On July 11 my son (17 years old) purchased a 2000 VW Jetta GLS from Hopkins Automotive in Seaford, Delaware. I met the owner Tom Hopkins personally and he seemed like a quality guy. He said if I ever needed anything to let him know. Our problems began right away when my son couldn't get the alarm to disarm. This shuts the car down so it can't be driven. The first time it was towed was July 19th. The battery was completely dead after sitting for two days. Hopkins replaced the battery and we thought things we going to be ok. Well, since then they have towed it 4 more times. The car has left my son stranded a total of 5 times. Now, over this period of time I have called and asked for Tom Hopkins numerous times. He can never come to the phone and to this day has never called me back once. The Service Manager and the Sales Manager are the ones I have had to deal with. On one occasion they had the car for almost two weeks and another mechanic that had been on vacation came in and supposedly fixed some wires in the door. I was promised this was what it needed and we would have no more trouble. The car was fine for a week or so then it happened again. When the alarm won't disarm the car is fully disabled. Then the battery finally dies because it has been drained. The last time they had it (August 18 - August 29) they said they took it to Dover VW (where they have no actual record of it being there). My husband went in to speak with the Sales Manager on August 27 and he promised my husband that Tom Hopkins would call him back the next day between 10:30 and 11am. Yet again, no phone call the next day as promised. On August 29th the Sales Manager called my husband and asked for one more chance. He had told us on August 20th that the problem had been diagnosed and it was in the doorlock. Then on Friday (August 22) we were told nothing was wrong with it. The Service Manager told me the cars computer had been reset (@ Dover VW) and that should fix it. According to Dover Volkswagon (if the car was there) the computer was never reset. They had another car there the same time from Hopkins but it was a different year with a different VIN# and a different color. It left him again at school on Sept 8. We actually videotaped this incident for proof. Since then the battery has died and it has been sitting dead in our driveway for almost 2 weeks. This has been a very frustrating experience for my son and our family. He used his money he had saved and traded another car in to get this car. Now he doesn't even have a car to drive for his senior year. This is the car we were going to send him away to college in. This car is very unsafe for anyone. You never know when it will shut down. I really hated to have to put this complaint on an online forum but I don't know any other way to get Tom Hopkins attention. All I have wanted to do is to speak with him so we can get our money back. Understandably, the Sales Manager says he doesn't have the authority to give us our money back. We have to speak with Tom Hopkins. We just want to be able to buy our son a dependable car. I'm hoping for a reply this time.
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