On March 28, I stopped by the Bell Mitsubishi dealership to test drive two cars. We took the first one, a Mitsubishi Galand, and Mr. Stuart Simpson said that gasoline must be put in the car first because it was empty. I drove to the gas station, put in some gas, went for a test drive, and returned it.
Then, we took a small SUV to test drive, which again had no gas. So he told me that we had to put gas again and this is where the problem began. At the time we left the parking lot, the traffic was accumulating.in order to put gas from the station affiliated with the dealership, we had to make a left turn and cross over the highway.
The parking lot of the dealership leads to a two-lane road that, at the end (which is 5-7 car-lengths down the road) you have to make a left or right turn. Even though the traffic was packed on the left lane, he insisted on me making a left turn because the gas tank was empty. As soon as I made the left, the police pulled me over and gave me a ticket for improper turning.
He said that the police do this every day. Then I understood why he insisted on having me drive the cars to the gas station. To make a long story short, he said he would come to the court case as a witness. I had numerous phone conversations with him where he promised he would come (my phone records can prove that).
The court date was on May 31. I called him on Tuesday, May 29th, and he promised me that he would come as a witness to explain the situation and that I should stop and pick him up at 6:30 pm. When I went to pick him up, he said that he had three deliveries to do and couldn't leave but that I should go ahead and he would come later.
Of course, he never showed up and when I went back to thank him for all the trouble he put me through, he took me to his supervisor's desk (Mr. James) and the supervisor told me that it was my fault I got the ticket and if I want to buy a car from them, they would pay the ticket for me. When I asked them why they trap people into this left-turn situation, where they want the customer to drive the car to get gas (where they know the police are watching behind a wooden fence to give people tickets all the time), they said that they don't like to have gasoline in the car because ethanol gasoline attracts moisture?
If you think that the situation I was trapped into, like probably many other people, is justifiable, please let me know. My feelings are that I was forced into a bad situation that the dealer knew about (he told me that the officer that gave me a ticket was their customer and was in their customer service a few days ago) and let me pay the price for it ($435) while he was sitting comfortably in the passenger's seat. I don't think it's a good business practice to make the customer drive to the gas station to put in gas. But of course, it's safer for their driving records.
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