My fiance and I purchased a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica, Saturday May 12 from USA Auto Sales & Leasing located at the time at 149-151 w9 Street, Brooklyn NY 11231, now presently located at 870 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn NY. The day we purchased the vehicle we were told to drive it 50 miles and to return with it so they can do a NYS Inspection on the vehicle. With in one day of taking the vehicle back home, the check engine light turned on. That Monday, May 14th we drove the vehicle back to the dealership and stated the check engine light is on and that the vehicle's tires were making a strange noise, they brought it to their mechanic who stated it was the O2 Sensor had to be replaced, which the replaced right away (since the car cannot be inspected with a light on) and that during his inspection he looked for the "noise" we were concerned about and he said he checked everything and it was all ok. That same day the vehicle was inspected, we drove it home.By Thursday that same week, the check engine light turned back on, frustrated, I brought the car to my mechanic who stated the vehicle, yet again needed another O2 Sensor (which I'm not even sure he really replaced). Brought it back to him and he claimed he replaced that one also, we asked repeatedly for a mechanics receipt and he never gave us one, nor did he let us go to the mechanic with him (right there I had a feeling we were being scammed).
Then May 23 on the highway with all my children in the car on the way to the beach, we had to stop short, made an abrupt stop and the strut came up and broke straight through the hood of the car, obviously the strut was so weak that stop was its final straw. Brought it to the mechanic stating what had happened, infuriated that we we had complained already about the car making noise and he said everything was fine, and then for that to happen obviously nothing was fine. He then told us, "he was not responsible to pay for the damage on our car cause it was our fault" and that we had to pay $1500 for our car to get fixed. I asked for my money and my car (that we traded in) back and he said that he would give us our money back but we would still have to fix the Pacifica. After a few choice of words, getting loud then reasoning with him he then stated we can pay $250 and he would cover the rest of the cost. We went 5 days without a vehicle at all until he fixed the strut, and the hood of the car for us. The car continued to make noises, but according to him it was the springs in the car that were making the noises...
Well after the noises gradually got worse, again I got frustrated and brought it back to my mechanic, June 27 who then told me that there are $1,098.47 worth of wear and tear damage to our vehicle all front end, including the Transfer case leaking, the O2 sensor still needing to be replaced, Outer Tie Rods, the right strut, and the lower control arms. I started to cry, we bought a lemon. All that damage that needs to be replaced was not caused by us, it was caused by whomever owned it before us, and IF the mechanic did a proper inspection on the vehicle it would of NEVER passed inspection with the amount of warn down parts that are under the car. We brought it back to the dealership saying we want our money he said no, we asked him to fix it, he said no. I contacted Consumer Affairs already, and was going to contact the Attorney General but our car has too many miles to be covered under the Lemon Law!
I think it is extremely important to bring recognition to the scams these Second Hand Dealers use to lore low income families like us to their facility to sell us a vehicle that we then need to sink the rest of our savings in just to be able to drive it. We only had the vehicle 6 weeks and theres a ton of problems!!
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