I'm having a hard time giving these guys a good review for a lot of reasons. Keep reading if you want to learn more, if zero stars were an option I would still stick with just one star for the simple reason that their staff was friendly. But the rest of this far outweighs everything else:
The vehicle had a "hidden" smoke smell in it. Dealer covered it up with air fresheners and as soon as I took them out, the cigarette smell came back. I found cigarette butts behind the dash and un rear seat crevices. Must have had a pet because there was pet hair everywhere in the truck that took me forever to get out.
Let me set this next part up and state that I am an ASE master certified master mechanic just so you know I am a descent judge of work done to vehicles.
The wiring jobs absolutely suck! The ground connections are not done correctly and inadequately grounded to the chassis. Too big of an amp for cheesy speakers that were blown when I got the truck, wires that are too long are not cut too length but just bunched up and pushed into a corner of the engine bay. Previous owner straight torch cut the spare tire and mount out of its holder in the back of the truck and it cannot be repaired without replacing the frame cross members. There were obviously stacks in the bed, took them out and did not bother to repair the hole. Just covered up with a drop in cheap plastic drop in bed liner. Something was done to the rear bumper mounts where a mess was made with an Acetylene torch and the bumper mount was partially cut up. The steering gear backlash wash totally out of adjustment and the steering wheel had wayyyyy too much play in it.
The vehicle was in an accident and should have been totaled due to a buckled frame and I now know why it wasn't. The previous owner probably didn't report it to insurance and took it to his shop (New Franken Auto Sales/Service) and did some more acetylene torch work to it and tried straightening the frame out with a hammer. Damaged frames are almost always a reason for vehicles to be totaled! Not to mention that the bed was cheaply painted over and is now chipping; come to find out from a local body shop, the bed has been replaced because of an accident and the cab has a cracked weld between the bed and cab! I have a better eye for mechanical things than body damage and I really got suckered by the initial appearance of this truck. Not to mention he also left buffing compound all over the nooks, and cranny's of the truck and its bitch to get out when its dry.
Here is another biggy, when I bought the truck from Village Auto, the transmission started slipping on the way home and would not shift down into first gear! I limped it back and took it to a tranny shop, clutches were all smoked and the pressure transducer was bad. The worst thing was that it would only show an issue once it was fully warm and the fluid viscosity thinned out. So in the fridged temps of WI, it appeared to have no problems. Previous owner also did some front end work to steering components. Why would you go so far as to replace upper ball joints and not do the lowers? That's just retarded. There were also 2-tie rod joints that should have been replace on the pitman arm and drag link but apparently they were too hard for the last guy to change.
Now lets talk about the rust, prior owner did not care at all and Village auto should have made an effort to at least clean some of it up. I know that WI heavily salts their roads but that is all the more reason to protect the underneath of a vehicle from rust by cleaning and painting. Speaking of general maintenance, just about every fluid was in a huge need of being changed. The fuel filter looked like it had never been touched, the air filter was filthy, the transfer case oil was probably never done. I had Village Auto change the rear diff fluid because it looked milky. The batteries were replaced with those really expensive optimas, problem with that is the CCA rating on the optimas is actually lower than the batteries the truck normally calls for. I mean seriously, right down to the basics the quality of work by the previous owner is terrible.
I can go on about the things I keep finding on this truck that were half-ass installed. It was only because of the upgrades I decided to go with it but I am really starting to regret that decision.
Yeah things might look good on the outside and appear awesome, but the previous owner, Dean Noel of New Franken Auto Service and Sales was a master of hiding the things that he did wrong and very sloppy work when adding upgrades and doing anything mechanical Don't trust him, you'll regret it.
Moreover, the fact that village Auto claimed they had this very detailed inspection to certify vehicles and missed so much on it, really makes me doubt how thorough they really were. I should've gotten this truck at a Salvaged title price at the least with frame damage! read more
