I bought a car from Howard Smart which he claimed to have fixed up and had 'nothing wrong with it'. When buying a used car, you can never expect the car to run forever with no problems; my experience was far worse than that. -The car had a really bad clunking noise and we offered a lower price because the shocks were bad. Howard said if we paid asking price he'd replace the shocks, then (after we bought the car) said he'd only 'fix what was wrong with it'. We later drove 2 hours out only for him to blow us off for 3 hours and then tell us there was no problem. -The car's back wiper didn't work. When we drove out to have the shocks checked, he told us that the guy who could fix it was in the hospital. So you can't fix anything, Howard? -After only a couple hundred miles, the car's Check Engine light came on for a bad exhaust catalyst. Howard had obviously reset the ECU codes hoping it would last enough to make a sale. -When we pulled the dip stick, it didn't even register any oil in it after a couple hundred miles. Pretty odd for an engine Howard said had been completely torn apart just before we bought it. -The car's ABS light came on because there was a bad connection with the ABS unit. This happened within 500 miles. -We were merging onto the interstate when the car's timing belt blew about 2000 miles later. Howard had told us that he'd just done the head gasket (and when you do head gaskets, you do timing belts). Howard told us 'You pay for the parts' and refused to pay for a tow back to his place. We paid over $4000 to get the engine fixed at VIP because we desperately needed a working car in the middle of the winter. -The car's front brakes were completely shot. Did I mention that Howard does all his own inspections on the cars he sells? The calipers were seized and the rotors were heavily scored. That was another $800 to fix both calipers and rotors. -The clunking in the car's front end turns out to have been a real thing! That's going to be over $900 to fix. Too bad Howard magically couldn't hear it when he took it for a test drive. Howard Smart is dishonest to the people he sells cars and I would absolutely not trust him to work on any vehicle of mine. This man has no human decency and sees customers as prey. Stay away. read more

Howard is a scumbag. I drove an hour with a trailer and 2k cash to buy a car and tow home. He sold the car 10 minutes before arrival and then ignored all my calls. Not surprised he's got a reputation on here. One dealing with this leech was enough for me. read more