2-6-16, took off one day from new job to find a vehicle, had been searching for many weeks prior to selecting universal auto in houston. Test drove several of his vehicles, they had some issues. He is a cash only as is used car lot, prices are fair, considering his cars are high mileage all nearing 100k. I specifically asked him if it were your wife, sister, or mother which car would you put her in I drive 80 miles a day to job, in traffic. The Owner suggested the cooper mini turbo S, as well as another car, but it had issues when driven. I selected the mini cooper, I had seen smoke coming out of it, and mentioned this to his brother who works there his reply was all vehicles have white smoke. I drove it, it drove fine. I left to think about it and to come up with the rest of the money, 6995.00. I also told him I liked the car. I came back in 2 days for the car. As soon as I left, my parent was following me, and pulled up beside me stating, tail lights out, and smokes coming out of back. I pulled over called used car lot owner he said bring it back we'll fix it. Brought it right back and his brother took out a bulb from a box of bulbs, & it was working. Drove home 35 minutes away & no tail lights, white smoke billowing out of tail lights & check engine light comes on. I cant go to work the next day due to the error code, & no tail lights, couldnt afford to get a ticket, or burn up the engine, I was let go. I took car to 4 separate places, including a mini dealer. They all said its going to be very expensive to fix, dealer said give it back get your money back if white smokes coming out. I'd already spent all the money I had & borrowed to get the car, plus I owe this money back! I took car back 2 other times for tail light 2nd time I was crying when I arrived, meanwhile I was trying to get owner to do something about the smoke, & check engine light. I asked owner just give me my money back, owner said no, bring it back I will fix the smoke & tail light, as I mentioned to him, why!!,?? Your brothers already tried twice just to fix the taillight, even though I told him that my mechanic said it was burnt out, & needed to be re-wired, not spray carb fluid in it and scrape the burnt contacts! I don't feel right about bringing it back plus were talking about an engine issue! , His reply was "my brothers not a mechanic!!??" (So why did he ever touch it) after the 2nd time his brother was talking to me about my private parts, and he'd get anything, everything fixed if I'd just go out with him!! He even called me the day I left after buying the car on day one, I was with my parents they heard, the brother wanted to know why I didn't give him a hug for fixing tail light, and told me to call him to go out to dinner he'd fix everything on the car, that i didnt neeecto deal with his brother (the owner) I have witnesses to this as well. At this point I don't want to go back over there, this owner sold me a car, it was smoking, sold me a car with tail lights not working. I even took it to my mechanic but he doesn't work on BMW MINI, said he couldn't get the bulb out, it was a trailer bulb, and that it was all burned out and needed to be re-wired! Suggested I take it to someone he trusts that works on mini's, I went straight over there, was told get rid of it. I even took car to 3 other import places to get there opinion after checking car out and running diagnostic codes on what was wrong they all said 02 sensor, and valve guides, intake manifold needed to be replaced, told Universal this & emailed him the reports said he doesn't need it, those places are all about money, the estimate was for 2500.00 to fix it right. Owner of Universal said his mechanic would fix it, and he'd give me a loaner car, the very next day his loaner cars check engine light came on, so was still sitting still! Id asked owner of Universal who was fixing it, if they were qualified to work on mini cooper's, not every mechanic can work on these German cars, & where was this mechanic he was using, his name, address, he would only say it was behind his business, and gave me a first name only. I called next day to see how it was going, owner said it was the turbo, not bad but going bad, and was upset it was going to cost him 550.00, and hung up on me. (Remember I'd already gotten diagnostic reports on what was wrong) I picked the car up, when I called 5 days later, he said it would only take 2 day, though. At this point I'm having my parents call to check on car. When parents said, ok they said it's ready, my parents are going with me all these times by now. I drive it off the lot yet again & half way home, here we go, another different check engine indicator code comes on, this one more severe than the first, "engine malfunction, reduce speed, get serviced immediately, do not drive can burn up engine & catalytic convertor", the smoke was coming out even more from tail pipe, & of course no tail light still. I've contacted only one news station, I've heard nothing, I will reach out to all of them & keep at them, plus contact everyone I can think of, this is very wrong to do to any person, male or femake, young or old, money is too hard to come by and it shouldn't matter that you buy from a used car lot, that states as is no warranty, especially when they knew the car had problems otherwise why would they offer to fix it and it WAS smoking before I bought it and they knew it! I was able to track down all the warranty work on this car from day one and it had engine problems and tail light issues, from the original dealer! I need legal recourse very badly!!! I am stranded, no money, no job, no car to even find more work, it's now been a month later 3-10-16, this place defrauded me, & sexually harrassed me, I'm so very depressed, upset, and just don't know what else to do, I hope this site truly will get me in touch with lawyers who can help me and set it straight for others who buy from used car lots, who work very hard for their money, to not just be taken advantage of in many ways. You can't trust the reviews 100%, nor Carfax, its not 100% acurate at used or new car lots, only good hard leg work & research, which I found out the hard way, doing your own vin checks, tracking down previous owners, find out where car came from which dealer, go get all the services work done on car, don't be a victim, but a victor.

