Last April, my fiance and I purchased a 1994 Bonneville from Ugly Duckling in Bradenton, FL. We were told at the time of purchase that even thought the car may have run "ok" during the test drive, if there were any other issues that showed up... All we had to do was bring it back to them and they would take care of it. Mind you, Frank the saleman had also assured us that "all of their cars" go thru a "rigorous reconditioning factory and systems check."
Well, within days of driving the car off the lot, we had a bad alternator, a clogged radiator, and the car would stall intermitently and act as though it was not getting any gas. We told them right away, and said "their mechanic" would take care of it. Yes, they fixed the alternator twice within one month, and also flushed the radiator. (I guess the recon factory is not as rigorous as they had stated.) However, the car continued to stall unpredictably.in fact, we had the car "repaired" again and thought that it was fixed and would be the reliable car that we had thought it to be upon purchase... But it stalled again. This time while we were out of town.
We had to rent a car and have yet to be reimbursed by the Duck for that. Nor have they reimbursed us for the time we had to rent a car while they had the Bonneville in their shop for a week! All because they fail to fix the problem, nor offer any reasonable solutions. We had even taken it to our mechanic who said it would not code anything on the computer. However, it would continually stall and run as though it was not getting gas. Both their mechanic and ours stated they are puzzled by it. The car physically acts up, but won't code anything when hooked up to a diagnostic machine. It had seemed to be beyond anyone's repair. When I asked Hugh, the lot manager if there was a chance we could be put into a similar car since this one seems to be permanently defunct, he said we had not paid enough into it yet. We pay $170.00 every 2 weeks. That is $340 a month and we have been ON TIME for a year so far. And they refuse to offer any REAL solution to such reliable customers.
Well, about a month ago, my fiance had reached his limit of tolerance at the local level and chose to take it to the district level. But to no avail as the district manager never returned his calls. So, my fiance called the 1800theduck and dealt with the corporate level. The woman taking care of his complaint had seemed to be quite helpful. Though the local lot said they had replaced a certain part on the car 3 times, her records had showed that it was only replaced once. So, she had ordered them to replace the part for free. (well, not really free as we are still paying $35 every 2 weeks for the last repair they supposedly performed.) The car was in on 4/10/02 and on 4/14/02, the car died again, while returning from Orlando to Bradenton.
This car has stalled on me while executing a left turn, and I was almost broadsided by a truck because of the car's mechanical unreliablitity. I passed this along to Hugh, however he seemed to care little if at all.
To make things worse, we had recommended a friend of ours shortly after we bought our car since they "were so willing to work with us on the repairs" and had, in the early stages, seemed to practice good business ethics. She in turn had recommended her Aunt who had also purchased a car from the same lot. Now, our car, our friend's car AND her Aunt's car are all mechanically defunct and unreliable. Our friend had voluntarily returned her car to them after they refused to fix an oil leak and her motor blew in addition to 3 of her motor mounts being gone. Upon her returing the car to them, they continued to harrass her and even called her cousin an "Uncle Tom" when he answered the phone (they are an African American family)—she is pursuing a suit re: that issue already. Finally, as I was in line to make a payment one day, a lady came into the office of the lot and demanded to speak to Hugh, and turned in her keys to her car which they also refused to fix.
To me, it seems that the Duck likes to sell low quality cars, and pass them off as being relialbe. Then, when they break down (and trust me, they will in about a week after purchase)—they try to come accross as being so "consumer friendly" by "offering" to finance the cost of repairs with 30 to 50 percent down and then they break up the balance over 8 payments.
That is not doing us any favors. Selling us a reliable car at reasonable rates is what they should be doing. Selling us a car that is mechanically defunct from time of purchase, and then "helping" us by charging us more money for repairs is NOT my idea of customer service.
Something needs to be done about this company. And something should be done to help us, the mislead consumers who continue to fund this company's bad business practices thru our high monthly rates and repair bills for cars that were bought to be reliable in the first place. Please help us. This is white collar crime if you really look into it.
Juliana & Carlos
Bradenton, Florida
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