Quick Summary: Brown & Brown Nissan sold my girlfriend a wrecked car, lied about it, and when confronted, basically extorted her into overpaying for a new car. Stay away!
More details: Here's what happened. We innocently drove into the used car lot looking for a replacement for her existing 87 Toyota, a car she loved for 16 years. We told the salesman she was interested in an SUV and that among other requirements, we stressed that the vehicle had to have NO BODY DAMAGE OR REPAINTING. That was an absolute. We were assured that vehicles with body damage or repainting weren't allowed on this lot. She drove all the SUVs on the lot and found none to her liking. Then she started driving sedans. At the end, she decided that she liked one of them and after some discussion, it was agreed she could take it home for the evening to get a better handle on whether she liked it or not. It seemed like a reasonably well taken care of car. It drove well, was clean, and comfortable. I looked underneath, in the engine compartment, interior and trunk and everything looked ok. I didn't check for body damage because I was supposedly buying from a reputable dealer and was assured that wasn't possible on this lot. Believing that lie was a very big mistake. She was presented with a CARFAX that suggested the car had not been in a wreck, flooded, or other mishap. She eventually bought the car (despite my objections), but not for a very good price. Our research said she should've got it for about $2000 less. But it was a nice car in good condition, right? It wouldn't be long before we found out we were wrong. About two weeks after buying it, she asked me to remove one of the tires because it had a slow leak. She had tried to get it taken care of at Brown & Brown but they didn't want to help her and told her to do it herself and bring them the bill. (Now, that's what I call service!) I've never heard of such poor service but I helped her anyway. When I went to take the lugs off, they were on so tight I had to use a FOUR FOOT cheater bar to get them off. Fearing the torque was too high, I used a torque wrench to remove the next one. It measured over 200 foot-lbs! That's about 100% more than it should've been. I carefully examined the threads and verified they were deformed. That meant that all the studs probably needed to be replaced. That could cost $1000! But that wasn't the half of it. While jacking the car up, a small fleck of paint fell off at the jack point. I gasped in horror! That doesn't happen with a factory paint job! I took a closer look at the paint and saw it had contamination under the clear coat. Then I used a magnet to verify that both passenger doors had LARGE amounts of body putty! Contrary to the lies the salesman spewed, this car had been in a major accident and bondoed back together! They didn't even have the decency to replace the doors! They went the cheap route and slathered on thick layers of putty.
I didn't want to tell her the car was seriously damaged but couldn't bear to let her go on without knowing. When I broke the bad news, she said she already suspected it. A more intensive examination showed that both doors and the rocker panel had substantial amounts of body putty, the base coat of paint had poor adhesion, and the clear coat not only was poorly applied, it had contamination (bugs?) in it.
I was furious! She was calmer and decided to go back to Brown & Brown to get her money back. When presented with the facts, they claimed ignorance and told her We can't do that. When she tried to get her money back. They said they didn't know the car had body damage. They tried to get her to keep the car. They said it was fine and they'd take it to where it was painted (Kingswood - Mental note: stay away from them too!) and get an assessment on the paint job. Gee, what do you think Kingswood said? They said the paint was fine and of course it would last a long time. What kind of fools do you think we are? Of course they said it was a good paint job! The fact that B&B didn't notice the body damage shows nothing but that the people at B&B are either stupid, crooks, liars, totally incompetent or all of the above. I think all the above apply! I'm no expert and it didn't take but 30 seconds to determine there was body damage once I decided to try.
When I heard about the response, I was furious again! I urged her to investigate going to an attorney, posting a webpage, calling the Better Business Bureau, calling a news station, picketing, calling the top brass at B&B, etc. But it ended up causing an argument and it was clear that if I was going to maintain our relationship, I better stay out of this. So I took a step back and watched from afar.
The next time she went there, she was told she could transfer the $ she spent to another (ab) used car or get a new car. After test driving what little there was on the (ab) used lot, she was forced to consider a new car. (Ever heard of bait & switch? The FTC and Attorney General have.) She test drove a new Maxima and decided that the safest choice was a new car. You'd think that after what she'd been through, they'd cut her some kind of deal. No, not a chance. They took her to the cleaners on that Maxima.
Looking back on it, she didn't have a chance once she walked on the lot. If she bought the piece of crap used car, she'd end up paying thousands more than the damaged car was worth and (from your perspective) hopefully she wouldn't discover it until it was too late. If she brought it back, they'd deny everything and since she couldn't trust any of the (ab) used cars she'd get nailed for a new car. Either way the dealership wins and she loses.
The bottom line is that Brown & Brown has shown they represent everything that a car shopper fears. We fear that we're going to be sold a piece of junk for an excessive price that we won't be able to get rid of without losing tremendous amounts of time, money, and suffering untolled amounts of frustration. We're afraid that the salesman will approach us with a smile that hides the lies and deception that he (or she) will dump on us. We're afraid the salesman will make the buying process an absolute nightmare and it'll take forever. He'll use all kinds of deceptive and coercive practices in the negotiation process until we flat out run out of energy and say OK. We're afraid that if we do buy a vehicle, we'll get absolutely no service once the money transfers to the dealer and it'll be a nightmare trying to get what we paid for. We fear that, if we get a defective vehicle, we're stuck with it because the dealer will show no honor or integrity. Guilty on all counts! Welcome to Brown & Brown.
I've learned a lot from this experience. I've learned...
That car dealers are worse than private sellers because they practice lying and deception all day, every day. If a car salesman's lips are moving, he's lying, especially if he's at Brown & Brown.
That Brown & Brown is the last place I would consider to buy a vehicle.
That I owe it to everyone I know to steer them clear from Brown & Brown. I've convinced 6 so far. Only a few thousand to go...
That CARFAX does not protect you from getting a damaged vehicle. As long as nobody reports the damage, it doesn't show up on CARFAX. This suggests that Brown & Brown was involved in the repairs they denied knowledge of...
A car dealer can do anything they want. We can't do that. Is unacceptable. Never take that as an answer. They can do anything they want given the right incentive.
I wish all the blessings of Chapter 11 for Brown & Brown! This city will be much better without them.
Mark
Scottsdale, Arizona
U.S.A.
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