In November we purchased a used 2007 Toyota from Ronnie Thompson Ford.in March we started looking at getting a more fuel efficent Kia Suv. The first dealer that we went to came to us with an trade in offer and news that we were driving a 4 Runner with frame damage. So of course this effected the trade in value. I thought that they may have been trying to pull something so we went on our way.in all we had it looked at by 5 different places. All 5 pulled the Carfax which showed frame damage. The report showes that the car was repaired in Alabama.in Alabama it is legal to fix frame damaged cars for resale.in Georgia it would have been issued a Salvaged Title and scraped. The car was then put on a frame machine to find that the left front corner is down 1 inch. At this point I called Ronnie Thompson Ford. I asked for the guy who sold us the 4 Runner. He (Jared) is no longer with the company. So I then asked for Heath. Heath Thompson he was off that day. So the lady that answered the phone asked if she could help. I told her that I really wanted to speak to Heath because I had a problem. She insisted that she could help. I explained my concern to her and she was very helpfull and understanding. It turned out she was Vicki Thompson. She asked for me to explain my concern to Craig King (Sales Manager). After going over everthing with him all he could say was that we bought a used car. And that there was nothing that he could or would do. He said that he was just doing his job. So I waited till the next day and called back to speak to Heath. It was a good conversation. I was very calm wth him and he was understanding of the situation. He toldme to bring the car to him and he would trade us out of it and that he would out money into it as if it didn't have frame damage. So at this point I was thinking that they were actually going to work with me. Boy was I wrong. My wife carried the car by so that they could see it and for her to pick out something else. The next morning I spoke to Heath. He offered $17,000.00. I had actually been offered more at other dealerships. When I mentioned this to him he stated, that it need tires. We have only put 3k miles on the tires since we bought it. And that $17k was an good offer considering that car had took a hit on value due to gas prices. At this point I asked Heath to put numbers together on a Escape that they had. At this point I justed wanted to get my wife and kids into a safer car. Since the frame has been compromised. There is no telling what might happen in a crash. So when Ifinally got in touch with Heath (He never called me I was always having to call him) He gave me the numbers on the Escape. My payment was going to increase $112.00 per month. This was not an option for us. I then told Heath that the numbers wouldn't work. At this point he said that there was that he could do then. At this point I'm starting to become a little angry. We went from lets work this out to sorry theres nothing else that we can do. I then asked Heath to speak to Ronnie. I was sure that Ronnie would be more than helpful. Again, I was wrong. I went over everything with him. He to said that there was nothing else that he could do. I asked Ronnie what he would do with the car if he had it back. His answer still to today blows me away. He would actually resale it, but at wholesale. Can you guess what the wholesale value of the car is? Yep $17K. Why was Heaths best offer his dads wholesale value. But remember that they are putting the best money possible on the value. Yea, right. Heath, Craig And Ronnie all said that when they buy used cars that they don't check the carfax. But 5 out of 5 dealers we went to did. Heaths statement was that it costs to much to do that on every used car. The only person it costs is the customer. I have to be honest. I truly expected better service from these guys. They have been around for along time. And have sold alot of cars in this small town. I guess if I was one of those guys that buy all my cars from them. I might have gotten this resolved. This is step one in many to go to get this resolved. I truely was hoping they would have worked with me instead of against me. But they chose not to. So, beware when buying a used acr from these guys.
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