I contacted Carson Toyota fleet department inquiring about a new toyota in 2002. They said they had the exact car and color I was looking for. I got there 45 min later and they told me that someone had just bought it.
All they had left were V6's but payments were too high. They then said "why dont you look at one of our certified used cars". I saw one that I really liked, but I did not know much about Mazda's. They (the salesman and the finance manager) told me asian cars are all good and they are just like Toyota and Nissan. They said "don't worry, your getting a good deal" (final price $18,000). They sold me an extended warranty to assure peace of mind and bought my trade-in at bluebook.
When I got home I remembered I forgot to ask for a CarFax. I did it online and found out my car was a Hertz rental car for a year before I bought it. I found out Mazda is not asian - it is a Ford. I searched other dealers and they had the same car for $3,000 less then what I paid for it. I called back the next day and they told me they did not know the car was a Hertz rental and refused to take the car back. I wrote a letter to the manager but I was ignored. I bought the car at 11,797 miles and found out it was still under warranty with Mazda until 36,000 miles and that I did not need to buy a 1500.00 warranty from Carson Toyota.
The warranty says "This aggreement expires by time from vehicle Manufacturer's In-Service Date" which means from when the car was first purchased by the prior owner in 2000. They did not tell me that and I only just found out after my car broke down which means my 1500.00 60 month warranty is only good for one year. Car's transmission blew at 38,000 miles. The transmission is a Ford Contour transmission. Car has been at AAMCO for 3 weeks now and they cannot figure out how to fix it.
Warranty will only pay for 2 days of car rental. Lesson learned. May you learn from it too.
0 comments