I had been searching for a fuel-economical car for a few weeks and found the car I wanted Boise, ID.
I talked to the internet salesperson about the car (I think his name was Greg. I asked him about the 6-speed transmission in the Celica, asked him to try out the car and let me know how the transmission felt to him. He called me back and told me it seemed okay. Yeah, I know that a buyer can't take a seller's word in full trust.
I drove over to Boise and saw the car immediately when I pulled onto the car lot. A salesman named Gus knew I was coming and he showed me the car. Within a minute or two it became apparent the car was an automatic so I told Gus I wasn't interested, disappointed at driving that distance for nothing.
I should have driven away, but Gus pointed out another car, a Mazda Miata, that was actually a second option in my research of cars to buy. We went for a drive. The car ran good, tranny seemed fine, no smoke, no missing in the engine. I talked to Gus about trading options.
This is where the complaint really begins to develop. Gus and I talked about putting my '03 Nissan Xterra on the lot to sell so that I would see a better return on the car. The person selling the car would get $200.00 and the rest would be mine. I liked the idea... Yeah, too good to be true!
We went inside and I filled out a financial report, agreeing to finance the car I was buying with the intention of paying off the loan when my Xterra sold. During the sales talk, Gus told me that Image had a 60-day warranty on their cars they sold. I confirmed his statement by repeating it back to him as I understood it and he was affirmative.
While I was filling out the financial report, Gus went into the general manager's office obviously to talk to him about this "deal". Gus comes back with an offer for my Xterra and for the car I was buying.
Without realizing (I'm an idiot!), we had changed directions and I was signing a straight trade with some money back to me for the higher price of my Xterra. I even did some bartering, feeling so proud at succeeding a teeny bit. Then, the car was mine. And my Xterra is no longer mine! And I drive home thinking how did that happen. What happened to my long form I filled out to finance the new car? I had also asked for a CARFAX report on the new car before I bought it but I had forgotten about my own request and I never received one.
Okay, so I got ripped off big time by these guys. I got over it. Loved driving the car. Loved the great gas mileage. Just told people locally never to go to Image Auto for a deal on a car.
Three days after I bought the car, I took it to the local mechanic and had him check it out. He replaced front brake pads, changed the spark plugs, told me belts were still good. He changed the oil at my request.
I drive the car away feeling good about it. 1000 miles and two weeks later, I start up the car for church. Hearing an odd sound in the engine compartment, driving only 1/4 mile in first gear down a hill, I decided to pull over and stop until I could figure out what the sound was. I looked down at the oil pressure guage and I see I have NO OIL PRESSURE!
So I park the car on the shoulder walk home. I have the car towed to my mechanic. On Monday, I go by after work and the mechanic told me to get rid of the car now while it still ran good. I was on the verge of tears. Thinking about how much money I lost on my top-of-the-line Xterra and now I'm stuck with a cute little Miata with a bad engine. I don't understand the problems with engines but I do understand that it is not good to use 3 quarts of oil in 1000 miles!
I go home, driving this fun little car, doing alot of thinking. Mad I get myself into situations where I get royally ripped off. I believed I had bought a great little car. Now I realized I needed a huge engine repair, maybe a replacement. Cost would be as low as $1500 to as high as $5000.
I went home and rummaged through my papers that were with the Miata book. And there it was. The warranty paper had two choices: "no warranty: sold as is" and "warranty".
And I was sickened to see that the "no warranty" was checked off! What deceit! I was told verbally I had a 60-day warranty. I never saw the small paper with the declaration of AS IS, No WARRANTY.
I called Image the evening I found out about my car and talked to the financial officer. I did not meet Chris at the purchase time because he was on vacation. I was feeling some hope and optimism that Image might help me out with this mess.
Chris gave the general manager, Tom, the message. Tom called back a week later and told me that the work would have to be done locally at his preferred garage. I wanted the work done in my town. Tom compromised and told me to get bids from his garage and mine. His garage gave me a $1500 bid for a ring job. My garage gave me a bid of $2200 and maybe $5000 if the ring job was not enough. I may need another engine.
I gave Tom the info and he told me Image would pay $750, half of the lowest bid. My problem is that this used car lot took my '03 Xterra with low miles for $15800 in trade. That was below Blue Book. Then they sold me the '00 Miata for $12900 and it had twice the mileage. I computed the money they made on this deal. It was $7000. The Miata was $3000 over top blue book for the model! Dumby me. Sigh.
I drove over to talk to Tom about 4 weeks after purchasing the car. Told him I wanted a trade for something better. He said he would have his "internet guys" keep an eye out for something similar and "they would work something out". I guess he thought I would just disappear after that.
I drove the car another 3 weeks, it ran just fine only I had to put oil in every 4 days. After TWELVE quarts of oil, 7 weeks after I acquired the car, I decided to drive to a Mazda dealership and trade it in. I found a car and the dealership traded mine at wholesale $7000!! Now I have a car payment but I have a car that is running great.
Image never has helped me out with this. I presume I can't go after them legally so I want to put my story out there for others to see so that anyone going into Image goes with caution! I would hope they get decreased sales because of this. They have no honesty, no integrity.
I have no idea where this will all go but I will do everything I can to make this car lot accountable to it's customers. I noticed other complaints, also!
Image Auto Sales in Boise lied to me: the Celica I had originally gone to see was not a 6-speed but rather an automatic; I ended up trading the Xterra in rather than placing it on the lot to sell with the salesperson pocketing $200 (why was that option given to me?); the verbal 60-day warranty was an "as is-no warranty" on paper; the repair was not covered to my satisfaction; I paid $3000 over top blue book for the car (granted, that was my fault); I never received any followup calls to help me out of this deal. They don't take care of their customers.
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