My husband and I recently purchased a used car from this dealership. The first time we looked at the car we noticed a few things that were not working right. The tires were extremely bald and there was a strange noise when driving. Because the car was all-wheel drive my husband (who knows quite a bit about cars) asked them to check the wheel bearings to make sure they were in good working condition and also to check the tires. The dealership promised to do these things and then let us look at the car again and decide if we wanted to purchase it.
After driving down the next weekend (a two hour drive for us) we drove the car again. They had put new tires on it and assured us that they checked the wheel bearings and everything else thoroughly and it was all in good mechanical condition. After driving the car my husband still heard the noise, but it was not as loud. The dealer told us this noise was due to the low profile tire that they replaced on the car. We decided to purchase the car because thus far they had treated us well and were willing to sell close to the price we asked for. The salesman told us to call him if we had any problems arise in the next 30 days and he would get them taken care of for us.
After driving the car home we took it in for a general check and service 2 days later because we were getting ready to move across the country and wanted to make sure all the fluid levels were good for a long drive. We were then told by this independent mechanic that we desperately needed to replace a wheel bearing and hub, and needed new strut mounts. The wheel bearing was in horrible condition and it was going to cost between $500 and $600. The strut mounts were not as bad and could wait to be fixed. After just paying a pretty high price for a car that we were assured was in excellent condition we were shocked!
My husband immediately called the salesman and told him the situation. He promised to talk to his manager the next day. I heard from the salesman the next day and he didn't seem to believe us that the wheel bearing needed to be replaced. He said the only way they would even consider paying for it to be fixed was if we drove it the 2 hours back to their dealership and had their mechanic look at the car again. While this doesn't seem like a huge deal to most people this is where the problem lies for us.
My husband is in tech school in the Air Force and right now is required to stay on base. He gets free time in the evenings from about 6-8pm (not nearly enough time to get to Pensacola and back in time for curfew). He is graduating this week and we have to move to our next base right away. This dealer knew all of this information, therefore he knew there would be no possible way for us to drive the car back down there with enough time for them to look at it, order the parts, and get it fixed.
The independent mechanic who is going to fix the car could not believe that this dealership would treat us like this. He is giving us the best price he can, but we understand he is in business as well and can only do so much to fix another person's mistake.
We have absolutely no choice whether to get the car fixed or not because it is a safety hazard. We can't afford to put this much money into a car that we told was in great shape, but we are left with absolutely no other options. It's funny because this dealer told us the first time we came in that they don't try to screw people and don't try to hide things... Well low and behold we got screwed.
Please don't buy from this dealership. They will tell you what they think you want to hear and will make promises that they will not keep. It's a shame that they get to treat people like this, especially people in uniform like my husband who make so many sacrifices only to get jerked around by people trying to make a buck. It really is sad.
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