Complaint Review: Hockaday's Used Cars - Newport News Virginia

Hi John, I think that from the dealer you actually got a royal flush! Almost 200K miles on a car. You might want to consider that your adherence to maintenance helped get it that far. My car had 87K and I paid $7,000 for it (Firebird in CA) and I now have 146K miles on it (almost 5 years later). If it went out today I would feel sad, but after all those miles I couldn't possibly blame the dealer. Since then I have: Alternator: $85 Starter: $150 Driveshaft: $200 Replace Ignition wiring: $800 (ouch) Battery: $80 Tires: $500 Brakes: $150 Like yours, these are normal replacements over time. They hurt me financially because I am a single father and full time student... but they are the cost of cars which are complicated pieces of equipment. I always tell my kids that they will get the "bird" when they get their license... and then it will have about 200K miles on it. I also tell them how amazing that is 'cause when I was a kid it was considered a big thing for a car to still be strong at 100K. I am only 45 so I am not talking about that long ago. But, it is true. My advice? Buy a good car for about $800. I had one that I drove back and forth across country and used for a couple of years (total about 45K). It finally died and it was cheaper to buy another $800 car than to repair the old car. No monthly payments, no fear of big repair bills and got me where I needed to go. As far as the dealer's response to you... I can only guess that he too believed that you got a pretty good deal and there just wasn't anything that he would be able to do to please you.

Hello, I am writing in response to your problem. I, too, have had problems with this dealership. Being military, I have an inherent distrust for used car dealers, but I had heard good things about these people, and they weren't blacklisted by the Navy (we get a sheet of paper listing dealerships that are forbidden). Needless to say, I found out later that numerous people in the Navy had problems with this dealership, and they are NOW blacklisted. Well, to make a long story short, I went to buy a car from them, and financed it. My credit wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. The first thing that struck me as odd, was that they decided to give me the idiot woman treatment. I didn't appreciate that. But being from Maine, I figured it was a "southern male" thing. So I wrote it off. I bought my car, a 1998 Dodge Stratus, with 72,000 miles. I had the car for 2 weeks, before the engine blew. They refused to do anything about it. I got it fixed, and then a week later they repossessed the car, and I had been current on every payment. I ended up fighting it in court, and got my money back, and the dealership was reprimanded. You should consider yourself lucky. While you DID get screwed, at least you got a fairly decent car. Adive for anyone thinking of buying a car from Hockadays?? DON'T.

I would be hotfootin it down there to buy another used car off this lot. He must sell good vehicles, to get 65,000 miles out of a used car that had 117,00 when you bought it is an awesome deal. You should apoligize to the dealer. They were in the right to tell you to get off their lot when you came in with this outragious complaint.

You bought this car with 117,092 miles on it & then you state you put over 65,000 miles on it for a total of 182,092 miles. You have no reason to expect the dealership to WARRANTY anything. Cars dont come with a LIFETIME WARRANTY against everything as you seem to expect. Engines do go out with this many miles on them. Just because you did good maintenance on it doesnt mean the person who owned it before did. You need to just SHUT UP & accept the fact that your car has worn itself out. You are going to have to buy another one or spend some $$$ to get this one repaired. But the DEALERSHIP where you bought it has done NOTHING WRONG !!!! SO QUIT WHINING & GET ON WITH LIFE !!!!

OK, John, let me get this straight. You bought a used car with 117K miles on it, then in about 18 months you put on another 65K? I think you need to educate yourself that cars have a finite life. Your USED car is now approaching 200K miles. With what you state was paid for the car, and the distance you drove it, that would come to less than $.06 per mile if it's worth NOTHING now. If one of my cars (a new Saturn) goes 200K miles,the calculated cost in depreciation ONLY will amount to $.085 per mile. Your driving apparently amounts to around 43K miles per year. That's considerably more than average. You should be thrilled your $3700. car went the 65K miles you state. I find after your quote: "I complained about the problems with my car" and the dealer's response:"they told me to shut up, get my s*** together and leave, (and to not come back)" an appropriate response. This is a unique position I find myself taking: the "dealer's side". I have an inherent dislike and lack of trust in both new and used car dealers. The dealers screw over tens of thousands of people annually. I fail to see you, however, included in these numbers.