Complaint Review: Whites Canyon Motors - Spearfish South Dakota

We spent $30000 on a truck that made it exactly 995 miles with 2 breakdowns in between. GM, Pete said too bad, no lemon laws in SD, solely your responsibility. They knew our circumstances of being disabled and having 2 young grandchildren with us and had to get back to Idaho. They said the truck was a trade in that the customer had no issues with, but then sent an email after we made it home of 3 issues the truck had. They are the worst dealer out there and then they badmouthed the other dealers whom we had to deal with when the truck broke down and accused them of being dishonest! Had we not been stranded with no internet or phone service I would have done my homework first and they would not have gotten our business!!

We talked calmly on the telephone after Kevin Rhoades, Owner/GM called us on Thursday, July 9, 2015. We spoke for almost an hour and he insinuated twice that he was planning on helping us. He told us he would call us on Friday which was the next morning. We have yet to hear from him. This shows a pattern of lies, not divulging info that was requested at the time and now trying to make this look like it was all our fault. He said that they "may" have offered to get us home and have the truck fixed and delivered to us. We had a travel trailer, how were we to get it home. They knew that we were pulling a 26’ travel trailer as that is why we had to get a different vehicle as the one we were pulling it with wouldn't pull it. It wasn't until we got home that he told us about three previous issues with the truck and decided to email part of the carfax report, which was requested while I was there. Whom ever wrote this response is lying. There was never any proposed resolution by any of the people we talked to at Whites Canyon Motors. Anything that was said in my comments or my wife's were true and we didn't "threaten" them with attorneys as they told the BBB, we said we will talk to an attorney before we send them the title to the vehicle that we traded in. I am sure it was repaired and is for sale or sold for close to what we paid for this vehicle and I am sure the repairs probably weren't that much. The person who picked the truck up drove it onto the tow truck so it was in running condition. We just needed a bigger truck to pull our travel trailer and our Dodge Ram 1500 wasn't big enough.

We were told by a service dept. mngr., another service dealer as well as a salesman that this vehicle was not a good vehicle and they wouldn't trust it to get us home. My wife asked the service mngr. if it was his vehicle would he trust it to get his family home. He told us that he would not as it already had issues with just 995 miles put on it and because of it having no power in those instances it was not trustworthy, even if it was repaired. He said we may break down again and the motor completely shut down at any time and not have service to call anyone. It broke down twice in 9 days, 995 miles. While driving it the wrench light came on twice as well as the engine light. It briefly lost power both times and I had no control over the vehicle in those instances, then it would only go as high as 40 mph on the highway. My two young grandchildren were scared when it happened as well as my wife and I. If these issues happened twice, then it could very well happen again. We still had mountains and passes to go through to get home and I nor my wife felt comfortable about taking this vehicle any further and risking our family's lives. If we had lost control of the vehicle and had been going down a pass, we could have very well have been killed. Through doing research on the 6.0, I have found numerous incidents that this was an issue with the 6.0 trucks (something that wasn't divulged to me, even after asking about history) and people were injured or said they would never drive the vehicle again as it kept happening even after repairs.

I tracked down the previous owners of the vehicle and was told by the wife that Whites Canyon Motors knew they were trading it in because of the motor issues. She also said that Whites Canyon Motors had done some previous work on it, including replacing a turbo, none of which the company told us about or included on the carfax report or in the email he sent us.

My wife and I sent emails to Mr. Rhoades that were congenial, we thanked him for talking with us and then find out he writes terrible comments and sends comments to BBB in retaliation and lies to them. He told BBB we traded in the vehicle because we were in a hurry to get home from vacation. Not true, we still had two weeks left of our vacation, but after having to trade in the vehicle we purchased from Whites Canyon Motors, we were left with no funds to finish our trip. We lost 5 days at least just because of the breakdown with that truck, so we lost a lot of time as well as money, stress, etc. I am partially disabled, wife is disabled and dr. told her not to be under any stress, now this is an issue that has taken a toll on her and her health, and the stress it put on our grandchildren, let alone our first vacation that turned into a nightmare because of a truck Whites Canyon Motors sold us.

Now after what we have been through, this company says if we bring the truck back in the condition it was in when purchased, knowing full well of all the issues with it, that they will cancel the deal like nothing happened. Interesting enough, I got an email from the dealer that we traded it into and he said he had talked to Kevin Rhoades yesterday morning and Kevin was well aware that the vehicle had been wholesaled. But trying to make himself look good to the BBB, he made the offer after talking with the dealer we traded in in to, knowing full well that it couldn't happen. The reason for the phone call in the first place was because Kevin emailed me and said he wouldn't release the title to that truck or give us back the correct amount $3180 that we were due for our warranty on the vehicle. I talked with Mike Mehlhaff, S.D Division of Motor Vehicles who is the Supervisor of Dealer Licenses and he said it was illegal for Whites Canyon Motors to withhold the title or the funds due us. He also confirmed the issues with the diesel 6.0, which Whites Canyon Motors should have told us about. The other company had already paid off the truck and were due the title. The title to the Dodge we traded in was also already sent to them. They are doing this in retaliation because of all the trouble they have caused us and we are making complaints about it. Something I have found out by pulling the VIN reports is that not everything is reported on that paperwork if a dealer/service dept. has not divulged that info or if a private party does work on the vehicle as well as some private mechanics it will not show up on the reports, so I have learned that just because someone tells you something doesn't mean it is true if it is not reported. 

Our grandsons have PTSD and because of the issues with the truck, they ended up having more health issues. 

We made complaints and entered bad reviews on his website and now he blocked us and deleted most of the comments. He then had the odacity to say that he couldn't please everyone and we were the problem. His salesman lied about most everything asked of him. They didn't offer to help us at all! He knew we didn't live in the area and it was just a quick, easy sell to him. 

We are adopting our 2 grandsons and things are really tight, especially with all the medical bills and now a high truck payment.

We cannot afford an attorney and haven't been able to pay any of our creditors because of paying a payment on a truck that is over two times what we would normally have paid for one.