I actually beat the car company at its own game.

[Bex]

Sorry all but I have to gloat just a little. I battled a car company and WON.
DAY 1:
Me on the phone: Hey, I am looking for a small SUV. I have 2K to put down and not so great credit so before I come in and waste your time I need to know if you think you can help.

Slick car salesman: "Hmm, I have a GMC JImmy here... it has 254K+ miles on it.
Me: Um, thats a ton of miles, I think I will pass.
SCS: "Oh, well let me get your number and I will look on the lot and call you if I find something.

Day 2:
SCS :Hey, I found another Jimmy... it has only 117K miles.. you should come check it out.

Blah blah... I went, I saw, I signed... Silly me. LOL

The very same day, the suv breaks down. I call them just a little annoyed. They assure me that it will be fixed so I return it and they give me a loaner.

Fast forward 5 long weeks and many many calls to 3 different salesmen, lot managers, and mechanics.

I walk in ready to fight. They have had the car for the entire time that I have "owned" it while I am driving around a loaner with a transmission that I was fairly certain was being held in with duct tape. I find a salesman I have never seen before to ask about where the manager might be located. This meek little salesman of course sees that I am upset and wants to know what the deal is. I tell him the story of the run around I have been getting on my suv and how they said they would fix it they wouldn't fix it, they had fixed it, they hadn't even ordered the part yet, they got the part in 2 weeks ago but hadn't managed to get it on yet yada yada.

The salesman looks up at me and says, "OH! I remember that Jimmy.. we hardly ever get Jimmy's in.. thats the first one we have had here in nearly a year."

I slowly turned to him and said... Only one? You mean you guys didn't have 2 of them? Just the one I bought? He assured me that they only had one Jimmy, never 2 at the same time. As the fact that these slimy a-holes have scammed me by setting the odometer back on that "254K+ Jimmy" they wanted to originally sell me sets in, there was steam coming out of my ears. I WAS FURIOUS. I can't remember a time that I was so angry before that moment. I went home and paced my floor and planned my attack strategy. I sat down at my computer and typed out a 3 page complaint to the owner of the store. I listed in order every phone call that had taken place, every lie I had been told and then of course the illegal move they made. I started first to e-mail the list but then decided just to carry it to the owner by hand.

I arrived and asked to speak to the owner. I was told by at least 13 people that he was "a busy man and doesn't have time to see you any time soon." My reply was that I had wasted 5 weeks on his place of business, what is a few more hours?

He could finally put me off no longer so I was escorted into his office. I kindly and calmly greeted him and then handed over my list. I sat there as he read it with a smug look on my face. I then demanded my down payment back or a car of my choice for the same price as what I had been scammed on the Jimmy for. The owner was of course reluctant of course but then I uttered this one little sentence... "My husband is an officer and he has informed me that setting an odometer back is highly illegal."

I drove off of the lot in a Honda Civic blue booked at well over 9K higher than the total price of the Jimmy I was purchasing. Since I kept the same contract as I had before, I am now paying a little over 3K total for the car.

I had to stop myself from sticking my tongue out at them as I drove away. That will maybe teach them to stop being so shady.

[ArcticChicken]

You should file a report with the police. Just because you caught them doesn't mean the next person will, the reason they let you off with a better car is because it's still cheaper than the legal punishments.

[Bex]

You should file a report with the police. Just because you caught them doesn't mean the next person will, the reason they let you off with a better car is because it's still cheaper than the legal punishments.

You are correct and I wish that I could. The problem is that I can't actually prove a thing. They just thought I could. I very seriously doubt they would just offer up the information. To my understanding though, through talking with a friend from a different car company, it's likely that they are already under investigation. If I had something solid on them I wouldn't have thought twice about turning them in.

[It's me]

Most places you can't change the registration of a vehicle without reporting the mileage, and some places won't even let you do annual (or whatever) renewal without reporting mileage. So it is very likely that if you were to contact your state motor vehicle deptartment they would be very interested........

[protege]

It sounds like they chose to cut their losses, and get rid of you.

I've posted about the fiasco with my MG here before. In a nutshell, I had a 'garage' across town do some work for me. They were supposed to get the car running, and enough mechanical work done that I could drive it home, and finish it. But, the more I had the car home, the more I found out wrong with it. Things like the horns, turn signals, wiper jets, etc. didn't work at all! Plus, some of the other work that they'd done...either wasn't done, or if it was done, they'd half-assed it. Throw in the double-billing on a few things, some parts that they'd lost, and I was pissed.

Enough to draft a sternly-worded letter, and deliver it to the owner. I included copies of the various invoices, the inspection report (this is important), and when the guy read the very last paragraph...he went white Seems that the car had somehow passed the state inspection...yet the inoperative items mentioned, should have been an instant failure. A failure, that had I been so inclined, would possibly got the 'garage' into trouble with the Dept of Transportation, and would have possibly destroyed whatever was left of their reputation.

They tried to rip me off, so I fought back. Not only did they have to refund some of the cash, but they had to agree to redo several things that they'd fucked up. While I was at it...I forced them to do some jobs that I didn't feel like doing. Things like putting the seats in properly (a bitch to do on an MGB), removing the dent from the hood (that *they'd* done), etc.

In the end, I still came out at a loss. But, I did enjoy seeing them squirm when they realized that I had them by the balls. Plus, my car is no longer held captive--I found a better mechanic near my house who is heavily into older vehicles. Guess who does my repairs now?

[blas]

That sounds like the same shady assholes that were running the Hotwheels place around here (and a sister lot which I can't remember the name right now, BOTH are out of business nowadays thank GOD!!!).

I never heard anything bad about either place until I'd already bought a "back row special" car from Hot Wheels.

Little did I know that that lot was notorious for selling lemons and passing them off as decent used cars, or under the guise of "Going to auction this weekend if they aren't sold by today", there was no real auction, they just wanted to get rid of the pieces of shit older cars that people traded in for the newer, sportier cars that were at the front of the lot.

The new cars in the front of the dealership were not certified or tested for quality. They were sold at extremely high prices and were just as much lemons as the back row special used cars were.

One woman was so mad at what she'd gotten (and she'd bought a newer car) that she picketed that place until the dealership got a restraining order against her. She parked that car in front of that dealership every day, she even vandalized her own car by spray painting "LEMON" on it, and "Don't buy from HOT WHEELS" on the other side.