Buyers beware when purchasing out of state from Cherry Hill Classic Cars. My wife purchased a 2004 Jaguar "Select Certified" vehicle on December 9. We took the train up to the dealership from Washington, DC after work and was picked up by the salesman. When we arrived at the dealership, the place was closing and they stayed open so that we could purchase the vehicle. We were immediately rushed to the finance office to sign the paperwork. I explained to the salesman that although I had seen the car on the internet, I would still need to see it in person and test drive it first. I did a quick once over visual of the car and took it for a drive. On the test drive I noticed that the vehicle mileage was off by about 800 miles. I mentioned this to the salesman and was told that the manager had been driving the vehicle. I took it with a grain of salt because this seems to be the norm with pre-owned vehicles, and it also happened with our Hummer H2. I also mentioned that the car needed a slight front-end adjustment but didn't worry about it because the service center was closed. We drove back to the dealership and besides those issues, we were ready to purchase the car (we did take the train there so rather than leaving empty handed we let it slide). We were rushed through the paperwork and drove the car home.
The first problem started when the dealer called about 7 days after the car was purchased to say that they needed the inspection paper before they could submit the tag info to DC DMV. I had the car inspected that weekend and sent it overnight next business morning. When I called later that week to check on the status I was told that it did not arrive until Friday the 26th. I called USPS and found that it did arrive 3 days earlier before noon but was not picked up by the dealership until Friday. I spoke to the salesman and informed him of the fact that DC DMV does not play when it comes to not having tags or proper stickers. From that point on I contacted the salesman every few days to find out the status of the tags and received zero assistance. I was told that it was shipped or taken care of but still had not received them. I then received a $100 ticket for expired temp tags. I contacted the salesman again to inform him of the problem and to request that they help to pay the fine. I was told that I should "park the car", which was not possible due to the fact that I live in downtown DC and only have street parking. To this day they still do not agree that any of this was their fault. I did not finally receive the tags until the week of January 10th.
The second problem dealt with the fact that we were overcharged for the tax, tags and title charges for the DC DMV. We contacted the DC DMV to get a print out of what the cost was versus what we paid to the dealership. We found that we paid about $100.00 more than what was required by the DC DMV. When we questioned the dealership they sent a print out of the list of charges which showed an extra charge of $115 but they refused to explain what the difference was for. When reviewing the document the fees were not in the appropriate places for what the charges were and the $115 fee was listed under miscellaneous. We already paid the "processing fee" for the dealership so this would have been an additional fee on top of the processing fee?
The third problem started when all of the dash lights came on at one time about a month after purchasing the car. This happened a few times and every electrical device on the car would stop working including the speedometer. I checked all of the fluids to make sure that there was nothing leaking or wrong and noticed that the oil was below the "low fluid" line and very dark. I called Cherry Hill Classic Cars to find out what maintenance was performed and to tell them about the electrical problem. I was told that the engine oil had been changed and what repairs had been done. I left the conversation at that because there was no way the engine oil had recently been changed with it that low and that black/brown.
I took the car to the local Jaguar dealer to have the oil serviced and I found a TSB for the electrical problem based on reading the trouble codes. They fixed the TSB issue under warranty and then checked and changed the fluids. I also asked that they do an overall check of the vehicle seeing as I no longer trusted Cherry Hill Classic Cars. After they did the inspection, they found that the rear center console lighter adapters did not work, the front left windshield wiper sprayer did not work and 3 out of the 4 side marker lights did not function and needed to be replaced due to water corrosion.
I contacted Cherry Hill Classic Cars to let them know what had been found and was told that they did everything that they were suppose to do. When I explained that there was no way the oil could have been changed, and that these items broke less than a month after purchase on their own, I was told that I would need to drive the car back to NJ from DC on a weekday to have it looked at. Needless to say, this was not an acceptable option and as of February 18 we are still fighting with them about it. We also noticed on the paperwork they sent to "prove" that the work was performed the date of the work was September and the mileage as of September was more than the mileage stated when we purchased the car and on the purchase paperwork.
We are currently contemplating stronger action to fix the above issues, especially the incorrect mileage information which is a felony.
Buyers Beware!!!
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