Gmarl822
USA#2Author of original report
Tue, May 04, 2010
My husband and I recently purchased a used car from this dealership.
The first time we looked at the car we noticed a few things that were
not working right. The tires were extremely bald and there was a
strange noise when driving. Because the car was all-wheel drive my
husband (who knows quite a bit about cars) asked them to check the
wheel bearings among other things in the drive train to make sure they were in good working condition and
also to check the tires. The dealership promised to do these things and
then let us look at the car again and decide if we wanted to purchase
it.
After driving down the next weekend (a two hour drive for us) we
drove the car again. They had put new tires on it and assured us that
they checked the wheel bearings and everything else thoroughly and it
was all in good mechanical condition.
After driving the car my husband
still heard the noise, but it was not as loud. The dealer told us this
noise was due to the low profile tire that they replaced on the car. We
decided to purchase the car because thus far they had treated us well
and were willing to sell close to the price we asked for. The salesman
told us to call him if we had any problems arise in the next 30 days
and he would get them taken care of for us wherever we were.
After driving the car home
we took it in for a general check and service 2 days later because we
were getting ready to move across the country and wanted to make sure
all the fluid levels were good for a long drive. We were then told by
this independent mechanic that we desperately needed to replace a wheel
bearing and hub, and needed new strut mounts. The wheel bearing was in
horrible condition and it was going to cost between $500 and $600. The
strut mounts were not as bad and could wait to be fixed. After just
paying a pretty high price for a car that we were assured was in
excellent condition we were shocked!
My husband immediately called the
salesman and told him the situation. He promised to talk to his manager
the next day. I heard from the salesman the next day and he didn't seem
to believe us that the wheel bearing needed to be replaced. He said the
only way they would even consider paying for it to be fixed was if we
drove it the 2 hours back to their dealership and had their mechanic
look at the car again. While this doesn't seem like a huge deal to most
people this is where the problem lies for us.
My husband is in tech
school in the Air Force and right now is required to stay on base. He
gets free time in the evenings from about 6-8pm (not nearly enough time
to get to Pensacola and back in time for curfew). He is graduating this
week and we have to move to our next base right away. This dealer knew
all of this information, therefore he knew there would be no possible
way for us to drive the car back down there with enough time for them
to look at it, order the parts, and get it fixed.
The independent
mechanic who is going to fix the car could not believe that this
dealership would treat us like this. He is giving us the best price he
can, but we understand he is in business as well and can only do so
much to fix another person's mistake.
We have absolutely no choice
whether to get the car fixed or not because it is a safety hazard. We
can't afford to put this much money into a car that we told was in
great shape, but we are left with absolutely no other options. It's
funny because this dealer told us the first time we came in that they
don't try to screw people and don't try to hide things... well low and
behold we got screwed.
Please don't buy from this dealership. They will
tell you what they think you want to hear and will make promises that
they will not keep. It's a shame that they get to treat people like
this, especially people in uniform like my husband who make so many
sacrifices only to get jerked around by people trying to make a buck.
It really is sad.