I purchased a used 1997 528i BMW from Euro Car Care with 103,400 miles at a sale price of $9,800. The dealer uses the NADA Value system and incluldes the link on his website.in order for this car to sell at a maximum of $7600.00 it would need to be what they call a "clean car" or in "excellent" condition. With that said, it would have to have no mechanical defects, have minimal soiling and wear and all equiptment in complete working order. As a rule, only 2% of cars fall into this category. I paid the asking price as Euro Car Care had been my mechanic for 14 years. I figured if I paid their asking price they would take good care of my car knowing that they got the best deal they could and then some. I also "assumed" that if I continued to use them as a mechanic on a car I purchased from them that perhaps they might more likely be honest as they would have to repair it should something go wrong. This was a huge mistake on my part.
I was told by Mark, the owner of Euro Car Care that the car I was purchasing was in excellent mechanical condition. I was further told that a full inspection of the car was done and that they put $800 into the car. This cost mainly reflected repairing the sun roof with new rails. Euro Car Care also told me I would have no maintenance on the car other than to put new tires on it in 6 or so months after the purchase. Other than the sunroof, the owner did not offer what repairs he had completed. He made another claim that the you can tell the car is in such good condition because if I looked at the carpet under the foot pedals I could tell it was driven maily highway miles. There wasn't any constant stopping.
Here is where my long story begins. I left Euro Car Care on March 18, because they told me I needed unnecessary repairs to the BMW. I brought the car in for an oil change. I asked them to check a water line to the windshield wipers as only one side was putting out a stream of water. I was told the windshield washer pump was bad and would cost $70, they also said my motor on the car seat needed to be replaced as it wasn't working, that would cost $250.00. My seat was working fine when I brought it in and I had a suspicion that the line was only clogged on the windshield washer as one side was working. I even asked them to check if it's clogged. I declined to schedule a repair, went home and looked at the seat myself. I took off the cover and found it was unplugged. I also had a new mechanic look at the water line to the windshield wipers and it was only clogged, a new washer pump was not needed. Euro Car Care kept my windshield washer pump so i had to purchase a new one for $40.00.
The below are the issues the new mechanic found on the car. At this point I had only placed about 10,711 miles on the car dating 6/27 with 103,400 miles to 114,111 on March 18. I have only had the car 8 months and these issues are major issues, not normal wear and tear other than the brakes but Euro said the brakes were fine when I purchased the car.
1. Fan Shroud was cracked - replaced hoses, very worn, very obvious
2. Replaced front suspension (major signs of wear)
3. Replaced Oil pan as it had a gasket leak
4. Replaced main tensioner
5. Replaced brakes all around
6. Replaced radio, added new antenna's - stereo still not working major
wiring issue.
7. At 122,000 the car needs a new transmission
Here is a little insight to everything that has happened in the first weeks owning the car. Immediately after purchasing the car on June 27, on the drive home, the radio system went out, it would work for 5 minutes then nothing. I brought this to the attention of Peter on a routine oil change and he told me he would check to see if any plugs were loose. Upon picking up the car, I noticed he hadn't typed in my request on the sheet, therefore I assumed he did nothing about it and I didn't ask because I didn't want to be a pain. About a week after driving the car, the entire steering wheel started to chip away. Evidentally they painted the wheel to cosmetically make it look new. Immediately thereafter, I had to purchase new buttons for the a/c panel as 3 of them were cracked. The buttns for the power windows were also cracked in half. When I purchased the car, there was no evidence of cracked buttons but weeks later I had numerous cracked buttons. I believe they were glued at the time of the sale, thus covering up the wear and tear. Remember that a "clean" rating states everything is in working condition and has minimal wear. Not the case with the stereo system or the cracked buttons or the completely chipped steering wheel.
My first repair was 12 weeks after purchasing the car. I had to have the car towed to their establishment because it was running hot. This all could have been prevented as a month or so previously when the car was in for an oil change I asked Euro to please check the engine light code. When I picked the car up I asked what the code was and they said oh, we forgot to check it. They immediately went out the my car, checked the code and said don't worry it's something with the emmisions system it can wait till your next oil change. Low and behold, I was caught in an emergency and had to have the car towed, the water pump broke. I was charged $168.61 for an after market part and labor costs and this was with 50% discount because they gave me a very very very limited warranty. They failed to also change out the thermostat which I am now told goes hand in hand. Less than a year has passed and the water pump they put in broke again. My new mechanic said the after market part they put in was terrible. I called Euro and told them it went out again less than a year. Euro Car Care offered no warranty on this the water pump. I asked why they put in an after market part and not an original BMW. They told me the after OEM part has plastic propellers and they prefer to use after market as they have metal propellers. This is totally false. The new water pump I just had to purchase is an OEM part with metal propellers.
Euro Car Care has comitted fraud by misrepresentation of the condition of the car they sold me. The above repairs were evidentally in need of attention at the time they sold me the car. I had only placed 10,711 miles on the car in the 9 months I had it. The repairs started 107,551 miles.
I called Euro Car Care and explained all repairs I have had to do on the car and told them this was not correct and they need to take some responsibility. I called and explained to Mark the transmission was blown. I said on this high performance car I should get at least 300,000 before any such problem. He said yes you should have gotten at least 300,000 miles but "things happen". He offered no help and had no concern for selling me a car that was not in excellent mechanical and physical shape". He misrepresented this sale to a grave magnitude.
Had I continued to stay with Euro Car Care, I never would have known the magnitude of the repairs needed on my car. They certainly weren't going to divuldge them soon after I purchased the car and I'm sure my needed repairs would have only been addressed on an emergency basis.
Buyers beware, don't trust your mechanic who is also a dealer, more than likely they are just trying to make a buck on you as well. Take the car to a different mechanic and have them check out the car before you buy. Also, don't stay with your mechanic for 14 years if you are not totally happy. There are some honest mechanics out there you just have to look.
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