McKie Ford: your Local Certified Lemon Dealer
Early September 2021, I went car shopping. Why!? Because my daily driver had officially exceeded its value in repairs, and as a young woman I decided it's my time to build some credit and buy something reliable. Oh how wrong I was to go to McKie. Their only concern is getting positive reviews, which is awesome. As someone who runs a retail store and is the face of it, I totally understand the importance of doing this. My stipulation with this, is that that seems to be their only concern, not selling cars that actually run. I bought a car off of their pre-owned lot, "McKie Certified Preowned" is literally the name of it although they run through the same office. They were very upfront with me, saying they don't do full inspections on cars over 100,000 miles. Fair to say, and an accurate statement, they definitely do NOT do inspections. If they had done literally ANYTHING to the vehicle that I purchased, then they would have instantly seen everything that was wrong with it.
In my perspective, I don't know much about cars, I know where the oil goes and the gas goes, call me a bad car owner I don't care. They told me they do oil changes and check fluids, EXTREMELY BASIC THINGS, even I can do that. Not only did the sales management say this, but the mechanic on site had told me that the last owners had it for 5-6 years and that it runs fantastic. Isn't that great? That's what I thought too! I was like wow, they took such good care of it!
An hour after taking it home, I started getting a funny smell, something I was all too familiar with: coolant. Why me? That's all I could think and two months later that's all I still think. I took it back, told them what I suspected and they set up an appointment to get it checked out. I sat there for over three hours, on a day that I was supposed to work but had to call in, I told them that I think the water pump is out, and I noticed the brake line looks like it has a leak. THREE HOURS LATER: the dealership told me the same thing I had already self diagnosed it with. They didn't charge me for the diagnostic, which honestly if they tried to, I would have thrown a fit. I decided, since it's an import vehicle I would take it to a specialist, whom said that it was in their shop a month ago for the same issues!
On a side note, the mechanic (at McKie) came up to me and goes, "Are you the owner's daughter by chance?" I'm definitely not. I responded with, "I wish I was, because there's no way he would let his daughter drive a car with brakes that don't work." The hierarchy and absolute disrespect the owner has for its customers and employees is unbelievable. I would have never given them my business if I had known that things were gonna end up the way they were.
McKie told me that it was gonna cost me an additional $1,300 to get the water pump fixed, and probably another thousand to fix the brakes. That's whatever if you're an adult with decent credit and a good paying job, but the only thing I am is an adult. I reexplained my situation to my salesman, who transferred me to the manager. The manager told me there was nothing he could do until it was registered in my name. Fine. Cool. They said they would help pay for that. He also explained to me that I should have known I was buying a "project car." So I paid for the registration, $754 that I didn't have. McKie did not help, considering I spent every cent I had getting that loathsome thing in the shop. I got to the point where I didn't even wanna deal with them because they were being so difficult. I don't know who goes to a dealership to buy a so called "project car" but it's not me. I would have went to Facebook Marketplace, and a stranger on that would have had the decency to make sure I was satisfied.
I did end up talking to the owner, who was so extremely disrespectful, he wouldn't even hear what I had to say. He acted so conceited like what I was going through was my fault and not the fact that he was OK with selling a vehicle that had so many issues that my life was at risk. He said, "there's nothing we can do, you bought it you fix it." I walked out mid conversation. Now, financially, I'm not exactly a prodigy, I'm very young and wanted something reliable. He did not deliver. I cannot stress enough how terribly I was treated. I will be telling everyone I talk to what I went through, and how awful my experience was.
In sales, customer service and customer experience falls hand in hand, neither was good for me and wasn't improved. All of this happened over the course of 45 days, and even longer now. Someone really wanted their pockets full. Good for you. Hope you got what you wanted because I didn't. My experience was horrendous, I can only imagine how you treat every other woman in your facility. read more