I purchased this van from Brad at American Auto Sales with the understanding that I was buying it from the local credit union, they were just selling it for them. Come to find out, that was just red tape and paperwork.
Brad told me that the van was thoroughly inspected, they put a new serpentine belt on it and spark plugs. He stressed the van ran like a dream and I was getting a good deal. He then kept pushing the optional warranty on it, saying it covered bumper to bumper for one year. There was some problems before I bought it, he said he would take it to the shop and they would fix it and I said if they fix it, I would buy. Littel did I know that this van had problems that could have easily been noticed and fixed had they actually inspected it properly.
From day one, I have had nothing but problems with the van. It ran like crap and made unusual noises. I had it in their shop 4 times within the first week that I owned it. Since then it has broken down on me within the first month of ownership. They said they replaced things on it, and they would work for a few days then I would have problems with them again. They had all 4 of my wheels off to fix and replace the brakes and just within a few days, I was travelling out of town and my front left wheel nearly came off. The mechanic that I took it to out of town said the lugnuts on that wheel were not tightened and misthreaded. My wheel could have fallen off as I was driving down the road causing a serious accident!!! Then Brad insulted me by saying that it could NOT have been his shop, that someone was messing with my van wheels. I am new to this area, I don't know anyone to have any enemies!
I immediately called the company each time I had a problem, they never took responsibility, even though they did reimburse me for the cost of replacing my studs on that wheel from when I was out of town. They constantly pushed the blame off on to the credit union, saying I bought the vehicle from them. I contacted the CU and they said I bought the van from the dealer not them, and refused to help me. Paper work scam right there!
My serpentine belt broke, which they supposedly just put a brand new one on, and I took it to another mechanic because I was stuck out of town again. He replaced the belt and was looking into fixing the other problems, and seeing what was covered under warranty. Only the very minor things were covered under warranty and I would have ended up spending $1500 extra to fix what this shop should have fixed before I bought it or at least told me about prior to purchasing the vehicle. I would have not bought it!
Eventually, I was told by Brad that he felt really bad about what is happening to me, he would be upset also, but his hands were tied and referred me to speak with the company owner, Mike. I did so and the owner told me, "Bring it into the shop and we will see what we can do, but at some point we have to cut the strings." My take on that is if his repair shop did their job, not rigged everything, bypassed work and fixed things correctly the first time, none of this would be happening!!!
So I took it into the shop AGAIN for like the 10th time. The shop manager said they fixed everything and replaced certain parts. Everything finally appeared to be working great and I thought that this problem had been resolved. I was very happy that they made good on their word and fixed my van like it should have been the first time.
Well, just 3 weeks later, some of the problems still exist, the blend door keeps sticking and making a horrible noise when I turn off my heat fan, the serpentine belt is still making a flapping noise and running very roughly. I went back and was told that the certain replaced parts were only fixed, not replaced. They said I had new brakes on the rear and not the front (not what they told me originally) and that they would talk with the owner and contact me back. I have heard NOTHING from them.
Now I have some sort of electrical problem because my dash gages will shut completely off, my ABS and Service Engine Light comes on and my brakes are squeaking and grinding again after they supposedly replaced the pads. I have only owned the van for 2 1/2 months!
I am taking it to another shop to have these issues fixed, and I am pretty sure that this awesome bumper-to-bumper warranty would not cover these, but we will see.
Never buy a vehicle from American Auto Sales, if you do, NEVER have their repair shop people touch it if you can help it. Both Brad and Mike said they would never intentionally do anything to risk their good reputation and take care of me. Yet they do not want to take responsibility for how poorly their repair shop works on their vehicles. I trusted them and was totally wrong to trust an auto dealer! It is always "pass the blame onto someone else". I have heard nothing but bad things about them since I bought this van, how they scam and rip off people with these complicated deals that they do. I wish people would have told me about this before I went to them. I am new in town and asked around, so it is not like I went in their blindly. Yet, apparently they seen me coming, so to speak. I am a single, hard working mother who takes the value of a dollar far and after paying $5000 for this junk van, I definitely feel like I have been ripped off! I don't want a free-rdie, I just want the van that I bought to work when I first bought it and not have problems from day one since then. I know it was a used vehicle and things go bad after a vehicle gets older, but these are ALL problems from the very beginning that should have been either fixed before it went on the lot, or let the buyer know about prior to buying it!
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