-00000 Stars: AVOID. RUN as if from the craftiest con artists: ("Con artists" are said to engage victims' trust via manipulatation and interpersonal skills and to employ deception and trickery to cheat them.
I thought I had found on-line a perfect replacement for the car that I had lost in an accident. Plus I never had experienced friendlier, more seemingly helpful treatment by any business. I even had a pre-purchase inspection by what I believed to be a reputable, independent business.
Before receiving the inspection report, I told the MCCJ person in charge at the dealership that if the report was good, I planned to fly to pick the car up and drive it back to my home state. His creative, specially crafted response was to drop the price by $500 , ostensibly to make it possible for me to avoid such a "long," "difficult trip" which he said he had discussed with the person in charge of the inspecting shop. Although I disagreed about the trip being too long and difficult, I had special-needs pets whose care I was deliberating; so I let his offer persuade me.
BIG MISTAKE; I did not realize that by accepting it, I was robbing myself of the opportunity to reject the car due to defects that I could not identify via photos and as it would turn out, would not be reported by the inspection shop. The car I saw when first delivered: One fender was zip-tied on! Others were loose with pieces missing from the wheel wells; and every panel was scratched, some deeply.
I was shocked and profoundly disappointed. But, remembering the "As Is" declaration I had signed, I simply headed straight for a body shop to find out how much it would cost to put it into decent condition. There, I was delivered the worst blow! A rusted-in-place, buckled frame-rail (essential protection in a rear-end collision and evidence of an unreported accident) + extensive underbody rust made the car too unsafe to drive and unrepairable. Several more shops concurred.
When I called Iowa's Consumer Protection division of the Attorney General's Office, I was strongly encouraged to open a case with them. The lead investigator with whom I first spoke was incensed by the problem, telling me that they could not have been ignorant of the car's rusty, unsafe condition because they had their own auto shop. And she said, based on what I had said, because they had broken the law, I could expect to be fully compensated.. This suggested to me that she already had them on her office's radar, possibly already had experience with them.
At this point, I should say: This office was only empowered to pursue the matter due to the broken laws. Had they swindled in the absence of a law against the specific dishonesty, the "As is" declaration might have precluded collection by them, as the Consumer Protection Office is considered law enforcement instead of a legal office to protect individual consumers.
[Since you have read this far, you might also be interested in this. At encouragement by Consumer Protection, I did try to engage an Iowa attorney. Twice, I called every private attorney office whose description seemed to indicate that this was their area of expertise. There were many. With one exception, all refused because they either only defended dealerships (What does this tell you about the trustworthiness of car dealerships?) and or a few who only took cases in which there were already physical injuries. The one exception was a lawyer who refused because she had changed the focus of her practice.
Also, I learned that Iowa has a legal protection office, "Iowa Legal Aid" to help elderly people who are citizens of the state. Not being an Iowa citizen, I didn't qualify.]
I have waited nearly 3 years to write this because that is how long it took Consumer Protection to effect reimbursement. Credit to that office for their ultimate achievement, though it often felt as though my case had been buried and once, I found it had been closed without notice. Fortunately, it was re-opened.
Good Luck in finding a suitable car from an honest seller after evaluation by an honest, truly independent shop and only after eyeballing the car and test driving it yourself. Skip MCCJ; and before doing business with any other dealership, look up their licensing with the state. read more
