Sun
Oct 24 2010
10:29 am
Poor business practice.
By: tnmike75

On Saturday, September 4 2010, my wife, my daughter , and myself traveled to Secret City Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Inc. in Oak Ridge to check out their sale. A salesperson soon pointed us towards a 2007 Saturn Vue. We were impressed when he told us it got 30mpg (25mpg depending on driving habits), he said it had side curtain airbags, and was valued over $18,000.
After a couple of days, we realized it only got about 22mpg, had no side curtain airbags, and was only valued at $15,000-$16,000. Upset , I called the dealership and spoke to a manager (Chad). He said he remembered us being there late that Saturday night and that we test drove the vehicle and had a chance to inspect it. I told him we would be happy to just trade back and he said that was not an option, so I left a couple of messages for the owner (Jimmy Cogdil). When he called me back, he told me he had to talk to his manager and get back with me.
After not hearing from him for a few days (said he called and left 2 messages but I think my Verizon phone is not giving me all of my voice mails), I filed a complaint twith Tennessee Department of Insurance and Commerce, Division of Consumer Affairs. I am now urging anyone that has had similar experiences to do the same and anyone thinking about shopping at Secret City Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Inc. to double check everything the salesperson says. Here is the address (link...)

Topics:

"Trust me, I'm a used car salesman"

Submitted by WhitesCreek on October 24, 2010 - 11:22am.

Your story should remind us all to do our research before we buy. Not every sales person is honest. There are several sites you can conduct car research on. Here's the one I use most often:
Edmunds.com

Three words f advice....

Submitted by harrimanite on October 24, 2010 - 12:24pm.

Three words of advice.... "Shop Roane County."

Not trying to be smart but I

Submitted by harrimanite on October 24, 2010 - 1:29pm.

Not trying to be smart but I have found that when you buy locally, the businesses are more apt to try to satsify your complaints or problems.

Well I don't think an Oak

Submitted by ConcernedCitizen on October 24, 2010 - 5:44pm.

Well I don't think an Oak Ridger, (a local buyer in this case), would have have been any better off than tnmike75 was if buying a car from that dealer. It isn't the location that makes the difference, it is the people you are dealing with. A crook is a crook and crooks usually don't care who they take advantage of.

Never buy a used vehicle the first time you look at it. If the salesman says the price will not be good if you don't buy the car right now run as fast as you can. As the old saying goes; if the deal seems too good to be true it usually is.

Take time to do some research on the car. Start at NADA.com and see what it is really worth by using the "trade-in" value as a starting point. The trade-in value is the most you are likely to get for it once you drive it off a retail dealer's lot. NADA.com also has all the information you will need about features and options the car should have.

Next, if you are still interested in the car once you know it's true value, go to CarFax.com and get a history report for the car to see if it has been in accidents, stolen or sold through a auto action. If it was ever sold through and auction you should consider that a red flag because reputable dealers keep the best trade-ins for resale and run the ones that have problems through the auction. CarFax.com will charge a small fee for the report but it is well worth it if you are serious about buying a used car.

The best advice for buying a used car... Buyer Beware!!

BTW, before so much good information available on the Internet, I got burned really bad on a used car deal by a big new/used car dealer in Harriman. I had to start the process of taking them to court to get them to make things right. They treated me great before I bought the car but they acted like they didn't have time to talk to me after they made the sale. I learned a lesson from them that I'm not likely to forget.

We just went to look. We had

Submitted by tnmike75 on October 24, 2010 - 12:54pm.

We just went to look. We had no intentions of buying. Thanks for the advice.

Saturn Vue issues

Submitted by CPhillips on October 25, 2010 - 5:15am.

I have not researched the years that are having issues, however my sister purchased a Saturn Vue and has had several issues with it. She had the transmission replaced once under the warranty. Her waranty has now ran out out the transmission needs to be replaced again. It is going to cost nearly $4000. From what what she has been told she can not have it rebuilt as the part are not easy to get due to Saturn going out of business. I would have the car checked out by a shop certified to repair Saturns. The closest one is the Caddy dealership on Parkside drive.

This is called "Buyers Remorse"

Submitted by roanelakey on October 27, 2010 - 12:32pm.

Anytime you buy a big ticket item, not long after the purchase you will have some sort of buyers remorse. It doesn't sound like this dealership did anything fraudulent in their transaction. The side airbag comment from the sales person could easily be an honest mistake, but as a buyer you should have checked it prior to the purchase. The MPG will vary on EVERY CAR no matter what. There are lots of varibles that effect MPG: tire wear, outside temperature, type of fuel that you buy, the way you drive the car, the weight in the car and much more. The value of the car wasn't very important to you at the time of the purchase, but now that the transaction is complete you are upset. With the wealth of knowledge that is available for values there is only one person to blame for this and that would be the purchaser. Sorry, but I think as the buyer you should be careful about the damage a post like might cause to their dealership when they did nothing wrong.

Two things here NEVER buy a

Submitted by Parkview Pres on October 28, 2010 - 5:52pm.

Two things here NEVER buy a car on the MPG statement because when they come up with that figure its on a test track under ideal conditions with people driving that are paid to squeeze every last mile out of a gallon of gas. #2 Never buy a car from a company that has gone out of business like Saturn did its to hard to get parts and when you do find them the price is out of site. Example a guy came to me for an AC problem found the compressor bad when I finally found one it cost $800. my cost. Also remember how much value you lose when you buy one and drive it off the lot.

WOW

Submitted by ArmyStrong on November 9, 2010 - 5:58pm.

"It doesn't sound like this dealership did anything fraudulent in their transaction. The side airbag comment from the sales person could easily be an honest mistake

WOW you must be rich!

WOW???

Submitted by roanelakey on November 11, 2010 - 3:12pm.

What did my comment have to do with money? My comment was in response to the previous posters statements. Your comment has no value and adds nothing to the post. If you are going to post please say something that is relevent to the situation.

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