Or, why I will never buy a car from a Hubler dealership again!
As you may remember, in October Becky’s car was totaled. After a few days we received the payout for the car and began the process of looking for something Becky liked. We were all over the place, we visited several dealerships and went through several online sites. While we found things that were interesting online they were usually gone by the time we got a hold of the dealerships that had them (no surprise there).
Then came that fateful night in November when we reluctantly set foot on the lot of Hubler Dodge, a friend of Becky’s recommended them. We saw a few that interested us, one in particular was a Mazda, nice green four door. We test drove it and loved the way it handled and looked. (Red Flag Alert: I noticed the two front tires were low and that there was a recent paper tag in the back window, I ignored these flags) We purchased the vehicle for cash outright and drove it home that night. Becky did the usual and took it to our mechanic to check the front tires and give it a mechanical once over. He called her later that day and told her that the front rims needed replaced as they were damaged and that there was valve damage to the engine, I was angry, Becky was devastated. We bought a used car as is that turned out to be a piece of junk. Then we reflected on that last red flag. It had a paper tag in the rear window already meaning someone else had bought it recently and returned it, probably for the same reason. Becky called and talked to them and they reluctantly said they would let her bring the car back and use the money we paid towards another car on their lot.
Enter nightmare number two, the Chevrolet Aveo. It seemed like a nice car, 2009 in nice shape it had the remainder of the factory warranty and we extended it by two years just in case. It was slightly more than the other so we had to finance the rest. Becky and I were pretty happy with our new purchase; it didn’t last long. That night, on the way home Becky said it hesitated a few times. We both thought it may be some condensation in the fuel lines so we rode it out. It was still doing it the next day when Hubler called, they needed us to come in and resign some papers as they had made a mistake on the loan papers, they had listed the down payment incorrectly.
I was quite angry with the whole situation so while I was fuming I read the back of the contract. Apparently if they list the down payment amount incorrectly the contract is no good. A bargaining chip. Then I went on line and looked at their inventory and I found our car still in their listing but at around $3000 less than what they made us pay for it. Now angry didn’t even begin to cover it. When we went in we went straight to the financing people. We sat down and she started pulling out papers for us to sign. I informed her that we were not going to sign anything right yet. She immediately got up and went to get the sales manager. I had printed out the web listing they had for the car. When I handed it to the manager he seemed slightly indifferent about it. He said we should have done our homework, I pointed out that they had jacked the price up by the amount of our down payment. I also let him know that I had read the back of the contract and then he was ready to do business or so I thought.
To his credit he did lower the price of the car to the advertised price but he failed to include the remainder of the factory warranty and I didn’t notice this. So we leave Hubler’s feeling slightly vindicated, we figured we could just take it in to the shop and have the problem repaired. We were wrong. When we took it in they informed us that it had a faulty oxygen sensor and a faulty strut mount. Unfortunately the warranty hadn’t even been put through yet so it was technically not covered. So we were stuck, they did call back though and decide to go ahead and do the work as the warranty would be in by the next day, they said it may cause further damage to drive it that way. When it was done we found that the factory warranty had not been transferred to us and there was a $100 deductible on the extended warranty. They “fixed it” we payed our hundred bucks and were on our way.
Two days later, it started doing it again. We called and returned the car to the service department yet again. Apparently there are two oxygen sensors and they should have replaced them both at least they waived the deductible that time again they “fixed it” and we were on our way.
Fast forward to today, I am on my way back from picking up the girls from school when the engine starts hesitating when accelerating. Then the check engine light blinked and stayed on. This is where the story ends for now. We have to call the service department yet again and have them see what it could possibly be this time.
I’ll keep you posted!
