I called AFG Auto Sales in Jacksonville, interested in a 2004 Acura TL they had listed on autotrader.com (I still have the print out).
Before driving 3.5 hours, I called him back and double checked to see if there had been any damages to the car, any accidents, clear clean title, etc. He assured me everything was fine, title was clean; nothing was damaged on the car.
So I had my boyfriend drive me all the way to Jacksonville, and when we get there, the dealership looked like a salvage lot, and the ONLY nice car there was the Acura TL I was being shown. We were sketchy about the situation, but took the car for a test drive anyway. My boyfriend asked the guy if anything on the car had been fixed or repaired, because all the cars around us were being repaired of major damages. The guy laughed and said "No, this car is in great shape. I drive it myself!"
After looking around at the car, we noticed bolts were rusted, and there was mud buildup in the trunk liner. Also, parts of the engine had erosion, something not typical in a 4 year old car. The body and interior was in good condition, but now realizing it, they probably had it fixed.
I called my father, and asked him to run a carfax report, since the dealer refused to do one for me. The report came back with 14 bad listings, including the car being reported stolen, rebuilt title, and salvaged title. I confronted the dealer, and he laughed at me, saying that my father must have put in the wrong VIN, and that he had the title inside to prove it. So we go inside, and the manager insisted that the title was clean. When I asked about the car being stolen, he replied "Cars get stolen all the time, that doesn't mean anything".
I didn't even bother looking at the title, because I know it was rebuilt. The guy who showed us the car used the Acura TL as his daily driver, and we noticed in the car that he had an application to rebuild a title for a 2008 Lexus IS250, so it was safe to assume he does this for a living.
Our assumptions on what happened to the car was that it was stolen, taken for a joy ride, and probably left in a lake or something, because there was clear signs of it being flooded in water. Pretty much EVERY SINGLE THING the guy told me about the car was a complete lie. He knew very well that I had to drive more than 3 hours to come see the car that he "claimed" had no previous damage and a clean title.
Shame on me for not getting a carfax beforehand, but that does not excuse this dealer from completely lying and misleading me as a buyer.
I don't know what actions I can take exactly, but I'd like to get my story out there.
0 comments