From: walrus@bessel.umd.edu (Grig Larson)
Newsgroups: dc.general
Subject: Car Places
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:43:11 GMT
Organization: Punkadyne Industries(tm)

Well, since we are on the subject of car places, I might pass along where
I was burned very heavily.
 
Brown's Honda of Alexandria is run by one of the more sleazier car dealers
in the DC area.  This is my story (shortened for bandwidth).
 
We needed a used car for about $3000.  At the time, there wasn't a whole
lot of dealers selling a car for that low.  Brown's Honda had a 1987 Chevy
Cavalier for "sale" for $3995.  I looked up the price (call a bank, much
more reliable to give you a loan value than, say Edmunds) and found it to
be marketable at about 2900.  We settled at $3200.

Two weeks later, the car broke down.  Merchant's Tire and Auto fixed a
broken fuel injector at $300.  A week later, the car died again.  This time,
MTA said they might have installed a defective part, so they looked at the
part, it was broken, so they traced the problem back to the computer core
of the fuel system.  Gee, the computer core had been "hammered so hard, it
was a surprise it was operational at all."  That's a $600 bill to fix now.
We called Brown's, and they said it was our problem, not covered under our
100% warrantee.  We said it was, but we couldn't find the warrantee so they
mailed us a "copy."  Of course it was different than the first one.  We
found our original and said it was.  We also told them that their copy was
not the same one we had.  We faxed them the original, they said that it
did not cover the computer core, and we bought it "as is."  My wife, carless,
was very mad, now.  We called channel 7 consumer news and the BBB.  We got
a call the very next day, saying they would repair the car :).  But, it had
already been fixed, so we said for them to pay the bill.  They wouldn't pay.
So I had a friend pretend to be a lawyer and call them about a court date.
The manager apparently "never worked there."  So I called, pretending to
be a "pal" of his, and I got right through to him.  I said I was recording
the call (I wasn't) for legal purposes.  Instead of being silent, he made out
a check and paid for our repairs.  Then the alternator broke, but a friend of
ours gave us his.

Now, admittedly, this isn't much of a big story, but I am pissed at them
for many reasons:

1- They knowingly sold us a defective car.
2- They lied to us about the warrantee.
3- They lied about who worked there and who didn't.
4- I had to threaten them with consumer organizations to get them to budge.
5- They have the morals of... well, used car dealers...

Let's face it, buying a used car is a gamble.  I just want to shorten the odds
for you.

That's "Brown's Honda of Alexandria."  Avoid it as a wiser net.reader.
 

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From: Steve.Rose@f601.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Steve Rose)
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