If you don't have a minute to read this, I will get to the point: do yourself a favor and do not buy from Select Auto SF. I don't care if you save a few dollars, it is NOT worth it. It will cost you more in the long run to repair the parts they said were new in the engine. Better to ride the bus than have dealings here.*
Things started off well enough, but then we purchased our used vehicle (June 2013). It was weekend "sale priced" at $6,000, down from $8,000. The Blue Book value on the car for purchase from a dealer is $6,000 assuming the car is in pristine condition. With the various scratches, chips, a noticeable ding, and a few holes in the leather interior, this one was not in perfect condition, but I didn't really mind paying the asking price. She ran well, and had a new clutch the dealer Shaun said.
Then I took it to a mechanic after purchase.
The clutch was not new; it was on its last legs. The mechanic said that they might have replaced the disk, but not the bearings and that I would only have a few more miles then would have to replace the clutch properly with a new clutch kit. Also, we had the air conditioning looked at. The mechanic new right away that someone had already been messing with the air conditioning as soon as he opened the hood. Upon closer inspection it had a busted seal, no Freon (coolant) and was apparently missing some vital crew to hold the whole thing in place and was too on its last legs. He could not stop commenting on the fact that he had never seen someone come in without that screwed in place. Once the seal was fixed and Freon injected, we realized that the air was not regulating properly. The air compressor and another part was about to fail and that would cause "black death" meaning the failed compressor would shoot metal bits through the whole system and need to be replaced. These are things one might expect from a used car dealership, but I still was not expecting such blatant lies, particularly about the clutch being new.
I would have been irritated enough with that, but then came all of the problems with paperwork. Again and again there were things Shaun had forgotten to either get from us or things we turned in which were fine according to the dealer then rejected by the finance company. They had a new person take over for Shaun at Select Auto SF, and Kevin was the new guy for us to deal with. He tried to be nice, yet the paperwork dragged on. I emailed documents (as each request came in) to Select Auto SF along with a call to let them know it was sent, only to have the finance company they use, Lobel Financial, call me saying that they never received certain documents. Eventually I was told I could call Lobel directly. I spoke with a secretary who asked her boss to speak with me. I hear another woman shout back that they don't deal directly with clients and that they only speak with the auto dealer. She then repeats this to me. At the time of this writing, Lobel has apparently decided to break this rule and it speaking with me directly to get this sorted out. The cherry on top of all of this is that it has been a month since we "purchased" the car, and we are still sorting out the mess of paperwork Select Auto SF left us with. Not only that, Jackie, the agent we are working with from Lobel, let us know that our payment was late. What??? Apparently because the paperwork is taking so long a notice wasn't generated to bill us and they didn't think to let us know ahead of time about it. I understand personal responsibility, but it would have been nice to have a little more warning that we weren't waiting for something in the mail. Oh, then we got a call from ANOTHER person at Lobel, Karen, saying that we didn't have paperwork in that had been previously been sent to Jackie. Plus the threats of repo from staff not familiar with the case. The ridiculousness over this deal just doesn't seem to end.
In closing: don't buy from Select Auto SF. All you will get is a busted car and a headache. Kevin has assured me that he is a different kind of salesman than Shaun, but all I know is that we overpaid for a car based on lies from this business. To add insult to injury, to hear a salesperson says that they will "take care of you" and try to "make it right" after all of this by ensuring my paperwork gets done, (which I did myself btw) it is almost too much. That's that's your job. It's not doing me a favor. One more tip: If you do purchase from them, get your financing done ahead of time with your own bank if you can. Our other car is financed through San Mateo Credit Union and they are a delight to work with.
(*Please note that the dealer I first dealt with is apparently no longer in charge. The new sales manager says that they will be more honest in the future, but he never did anything to remedy the lies I was told.) read more