Flemings Ultimate Garage sold me a 1966 Nova based on the premise that it was "completely restored front to back, underneath, top, bottom, everything! Ready to drive and enjoy." After viewing online photos and a video production, several phone conversations with the salesman (I asked the salesman specific questions about the condition... As it turns out, all of his answers were lies and misleading.), I felt good about the purchase. I wire transfered the money from my bank account.
The car was delivered... When the car was unloaded from the truck, it had to be jump started. Battery was dead. After parking in my garage, It had no electrics. Completely dead! I then discovered the mess of wiring under the dash. A late fuse panel with random wires jammed into the fuse slots, electrical tape, and twist on wire nuts! What a hack job! There are no reverse lights. Key ignition cylinder fell out in my hand. I guess they forgot to restore this part of the car.
Parking brake does not work. There's a device attached to the cable that crimps and takes up slack... A bandaid repair attempt!
Brakes do not function properly. I was told by the Service Mgr that they performed brake work (and were fooling with the wiring). The rear end is leaking oil on both sides right at the brakes... A major safety issue!
Window seals are dry rotted and cracked. Door seals are poor quality. Foam glued into place to try to seal the windows... Looks terrible! Definitely not "restored".
Questionable bodywork. Car looks great in the pictures and video, not in person! Runs in the paint, buffing marks, orange peal, panels not aligned well, seam seal cracking off with rust coming through, trim pieces in poor condition. Paint overspray on front windshield rubber, indicating a cheap paint job... Didn't bother to remove the glass. I paid too much money for a restored car, and this is far from the quality I would expect! Very poor "restoration".
No fan shroud on radiator, oil dipstick tube falls out. But can't drive the car (brakes and electrical issues) so I don't know if any issues with the engine would show up.
Spare tire in the trunk has no mounting. It's just sliding around in the trunk. Another safety issue. If car was crashed (due to, I don't know, bad brakes?) the tire could come through the rear seat.
These are just a few issues I discovered after a brief inspection. This car has not been "restored"... Not in ANY sense of the word! I was totally misled and lied to! A prime example of shady used car salesmen! This car is not worth anywhere near what I paid ($35,000 I'm embarrassed to say). Flemings touts being "car enthusiasts", "Our people don't work here because they have to, they work here because they have a passion for cars", "We only deal in the finest of cars", blah, blah, blah! They should have known about the poor condition of this car! Yet, they misrepresented it and found a sucker to fall for it! I screwed up, I trusted them! I was willing to pay for a restored car so I would not have to deal with issues like these!
I called Flemings and asked that they refund my money, and that I would even cover the shipping costs to get the car back to them. I've been getting the run-around from them. I talked to the salesman (I won't mention names yet), the service mgr, and the sales mgr. All are giving me the run-around.
Do not even consider buying a car from these crooks! Do not even consider having your car worked on in their service department!
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