4th Jan 2012, 18:42

The sad thing is my car wasn't even $4000. It was $9999 dealer special. Supposedly it was a recent trade in.. and after looking at everything, I see WHY!

4th Jan 2012, 18:48

Thank you so much for your comment.. Well we have been taking the car to the dealership (go figure), and found out it's not just us that has been robbed by this dealer. We just moved to this area in Feb 2011, and amazingly that's when all of this stuff started to happen. The transmission shop found a foreign object in our transmission fluid, and the sad part is the transmission flush was just done about 5k miles ago!!! So yeah, we are in the process of filing a lawsuit against our local dealership, since it seems like there is some already up!

And I live in East TN, and labor is a bit higher for stuff down here... because we tend to hold on to our cars longer, or that's what I was told by the dealership, which again could be another line of BS...

Now they want me to trade the car in after my transmission job, and offered to give me $1200 towards a new trade... WTF!!!

5th Jan 2012, 08:54

You bought a 7 year old Focus with 91K miles on it for $10K?!?! Wow, you should have booked that car out before making any offers on it. If you book a 7 year old top of the line Focus right now, it is around $8K as a starting point. That is also assuming excellent condition, which is an impossibility according to any dealer, so the actual value would be around $7K. I am sorry you got so taken on this deal by a lousy dealer with no morals. I actually bought my brand new loaded up Focus SEL in 2009, and I only paid around $16K for it. It took hours of negotiating as we were over $3K apart when I started, but I left with the car, paying the price I came in with.

You really do have to research things very thoroughly. Dealers just love to steal people's money. I worked at a couple of them, and couldn't believe the crap going on behind the scenes. Don't be taken again. You have to research the prices and go in aggressively with a deal. I would never step foot in that dealer again though. Make sure you go elsewhere, and even if the lawsuit never goes anywhere, do what you can to report them to the BBB and spread the word. It is a tough thing to prove any dealer is negligent, so you have a hard road ahead of you there. If you can, find others in the same situation so you can get together on it.

Good luck with it!

5th Jan 2012, 19:53

"Now they want me to trade the car in after my transmission job, and offered to give me $1200 towards a new trade... WTF!!!"

So much for business ethics...

6th Jan 2012, 17:20

Car dealers and business ethics NEVER belong in the same sentence. Dealers are good for one thing... buying a new car... and even that is questionable, but unfortunately they offer the only place to get a new car... To buy used, you could go to a private owner and get a better deal. If you don't buy a really old car, you'll even more than likely still have some factory warranty. People seem to feel secure buying from a dealer like they would back you up if the engine blew up on the way home or something. It is a false sense of security. You are better off buying from a private owner unless you are buying a brand new car.

I use dealers for two things... the new car purchase and warranty work. I will never pay anything for repairs at a dealer ever again. Find a good recommended shop that you know will treat you right, and you'll always do way better than a dealer on repair costs.

7th Jan 2012, 12:00

I think you would be foolish to listen to another word that this dealer says. It's time to stop being a victim and take control of your life. Get the priorities straight, that is, going to college. Cars are just anonymous junk boxes that will come and go, every one of them. There is not a single car ever made that is worth taking the fork in the road away from college. There should not be a moment's hesitation about whether to fix a car or pay tuition. The car is nothing. It means nothing, it is nothing. Instead of dwelling on how everybody else ruined your life, filing lawsuits and the like, think about how you can take personal responsibility for making things happen for you. The dealer screwed you. Learning how to recognize and avoid people who will hurt you is a part of life. Move on, go to college, and get back on course. Let the car go, junk it, sell it, whatever, college students don't need cars unless it's to get to work.

7th Jan 2012, 16:36

Why is it that you will never use a dealership for repairs ever again?

8th Jan 2012, 09:55

My brother has been a mechanic for over 30 years, and he always tells me that dealers are where the less than stellar mechanics get the jobs. He said it's much easier to make a living as a mechanic at a dealer where you work on one brand of vehicle. Overall, you get less quality work. Plus dealers use all corporate parts, which in most cases are much more money than aftermarket parts, even if the aftermarket parts are better quality. Dealers also rely heavily on their service departments for pure profits, and make any unnecessary repairs they can, just to pad the bottom line.

I know private shops can do this as well, but that is why it is important to get recommendations from friends and family on good, honest garages. You establish a strong rapport with a private garage owner, and they won't take you for anything extra. Dealers are well known for this behavior. I've heard of horror stories from pretty much every brand's dealer network. These are the main reasons I won't ever go back to a dealer for service that I have to actually pay for.

10th Jan 2012, 10:22

Thanks guys, we are in the process of trying to find some kind of class action lawsuit against the Ford Focus. Now the rear end toe in (I guess that's the right word) is out of whack, and it is the reasoning for my back tires to do what they do. So yeah, they want another $800 to fix it.

Found out there was a silent recall on it... they would take care of it in the warranty period... but since it's out of warranty.. I'm screwed supposedly... And found the owners before me's maintenance records luckily. The car had a valve cover gasket replaced at 51k WTF!!! And all the windows regulators replaced before we got it.. No wonder they traded it in.

11th Jan 2012, 13:34

Well if that's the case, then why were you on a first name basis with the Chevy service department manager with the last GM that you owned, with over 90k and out of warranty?