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6 Updates & Rebuttals

Everything is Corrected

#2Author of original report

Tue, March 29, 2016

Writing this report to state that Univeral Auto has made good these problems with this car.

They have rectified this situation to my COMPLETE satisfaction and considering this, I WOULD recommend & consider this establishment for future purchases, they have proven to be upstanding, by doing the right thing, everything has been rectified.

Please REMOVE this report IMMEDIATELY.

Thank you.

coast

Florida,
USA

Let’s talk about homework

#3Consumer Comment

Mon, March 28, 2016

There was a two-day lapse between the time you saw the smoking vehicle and the time you purchased it. If you had spent just a few seconds online and Googled ‘white exhaust smoke’ you would have quickly learned that this was a serious problem.

I’m sure your attorney informed you that you might be able to get around the as-is agreement if you can prove the seller committed fraud. Are you prepared to prove that was the case?

Robert

Irvine,
California,
USA

Now who is being judgemental..

#4Consumer Comment

Sun, March 27, 2016

Oh yea..that's it. I am a "man" so of course my opinion doesn't matter. Amazing how your judgemental attitude automatically assumes that I think all women are stupid, when in fact it is quite the opposite. I would(and have) said the same basic things regardless of if the person is a man,woman, or unknown. Just because someone on a PUBLIC web site posts something you don't like does not mean that it is rude or judgemental.

You say you were taught to always look for the good in people. Great noble thought, but there is a difference between looking for the good and having a "kick-me" sign on your back. It is not about trust but using your common sense. This was not a case of you seeing a spotless car on a car lot with cars in perfect running order that when you test drove it they were running like new. If you were walking down the street and someone gave you a hard-luck story and wanted to sell you some "leather jackets" for $50 would this "trust" them and help this person out? Well if the answer was yes, do a search on "Leather Jacket Scams" and see if you are still going to be as "trusting". Unfortunatly, for you it took close to $7,000 to learn this lesson.

You say that there are exceptions to a car being sold "as-is". Yes, there are. But it usually involves things such as if they attempted to hide something they knew was wrong. With you admitting you saw the smoke, the "they told me all cars do that" is probably not enough to help you. Because not only did they know it had problems...so did you.

So in the end, you know what if you have sense talked to an attorney and they have told you that you have a case. Go ahead and sue them and be sure to post the court information here. And again if they did harrass you like you stated go to law enforcement and file a police report.

No Comments Needed

#5Author of original report

Sat, March 26, 2016

To the person who responded to my complaint. I did not know ripoffreport was about being judgemental & negative, thanks but no thanks, I have enough on my plate, I wonder if the shoes were reversed how you would feel, but then again it's obvious, you wouldn't your a man, whom apparently thinks women are stupid. As far as I shouldn't place on internet, in case you didn't read ripoffreport is for such things as this..., for assistance, suggestions, & public awareness. It's obviously a man's point of view. I'm not an idiot, dense, shallow person.

I was raised to believe, trust, give, share, and try & see the good in people and not to judge, old school values, that are hard to find anymore. I believed what I was told about the white smoke, besides it was not that bad until 45 minutes later, driving it down the road. As far as, the as is warranty, you need to do your homework, it is not final, there are exceptions, ask a lawyer, as I have. Please do not comment, unless you have something good to say, that's how I was raised. "If you can't say something nice, say nothing at all." I don't like that it has come to this, at all, nor did I want it to come to this.

Robert

Irvine,
California,
USA

What did you think "as-is" means?

#6Consumer Comment

Sat, March 26, 2016

You state you know they sell their cars "as-is", you admit that the car was already smoking BEFORE you bought it. You admit every car on their lot had "issues".

So the big question is why in the world did you still BUY the car? Did you think that all of the problems would be magically fixed? Perhaps you figured you could throw around terms such as "sexual harrassement" to get them to fix it for free. Now, this may not be your case but there are less than honest people out there who would do exactly that.

As for the news station not calling you back. Let's take a look at the story. "Breaking News...Person goes into a dealer and buys a car as-is that they knew had issues and is surprised that the dealer won't fix them...Film at 11".

In all seriousness though. There are dealers out there that will do what ever they can to "scam" you. But they didn't try and hide anything..after all you saw it smoking. Oh yea their "every car does it" reason seems perfectly logical to you, but let me ask you this...just how many cars going down the road do you see that happening to? You talk about doing all of this research, when in fact you didn't need to do research. You just needed to open your eyes and look at the car. If they did in fact "harrass" you, you should not be posting on the Internet you should be going down to your local police station and filing a report.

coast

Florida,
USA