In January my husband bought a van from Joe Burcham Motors. He could not qualify for financing by himself, and so his 70 year old mother co-signed on the auto loan. He bought a 92' Ford Aerostar that Joe Burcham assured my husband was a good car even though it had 116,000 miles on it. We had to pay 800 down and the payoff was around 7,000. Joe Burcham sat behind his desk with diamond rings on virtually every finger and told my husband that after he paid on this car for a while it would better his credit and he could bring it back and get another. He patted him on the back and told him it would absolutely help his credit to make payments on time. Since this was the only vehicle we could qualify for, my husband trusted Joe Burcham and reluctantly purchased the vehicle. One month later, the car overheated and broke down. Apparently, the radiator was stopped up which caused the car to overheat. We purchased a new radiator for $125. Two months later, the car was overheating again and broke down. I was in the car with 3 children under age 6 on the side of the road. This time the thermostat had locked up. While repairing the thermostat we realized the thermostat housing was broken which was still allowing water to leak. The cost for these repairs was around $100. About a month later, the van started to overheat once again. This time the water pump was leaking. This time repairs were $50. Another couple of months and the van started overheating again, but this time it was losing power as well. We finally had the car towed back to Joe Burcham. His mechanic informed us that it was a blown head gasket. That would be about $1200 to fix. We don't have that kind of money so we asked if Burcham's garage could do the repairs and add the expenses to the payments. They wanted us to pay 1/2 down and add $200 a month to the already $240 payment. We then asked if we could trade this van for another and they refused. (I know why) We had the van towed home where my husband "bandaided" the problem for us to drive. All summer we drove without the air conditioner with 3 small children. We were assured that the air worked as I was pregnant when we bought the car and didn't want to be burning up in the vehicle all summer, or have the children burning up in the back where there are no windows. That was just another lie. The air never worked. A couple of weeks after the head gasket incident, I was driving on the interstate again with 4 children this time and the timing chain stretched. The cost to fix this was around $100. We fixed that and the car still wouldn't start. We had it towed to the mechanic who told us the valves are bent and it will cost $1500 to fix only the top part. I called Joe Burcham and asked them what would happen if we just had them come get the car. I was informed by Josh that it would reflect badly on our credit, and they would sue us. We have a very young family and one disabled child. Every payment has been made on the vehicle. We have tried repeatedly to work out some sort of arrangements on the vehicle, but Burcham Motors refuses anything. We have no intention of putting any more money into this vehicle. Anyone else would have been out thousands more dollars for all these repairs. We were lucky because my husband done most of it himself, and we only paid for parts. Our entire family cannot fit into one car and so we have to have a van. We have had this vehicle for 14 months total, and it has run for about 3 months in all, and that is not 3 in a row. To make things even worse, Joe Burcham lied to my husband. They do not even report to the credit bureau. I called to confront them about this, and Josh told me they only report if you default!!! All this time, we thought at the very least we were bettering our credit for another vehicle, and all we've done is waste money. Joe Burcham should stop buying diamond rings, and start putting more money into making sure he isn't selling lemons, and isn't telling lies to innocent families.
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