First, I called Sheehy Honda to see if they had any Honda S2000's in stock. They said they just got one in and it was a Certified 2003. I asked the bottom line price over the phone and they gave it to me. $20,990. I thought it was a decent deal for a Certified 2003 Honda S2000, so I drove an hour away to go look at it. I looked at it briefly and I told them I would be back that night when I got off work. The reason it needed to be purchased that day was because it was the last day of the month and they couldn't honor the price after that day. So, I went later that night and bought the car.
It was advertised to me as a 2003 and even the tag on the keys were labeled 2003...so why would I verify if it is actually a 2003? Well, I said the line "I'll take it," and it went down hill from there. After I said I will buy it, they said "Oh, you'll need to pay an additional $1000 to certify it." I was taken back because they said it was already certified at $20,990. So I relunctantly paid it because I just wanted to go home. I asked about maintenance and they said it just had it's 45,000 mile maintenance done. (later to find out it wasn't done).
Papers were signed at the new price of $21,990 (a higher price than quoted) and we made an agreement to have three scratches removed and the bottom of the front bumper painted. I took the car home.
The engine starts making a loud knocking sound when I took it home and the suspension was squeeking very bad. I took the car in on a Thursday to have my engine and suspension looked at and to drop it off for the paint work. I get it back and the engine is fine now. The suspension is still horrible and the manager says "I have a brand new S2000 and all the S2000 suspensions makes that noise." I took his word for it, which was a mistake because I rode in three other S2000's after and their suspensions were perfectly quiet. He just wanted to get rid of me.
The paintwork looked horrible! It was a different color for two of the scratches and the other scratch was covered by touch up paint that looked like it was painted on with a paintbrush. On top of that, my front bumper wasn't touched. I told them about the bumper and they said to bring it in again on another Thursday...which is extremely hard to me living an hour away attending school and work full time. I never had the front bumper painted. I found out the reason the engine was knocking so bad is because it never had its oil changed for the 45,000 mile service, as promised. The 45,000 mile maintenence is a major maintenence on this car and if they didn't change the oil, I'm pretty sure they didn't do anything else to it either for the 45,000 mile maintenence. When I picked the car up, the engine was fine then because they actually did change the oil that time.
So I went home after I get the car back (a day or so after I bought it) and I carfax it out of curiousity. I find out it is a 2002!!! I couldn't beleive it! Everything on it said it was a 2003, they told me it was a 2003, but I mistakenly signed for a 2002!!! There is about a $4000 different in the two years. And then I got the car into sunlight and it had a completely miscolored panel on it from a major accident!!! I just thought, "I got screwed with this car!" Now if you look at Carfax on the car, it says it was certified almost a month before I bought the car...so why did I have to pay to have it certified???
I drove the car for a year and hated it from day 1 not because of the constantly squeeking suspension, the miscolored panel, the brakes that sounded like metal on metal from day one, the different shade paint touch-ups, but the service and lies I went through when purchasing it.
I went back to Sheehy to go trade it in after puting about 13,000 miles and they offered me $12,000!!! I told them I bought it a year ago for $21990 and they said sorry...not worth that much. I was pissed. I realize that cars are horrible investments but loosing $10,000 in a year on a used car???
I will never again purchase a car from Sheehy!!!! I highly recommend you do not either. If this dealership can scam me that bad and treat me that horribly, they'll do it to you too. There are plenty of dealerships to buy cars from....DO NOT BUY FROM SHEEHY HONDA IN ALEXANDRIA, VA....or any Sheehy at that. They scam you like a Mom and Pops dealership desparate for money. HORRIBLE DEALERSHIP!!!
Mike
Fairfax, Virginia
U.S.A.
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