This is my carhop horror story. I went to carhop to get a vehicle after my new car was repossessed. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to inspect the vehicle, a 1995 Plymouth van that seemed to run fine. About a week later, I noticed some leaking from the engine. I contacted carhop about this problem, and they have several shops around town. I thought that was good until I got the inspection. The mechanic said the engine was leaking in too many places, so he suggested replacing the engine with a new one. I thought, this is great! That was until the mechanic started to play games with me.
2 days passed with no transportation, relying on public transportation and barely enough money to get around, I started to get frustrated! After the so called mechanic said he replaced the old engine with the so called new engine, he told me to meet him at the shop, which I assumed that was were I dropped it off. That wasn't the case! I chased around the city trying to find this shop. The mechanic didn't even tell me about this location. I finally arrived at the shop, only to find that the *new* engine looked exactly like the old one! I am willing to bet that they didn't even touch it, maybe just a little cleaner than before. They replaced a couple of engine parts, which cost me $125.00. I could not believe this!
Not only did they lie about the new engine, but they also have the worst customer service I have ever dealt with! They do not care about customers at all. I will never do any business with this fly by night operation again!
I am also seeking some legal help or advice to see if there's anything I can do to rectify this situation, either some or all the $125.00 I have already spent on this POS from this disreputable car dealership, or better yet, to trade this vehicle for a vehicle that is in better shape, and professionally inspected. Personally, I would like to just get out of this loan and do business with a reputable car company. This has been irritating, frustrating, and just plain BS!
Well, they did refund the $125.00 and did get me into another car after talking to the Minnesota attorney general and a lawyer. The second car was a 1997 Oldsmobile Acheiva with 135, 000 miles on it. I drove this car for about 2 months. On 05/10/2007, I was driving back home when the temperature gauge was getting closer to the hot zone. After I parked the car, antifreeze poured out the left front side of the car. I had someone else look at the car for a second opinion, and he said that the fluid was coming from the water pump. Early next morning I dumped in almost an entire bottle of antifreeze to get to the shop. I took the car up to the same mechanic as I did before. The next day I called the mechanic to see where the leak was coming from. He said there was antifreeze on the ground. He said he had to do a pressure test to see exactly where the leak was coming from, and then he said one of the other mechanics took the car out on the highway to find out where the leak was. The next day I called the mechanic once again, and he told me that nothing was leaking. Did he even bother to fill the antifreeze? I finally dumped the car on their lot and told them what they can do with it. The only thing they asked me was when I could make my next payment! I did not deal with or waste any more time with this so called “CAR DEALERSHIP”. This is nothing more than a scam artist car place. If anyone has suffered the same garbage and want's to start a class action suit, they truly deserve it!
Dave
