I recently purchased a truck from DK Auto Sales. I let the salesmen, David (the owner) and Emma know I was purchasing the truck to pull a travel trailer from Florida to Salem, OR. That I needed a reliable truck that would be able to pull the trailer cross country with no problems. I asked the salesman for an honest appraisal of the truck and he said it was a 8.9 out of 10 stars and was a very nice truck. I noticed a dent in the rear bumper and asked about it and the rest of the truck. He showed a picture of the dent and another in the rear quarter panel. He said other wise it had three or four dime size dents.
Based on the information of 4 DK staff and how nice the truck was I put a down-payment and booked airline tickets and campsites each night for the trip home. When I got to the dealership there were many, many dents and most were the size of tennis balls, not dimes. David said these could be removed by pointless dent removal.
I test drove the truck and the brakes did not feel right. David said they checked them and they did not squeak and no sound of metal grinding so that the brakes were fine and just how the brakes are on a one ton truck.
David let me know that there had been a CHECK ENGINE LIGHT on the truck, but they reset it and test drove it and the light did not come back on. He said the code was a EGR code and that it was for the exhaust gas recirculation and that it would not cause problems for our trip cross country.
This was now near the end of the day and the itinerary was set and camp sites reserved for the trip home. I was pressed for time. No time to bring it in for a mechanical inspection, much to my chagrin.
We began our trip. Less than 100 miles the check engine light came on. I stopped and purchased a code reader and reset the code, but it came right back on a few miles later. The truck was difficult to stop and I had to keep increasing the gain on the trailer brakes to be able to stop. Finally I had to stop a few hundred miles later to have the brakes repaired. The mechanic said the front pads and rotors were burned and that is why it was not Braking properly. That the brakes needed to be replaced to before being able to go further safely. The brake pads could not be found locally and after a two day delay we started looking on line and calling part stores and dealerships for the part. Finally some were located and after traveling nearly 100 miles the parts were purchased and brought to the shop (the place the shop got parts from did not have these brakes in stock and it would have been another 5 or six days delay before the parts were there). Over $800 later the brakes were repaired. The shop said the code was indeed from the EGR system. That it would two to three days to tear the truck down and clean the ports and replace parts. The mechanic believes we can make it through the rest of the way home, but that the repair needed to be made or the truck will completely stop running.
We are now where we should have been able to travel in 14 hours and it was four days ago that we left, a significant delay due to failures in the performance of the truck brakes. We set out tomorrow praying we will have no further problems on the trip and that the truck will continue to run and that we can complete the EGR repairs once we get home.
My advice, stay away from DK Auto Sales. If you buy, first have the truck thoroughly checked by a mechanic - DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT YOU ARE TOLD BY STAFF AT DK AUTO SALES without first finding out what you might encounter. I regret not having chosen another dealer. And I still have nearly 2000 miles to go on my journey.
I tend to trust people and to believe in their honesty, but I have paid for it dearly already. read more
