My 78-year-old mother decided to give up her driver's license after a recent accident that totaled her car. She decided she would buy another car and her younger friend would use it to drive her to shop, and to appointments. I took Mom to look for a used car. Our requirements for the car were it had to be in good working order and it HAD to have air conditioning. With my mother's age she can't tolerate excessive heat.
Ken's Cars had a 1998 Ford Taurus for sale on Craigslist.org. The ad stated that the car was $975 plus $278 dealer fee. Mom and I went to look at the car and took it for a test drive. The car seemed to run quite well and was in good physical condition, but the air wasn't blowing cold at all. Mom was very disappointed as she thought the car was great otherwise. When we got back to the dealership we told Ken that we didn't want it because the air didn't work. He said that Luigi, his mechanic, needed to replace the fuse to the air conditioner.in a few minutes he came back with the car and the air conditioner was working great. I told him I was nervous about her buying the car since it had no warranty and the air might not work the next day. He assured us that if we had any problems with the air in the near future to bring the car back in and he would take care of it. I took mom to get her friend and dropped the two off at the dealership. Mom and her friend bought the car and paid cash.
The very next day the air quit working. Mom and her friend drove the unairconditioned car back to the dealership. Mom tripped on the step while at the dealership and bruised her forehead. They were told that Luigi wasn't in but he had a mobile repair truck and he would come over in a the morning to fix it. When Luigi never showed Mom's friend took the car to the dealership to get it fixed. Upon arriving at the dealership she saw/heard Ken screaming at and demeaning some of his employees. He then started yelling at Mom's friend telling her to take that f*g car and get the f*k out of here and don't come back. Mom's friend called me and told me what happened. She was VERY upset.
I phoned the dealership after receiving a call from Mom's very upset friend. I was FURIOUS! How could anybody be so crude and downright mean to a white-haired senior citizen? I spoke with Jay, the sales manager. He told me Ken wasn't there. I told him I was upset at the treatment of my mother and her friend. He told me that they are in the business of selling cars, not servicing them. I told him that I realized the car was sold without a warranty, but that Ken had assured us he would take care of the a/c if we had problems. Jay asked if I had it in writing and I said I didn't, but I thought a man's word should be good if he is an honest business man. Jay's reply was well if you don't have it in writing, you can't prove it was said. I told him that if they weren't going to do the right and fair thing I was going on line to report the business so other people might keep from doing business with a person who doesn't keep his word.
Mom had her friend take the car to a REPUTABLE business to be repaired. The a/c system was leaking and the "fuse" wasn't replaced, all that had been done was freon was added to make the a/c work long enough for Mom to buy the car. Anyway, she ended up paying nearly $700 to get the leaking condensor and the evaporator replaced. She also had to pay to have the ball joints replaced as they were really bad, as well. The only thing that irritated me is that the car was advertised as having cold air, and we were assured it would work or they would fix it. Then my Mom ended up paying almost as much as she did to buy the car to have the air fixed.
My advice? Don't trust this dealership or the people that work there. They are not honest and although it's not against the law what they did, it is dishonest and unscrupulous!
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