THIS DEALER IS FRAUDULENTLY SELLING SALVAGED TITLE VEHICLES AS CLEAN TITLE CARS !!!!
Drove to Escandido from Los Angeles to test-drive and purchase a 2012 Ford Fusion Hybrid that was advertised by "Top Quality Motors" as having a "Clean Title" "Clean Autocheck" "No Accident". They had it listed on AutoTrader.
When I arrived it was imediately evident, upon a basic inspection, that the vehicle had in fact been in at least one accident. The front bumper cover had a hoge-poge bumper (bad bondo) fix just under the driver's side headlight fixture. The fit and finish gap under the headlights became larger from back to front, and the seam at the joints between the bumper-cover and the body near the wheel wells was not completly contacted. They had used tripple expansion liquid foam to fill behind the bumper, and the attempt at color matching the body paint was very poor. The salesman told me "I don't believe that there could have been a front accident, the headlights look the same on both sides...". "Of course they do," I told him "both of the headlights have obviously been recently replaced! They are newer than the car is. If you replace one, you have to replace both so that they match because a new lense will always make an older lense look terrible after a repair!"
Even still, because of the "Clean Title" claim, I took the car for a test drive to see if it was worth buying after negotiation on the accident issue and any other found issues. When I got in the car I found that the power driver's seat wouldn't adjust down in the front. It was stuck at the highest adjustment setting, so it was extremely uncomfortable. I took a knee and looked under the seat at the mechanism and found that it was extremely rusty, as if the vehicle had been water (standing water inside the vehicle) damaged in the past! Now I'm 6' 2" tall, and have owned several Ford models (large and small) in the past, and all with these electric seats. And I have NEVER had a problem fitting inside a Ford. When I told the salesman that the seat mechanism wasn't operating properly, he told me "Well you just may not fit the car...!" I couldn't believe my ears!
I checked the VIN# with my insurance agent after leaving the dealership. I found that the title was in fact a hidden SALVAGE TITLE !! Now I've rebuilt many vehicles over the years, from high end German models to luxury American cars. Never have I recenctly seen such a blatantly fraudulent dealership operation, with someone that was not only willing to lie about the vehicles that they have in stock, but to further fraudulently sell salvage titled vehicles as clean titles! The local police should look into this dealership!! read more