Bill Heard Chevrolet in Kennesaw, Georgia on Barrett Parkway sold me a lemon.
I used some retirement funds to aid me in buying a car to be used in a new business venture. I went to Bill Heard Chevrolet in Kennesaw Georgia on March 22 and test drove a 1999 Cadillac DeVille that was fully loaded. That's where this nightmare began.
I first noticed something that looked like white smoke coming from the tail pipe shortly after starting the Cadillac for a test drive on a warm day. The Salesman said "that's steam". He said even new cars do that and it means that the engine is very good. I listened to that after the Salesman assured me that he used to know a lot about cars in his country.
We went on a test drive. I noticed a little hesitation once while accelerating during the test drive. I immediately told the Salesman who said that it was nothing, just probably bad gas. He said that bad gas will cause that type of problem. The car performed pretty good on the rest of the test drive. After the test drive, during a visual inspection, I found a few things wrong like a cracked, leaking coolant reservoir and a jammed glove box door. They gladly agreed to fix those things and have the car checked out by the service department.
So, I went to negotiate a deal. We talked back and forth with the General Manager of used car sales through my Salesman and written notes. I settled on a deal that was to be $5,000 cash, which included taxes and fees, and a $1,000 on a trade-in that I had. When I got to the Finance Department that is when the lies started to show. The bottom-line price is the price after all of the taxes and fees have been added. I read the initial contract and found that the bottom-line price was now over $7,000 because the General Manager sent a price of $6,500 to the Finance Department and added taxes and fees to it. The General Manager had of course left. After I protested angrily to a person who was introduced to me as the Sales Manager, he would only agree to $6,500 as a bottom-line price. He stated that the General Manager had not agreed to the price that I said ($6,000 bottom-line). Like an idiot, I eventually agreed to a bottom-line price of $6,500 because I needed another car badly. The new contract was typed up and I bought the Cadillac.
On March 26 after the car came out of service, I found that the engine oil was a quart low. The Salesman watched while I checked the oil and we spoke to the Sales Manager about it. On the way home the car hesitated a few times during acceleration. I remembered what the Salesman said about bad gas and did not worry too much about it.
It took three weeks to get my paperwork from Bill Heard for the tag and title. So the car sat parked until the paperwork was straight.
Once the paperwork was straight, I started driving the Cadillac. I filled the tank with fresh gas but the occasional hesitation continued. The steam still came out of the tail pipe. After three days of driving, the car got low on coolant. I fill it with coolant and took the car to a shop and got the coolant flushed and filled just in case the coolant problem was being caused by bad coolant or a dirty cooling system. Three days later the car got low on coolant again. This time it was almost a half gallon low. I filled it and took it to another shop to have it checked out. They did a chemical test of the coolant and the car failed. They did a pressure test on the cooling system and the car failed by leaking coolant from the head gasket.
I called Bill Heard in Kennesaw and talked to the General Manager of used cars. He agreed to give me another car and allow me credit for $6,500 after his mechanics checked the car. The mechanics of Bill Heard checked the car and agreed that it was the head gasket. The car sat at Bill Heard for over a month while they played games with me over finding me a replacement. Every time the Salesman found a replacement car for me to look at, I would go and talk with them about it. After I checked each replacement car, either Bill Heard's mechanics would say that the replacement car had expensive mechanical problems or management would say that the replacement car would not work because they had too much money in the car and I would have to pay a lot extra if I wanted it.
This straw broke the camels back. I had been on the phone with either my Salesman or management daily for over a month. Keep in mind that my business venture was on hold and I was loosing a lot of money because I needed my car for it. After over a month of going to Bill Heard at least twice per week, my Salesman found a car priced at $6,900. I drove it and liked it. The General Manager sent some new manager out to give me the good news. Meanwhile, the General Manager went home just like before. They were only going to give me $4,000 as a trade-in on the Cadillac DeVille. I would have to pay an additional $4,000 for the replacement car because they had invested over $8,000 in it. So, the price to me was $8,000 for the replacement car instead of the $6,900 that was clearly marked on the car's front windshield. That would, of course, make me pay $10,500 ($6,500 already paid plus an additional $4,000) for a car that was marked $6,900. It also means that instead of getting the $6,500 credit as agreed, I would only get a $4,000 credit. Shame on you Bill Heard in Kennesaw, that is known as bait and switch (lure your customers in with one lower price and then switch it to another higher price). Oh, by the way, the replacement car here was a 2002 Pontiac Grand AM which had a lower book value than the Cadillac. The alternative that they offered was for them to repair the Cadillac at my expense, as if I would trust their repairs at this point. They were trying to profit from my pain and desperation after all of the trouble and lies that they had put me through. Only low life scum would do something like this.
A few days later on May 24, I finally took the Cadillac (Cadillemon) back home. I found out through research and talking with yet another mechanic that steam coming from the tail pipe is a good indicator that the head gasket is cracked. I also found that hesitation during acceleration can also be a good indicator of a cracked head gasket. Compression is lost on one or more cylinders when a head gasket is cracked which can cause hesitation during acceleration. Remember the cracked coolant reservoir? It is probable that the car had overheated and cracked the head gasket before it was traded in to Bill Heard Chevrolet by someone else. So the head gasket was cracked on the Cadillac and showing signs of the problem before I bought it. Do you think that competent, experienced people at a dealership would find this during inspection?
Many of the other cars that they had shown me on their lot as a replacement had mechanical problems and parts missing, broken, or damaged. Buyers beware. Stay away for Bill Heard Chevrolet in Kennesaw Georgia. They tell lies and sell lemons.
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