked around the lot for a bit seeing if there was something else I could purchase as a 3rd row of seats was my biggest priority.

Let me just preface this with a bit of a back story. My husband has been in the hospital with liver failure and they are still running tests to see what the cause is but the outcome is not looking good. This has cut our income in half so I am the only one working taking care of 3 children and my elderly Mom. This was not expected and we were not prepared. During this time, my car blew a transmission and I didn't have the money to repair it and the car wasn't worth it so I had to start from scratch.  I took the last of my money down to City Cars Warehouse to get a car just to be able to get my children to and from school and make sure I could continue to work to pay the bills. All I wanted was a safe car and I don't drive far at all and in no way, do I care about looks of the vehicle.

So, I looked at a Chrysler Pacifica 2005. It was scratched and had some body damage but the inside was ok and it seemed to run fine on the test drive but most important to me it had low miles which I figured would give me more time till I had to pump money into it for any repairs. I was assured every car on their lot was checked out for any mechanical issues prior to selling them.

I gave them the last of my savings and still had to finance the car but it was a very small loan and the payments would be doable for me even in this situation.

On my way home that evening the check engine light came on and it started driving funny. I had to take some paperwork down there the next morning so I asked to get the service information on what had been done to the car while it was on their lot as they said they check out all their cars. They wouldn't give it to me but they offered to check the code for the light and let me know what it is. The code came back as a gas hose issue and they offered to fix it. I returned the car the following day and they took it to the shop for me. A few days later the car was ready and I went to pick it up and it ran good.

Exactly 1 week later, after driving the car a total of 6 times mostly running to the grocery store and taking kids around town locally, I went to drive the kids to school and the car wouldn't come out of Park. It was jammed. I called them in tears saying I need the information on what was done to the car so I can try to take it to my shop here local and see what needs to be done. They said they would take care of it and asked me to have my insurance tow it to their shop over 25 miles away. Since the insurance they had me get to cover the car only goes 11 miles I had to pay the overage. Then the following day I receive a text from the repair shop saying I owe them the money for the repair. I called City Cars Warehouse and they stated since it was something different and not relating to the check engine light they would not pay for it, but asked the shop to give me a discount so I could afford it. Had I known they would not be paying for any further repairs I would have let the car sit in the driveway until I had the funds to fix it, and take it somewhere local. As it was the repairs were already done, without an estimate or my go ahead, so I had no other option but to pay.

I went to pick up the car from the repair shop where I was lectured on the replacement pieces being plastic and to not pull the brake release to hard or it might break. I paid the fee and drove it home. On the drive home the car would shake every time I touched the break and it smells like it’s burning up. I’m at an absolute loss and I have no more money for repairs and no car to safely get my kids to and from school. I’m heartbroken. I’ve had the car 3 weeks.