Well I went to this with faith that I would be given a good decent running car back in Feb. I test drove a 2003 Ford Focus. I test drove it and it seemed to run great. No Sputters... No tings... No knocking... Nothing. So I signed the papers and got on an ridiculous car payment plan and dropped $1400 down covering the $800 down payment and the first month of payments. Here you pay weekly. Every Friday $85 bucks. At the time I didn't think about it to much but they never really did tell me the actual price of the car. I was just so excited that I was getting a car and starting to get my life back together after a year of serious hardships that I don't think I was really paying attention. So now with the papers signed they handed me the keys to my new car and I was so excited. I know I was beaming like a kid who go their first bike on Christmas.
I left the lot and noticed that I needed to put gas in it. So I drove across the street to the gas station where I proceeded to put in $20.00 worth of gas. The meter read 1/4 of a tank so I figured that $20 would be just enough to fill it up. While standing there I hear the sound of running water hitting the payment and the over whelming smell of gasoline. I looked down to see the gas POURING out the bottom of the car! So I stopped pumping the gas which only $11.57 had gone into the tank. I drove right back to the dealer not even stopping to get my change. I arrived at the dealer with a sense of being let down. I went in side and told them what had happened. The girl who sold me the car, the owner of the dealer, and the mechanic all came running out to see what I was talking about. I was told that it looked like someone has lowered the tank to try and get the gas out of it and that the seal was probably broken and in order to fix it I would have to drive it around until it was almost empty and bring the car back and they would fix it.
They assured me that it was safe to drive. So I went on my way and went show my new car off to my mother. When I was about to leave her house the car wouldn't start at all! So I called the dealership and they sent the mechanic out to me. We spent 30 minutes in the cold rain trying to figure out why the car wouldn't start. I needed a new fuel switch. So they towed the car back to the dealership and gave me a loaner until the car was fixed. I drove the loaner car for 2 days and on the second day while the driving the LOANER car... It died in the middle of one of the busiest roads in Marietta. Roswell Road. I got the car safely to the side of the road and I called them again. They "rushed" to my rescue only to find out that when the loaner car said it had a full tank... It meant that it was empty. The fuel gauge was broken and I didn't know it and had run out of gas. Luckily for me my car was fixed.
Exactly one week later I decided to go and see my boyfriend who lived in Illinois. It was only 8 hours away and this would be my first road trip alone. Well on the way there things seemed to be going great. Until I realized that my back tire was throwing tread. I pulled over t change it and what did I find? A spare that had 2 nails in is and 3 holes. So I had to have the car towed to a tire place. At the tire place I found out that ALL 4 tires were DIFFERENT sizes! And one of them was a trailer tire!!! Wtf!?!? So I paid and got 4 new GOOD tires that were all the same size and then started on my trip again. After a 2 hour delay I thought I was making good time and was getting kinda hungry. I stopped off at a truck stop to get some gas and get something to eat. I fill up my tummy and the tank and get ready to start my trip once more. Well I realize that when I was hitting the brake I wasn't stopping! I had to really stomp on the brake. So I went back into the into the truck stop and got some break fluid thinking that maybe I was just low.
No... The fluid was spurting out the back! So I called the dealership fought with them letting them know that I was stranded in a place that I had no clue where I was, I was no officially down to $50 bucks and it was 8:00 at night! So I used the last of my money and had it towed to a mechanic's shop. Called my dad who wired me some money for a hotel. For 2 days I was stuck in a hotel room not knowing where I was and trying to figure out how to get the car fixed with no money or at least get back home. The mechanic there told me that the car had to have been in an accident because the Trail Arm and the Brake line was severed. I could have been killed. Finally the dealership agreed to have the car towed home to Georgia from Murfreesboro Tennessee after a lot of arguing back and forth. So I made it home safe and got ANOTHER loaner. I drove the loaner for 3 days until my car was fixed and I thought that after that was fixed there wouldn't be any more issue with it. Well needless to say I thought wrong.
After about 3 weeks of not a problem the check engine soon light came on so i decided to take it for an oil change. Well while the mechanic at the Jiffy Lube tried to do the oil change the dip stick sleeve broke off causing oil to spew every where. They refused to fix it and told me that I should take it back to the dealership. So I did. And with a lot of arguing and disagreeing back in forth and even me asking for a new car, the dealership fixed it and they also told to me that they had done the oil change as well. However the check engine soon light still remained on. The dealership told me that it was a code for a small emissions leak and that it was nothing to worry about.
Since then I have also had to replace the brake pads twice and had to replace the rotors. Well yesterday me and my boyfriend went in to make the weekly payment and on the way there the engine began to ting and knock and was making a popping sound. We told them what had started happening and the kid inside told us that neither the owner or the mechanic were there and that they would not be back until Tuesday because of the long holiday weekend. As we were leaving they BOTH came around the building. So the kid inside had lied to us. We then began to talk to the owner and the mechanic who told us that they engine was misfiring and that it would be ok. The owner rushed off to an auction while the mechanic told us that he wanted to test drive the car but he wanted to let the engine cool. We waited for an hour and a half.
When he finally got back there was 1/4 tank of gas gone and candy wrappers on the floor! He said that he was going to have to do some kind of smoke test but it would have to wait until next week because he didn't have the equipment to do it. He ASSURED us that the car safe ok to drive and that it should only eat up a little gas more then normal. So we said ok and went along our way. On they way home from the dealership the car died and we had to restart it. The next day my boyfriend was on his way to work and the engine completely seized up and died. He is a security guard that goes from site to site and with out a car he can not do his job. So because of the dealership selling me a car that is falling apart it is very very possible that he is going to loose his job. I have asked for a new car but they have refused to give me another car stating that they don't take trade ins. I have asked for my money back and they state that I signed a contract stating that there were no refunds. I tell them about the Georgia Lemon laws and they ignore them.
I have been patient. I have been understanding but this car is my lively hood and now it is nothing more then a paper weight. I have been lied to. I have been deceived. Not only me but others. The owner openly admitted that he buys cars from auctions and then turns around and sells them with out having them checked out yet all of his cars have stickers on them that say that they are Certified Pre-owned cars. Even though Ford for example, the maker of the Ford Focus 2003 model I bought, doesn't do Pre-Owned certs for vehicles older then 2005 according to Kelly blue books website, yet the have a gold 2003 ford focus listed on their website at this exact moment as certified Pre-owned. Kelly blue book value of a 2003 ford focus in excellent condition is 6,380 dollars, the price they have sold me the car for is over 14 thousand dollars, over double the amount. I trusted them cause of their name and their conniving sweet talking, I have learned since then, that the old saying of used car salesman are slimy sharks in suits is actually correct.
PS. Now that the summer has started and the sun is shining, you can also see three different colors of red on the car as if it was made from 3 different cars.
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