I have bought a truck from them a couple years ago without an issued. So I figured I would go back there and give them my business. I looked at a beautiful 99 Daewoo Leganza CDX. The cash price was $4523 w/tax/lic and all those other fees. They took my old 93 Geo Storm as a trade in and I paid $3023 cash.
I was told by Mike Malek, the owner, that the car was previously owned by one of his friends and the car was in great shape. I took the car out for a drive and besides a little shaking in the right front dash it was a great car.
Fast-forward 1 week - I went back to Malek and dropped off the car so it could have the a/c fixed. When I picked up the car, I spoke to (Tim?) the lot attendant, he told me that he was the past owner of the car, which king of suprised me, but whatever.
Fast forward 2 more weeks - My car gets smacked by a young lady who ran a yield sign. The claim adjusted tells me that the front right side (which was where my car was hit) has been in an accident back in August because there was already an accident claim being persued when I went in to settle my claim. The entire right side had been repainted and the front right quarter panel was replaced.
Fast-Forward today - I get my claim settlement number faxed to me and the car had a "deduction for pre-loss condition" in the amount of $833.01. This means that if the car hadn't been damaged 1 month previous to me buying it, I would have gotten back 833 more dollars. Of course since the parts to this car arent easy to come by, my car was considered totalled.
I would not have bought the car if I knew of the damaged done to it 1 month previous. Malek doesnt offer "carfax" and I should have probably known better than to buy a car without researching it better, but the first truck sold to me was wonderful plus the staff there is kind and we know each other by name.
I spoke to Mr. Malek today and he told me that that is the risk you take in buying a used car. I told him that common courtesy and basic human nature would lead you to tell me that a second time customer should be told "small details" like that. He did tell me however to come by and he would give me the name of a good auto body shop and if I wanted to he would sell me another car, yeah right!
I did file a report with the BBB but no sure where that will go.
The funny thing is the company I work for is looking a 5-6 gently used vans for the fleet. I dont think I will go to Malek for that purchase. Funny how $833 worth of deceit will cost them no less than 22k in business.
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