I paid $6000 cash for a used Dodge Durango that broke down within the first week. The service department repaired it, and it broke down again right in front of the dealership.
Instead of giving me a refund, the sales department would only give me a credit in the amount of the purchase price of the Durango, toward a certified pre-owned Suzuki. They told me if I tried to drag them through court, they would drag it out for over a year and try to make sure I got nothing (after they acknowledged that the car was a lemon).
I made the grave mistake of financing the balance on a Certified Pre-owned Grand Vitara, that has broken down 8 times from the month after I bought it until present. I am on a first-name basis with the good folks at Enterprise Car Rental on Fordham Road.
The dealer would continuously replace defective parts with more defective parts, then fix it at no additional charge, but I would still be out the expense of towing and car rental twice. The dealer only picked up the cost of the rental once, replacing a bad alternator with yet another defective alternator.
When I got tired of this, I started going to RS Strauss and Aamco for my repairs. This is when I found out that my "certified" vehicle did not actually have certified parts. And often, when my mechanics would receive and test the parts that Bronx Suzuki sent over, they would be defective, and I would waste another day's car rental waiting for a good part. Just another red flag of this dealer's shady, incompetent and dishonest business dealings.
While the vehicle was under warranty, it underwent over $7000 in repairs, including transmission rebuild, engine, heating/cooling system and four (yes, 4) alternators. Now that the mileage is 100k the warranty has expired, it continues to break down, and I still owe more than what they will give me in trade-in value (if I were stupid enough to buy another vehicle from them).
My tenant had a similar nightmare with Victory Auto Group aka Bronx Suzuki - we had bumper stickers made up that say "Certified Pre-Owned SUV's Rock... But the ones from Bronx Suzuki don't actually roll!"
I hope people who are taken advantage of continue to speak out. I have had very good experiences with used car dealers. Until I had the misfortune of walking onto the Bronx Suzuki lot.
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