On March 5 I found a 2007 Mercedes SLK350 on EBay and I decided to buy it. I called Texas Direct Auto and was told that I needed to put down $500. I did so and was contacted the next day by Troy Garcia (the finance guy) and we started the paperwork to get the car transferred over to me. I arranged to fly to Texas to pick up the car myself and when I got there I sat for 5.5 hrs before I even got to see the car. I took it out for a test drive and noticed that it smelled of cigarette smoke (it was stated that it was a non smokers car). When I got back I tried to put the convertible roof back up and trouble with it. The sales guy told me that it was a warranty thing and Mercedes would fix it. Since I already own one Mercedes I knew that they did stand by their product. About 2 plus hours into my drive home the check engine light came on a nd I was forced to spend the night in Baton Rouge LA until I could get to a Mercedes dealer the following morning. I found that it was a minor thing and I was on my way. Once I got home I took it to my dealer and was informed that to repair the roof would cost in excess of $13,000. I called Gary Maze the sales manager at Texas Direct and told him this. He asked me to get a second quote so I went to another Mercedes dealer and this is when I found out that the car was in a pretty bad wreck. The body of the car was bent and it would cost over $15,000 to repair. When I called Texas Dirct they told me that they would exchange the car for something else or I would have to keep it. I didn't see anything else that I wanted and I spoke with my dealer who told me that the car was safe but I wouldn't get its true value when I went to trad eit in down the road. I called Texas Direct and asked them to reimburse me for some of the damage and I would keep the car. They told me they would get back to me. What I have not told you all is that hte car needed 4 new tires (old ones had 2/32 left on them), the right front rim was bent beyond repair and the grill had some damage. None of this was noticable by the naked eye. Finally I got a call back from Gary and he told me that he would give me $1,000 towards the repairs and that was the best they could do. It was already 6 weeks and a lot of headache so I caved in and accepted just to get rid of them. While all of this was going on I was still waiting for the tags for the car and they kept asking me for more information before they coudl submit the application for the tags. I have gone through 3 temp tags and 6.5 weeks and still no tag. I learned a very valuable and expensive lesson - I will never purchase an automobile from the internet again and I most definitely will not be going back to Texas Direct Auto. They are very unprofessional and someone needs to put them out of business. I have contacted the States Attorney Generals office, the Better Business Bureau and the local news to tell them of my story. Hopefully my big mouth will do something about them once and for all. Do not buy from them!!!
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