We purchased a vehicle from Dylan at Hoover Southtown in May 2024. On the way home from the…read moredealership, the very day of purchase, the check engine light came on and the vehicle went into limp mode. I contacted Dylan about this issue, and a week later they sent a car hauler to our house to pick it up and have brought back for repair (we live 2 1/2 hours away). We had purchased the extended warranty offered the day we bought the vehicle also, but Dylan asked us not to contact the warranty company since it had happened so soon. A little over 3 weeks later, my husband & I drove back to Hoover and picked up the vehicle. I was never once mad or upset towards them at all about anything. I truly loved the vehicle I purchased and was so thankful & grateful to them for repairing & returning. There was no charge to us for a single bit of it, but again, it had happened the very day we bought it, so I wasn't expecting a fee of any sort, and was very thankful for that. Three months later, the exact same issue/situation occurred. We took the vehicle to a local auto repair that is certified in working on import cars of any kind, and we paid out of our pocket $460 for the same repair to the same system on the vehicle. Literally 3 months later, very same thing occurred. I took it back to our local certified repair company. They fixed the issue, but advised me if it happened again they recommended I take it back to the dealership for advisement. Middle of January, not even a month later, EXACT SAME ISSUE. I contacted Dylan who said if we could bring it to their repair shop, Ultimate Auto Care in Pelham, AL, that weekend that they would have their service guy fix it. So, I did. Almost 3 weeks to the day, I was in Cape Girardeau, MO with my daughter for a volleyball tournament, and yes, the same EXACT SAME ISSUE, happened again. My husband had to drive 4 hours to us to pick the vehicle up because he was too scared for us to try to get it home by ourselves. This is the point that I realized no matter how much I loved this vehicle, I couldn't keep taking a risk of it doing this again, especially traveling with my kids. My husband contacted Dylan about us possibly doing a trade for something comparable and he said for us to come see him. Yesterday we went to Hoover Southtown and I found an SUV that I liked. It was around $2,000 more than my original purchase, but we were fine with that, and expected a higher monthly payment. Our new payments were going to be around $400 more a month than our current one, and again completely fine with that. No issue at all. We went through all the paperwork and then Dylan told us he would need a $5,000 check from us as a down payment. I was stunned. He said the car's value had deteriorated $14,000 since we purchased it and that they actually did us a favor by not counting the cost of the current repair it was going to need. Let me say this, our credit rating I know wasn't the best, it wasn't terrible, but it didn't fall into a top category either. This was due to a close family member of ours getting into a very difficult financial situation due to a death, and we had been putting a bit of a strain on ourselves to help them. We have never once missed a vehicle payment, not once. What I never could get Dylan to understand though, is that it wasn't about us not being able to put $5,000+ down as a down payment. It was about doing the right thing, integrity, being a good business. They knew we had major problems the very day we drove it off their lot, and continued to for the next 8 months. I have all the service records from every single time it's been taken in for the exact same thing, with detailed notes from the mechanics. Their own repair person at Ultimate Auto Care had just "fixed" it 3 weeks prior to us being there yesterday. Dylan informed me on a text after we left (that I have) that they "can decide to put as much money into a car as they want to, but that doesn't change the fact that there are values they are somewhat bound by, to some degree, if they want to continue operating." His words. In the same text he also said they took about a $400,000 beating last year over values changing. His words again. So, basically they weren't going to take responsibility in any type way for any part of the situation. Again, he said they could decide to put as much money into a car as they want to, but even knowing the major issue we have had since Day 1 of purchase, that continued for 8 months, wasn't something they wanted to take a "loss" on. I don't know how that's doing good business, or what that says about the business morals or integrity of Hoover Southtown. The absolute worse part of all of it is that I absolutely LOVE my current vehicle. I don't want to have part with it. I truly teared up when I realized in Cape Girardeau that I had to. I just can't risk traveling with my kids and something like that happening again. I know there's nothing I can do, but I want my story to be heard.
