1 out of 5
Art & John's of 86 Bridge St., Newburgh, NY
All I can say is Deceptive deceptive deceptive.
I purchased a 2002 Ford Ranger from Art & Johns. At the time it was listed on eBay for sale as a "11 years young "Brand New Truck"" They listed it had such features as a CD Player, cruise control, and tires with 75% life on them. It was listed as 1 owner, and garage kept.
I bid on the vehicle as though it had such features. Upon winning the truck auction, I was asked for information to complete registration paperwork. I was charged a $100 doc fee for said paperwork.
I drove 4.5 hours to go pickup truck on scheduled day. When I arrived, Joe, the salesman, told me the truck was there and good to go. When he handed me paperwork, I was somewhat confused as the "1 owner" truck had 4 transfer papers attatched to it. The truck was not registered in my name and there was no temporary tag as I've received at EVERY other legitimate car dealer I've dealt with. When I asked about this he stated they weren't registering the vehicle it was my problem to deal with and was advised to move my tag from car that dropped me off onto the back of the vehicle I was picking up. He even was nice enough to provide the tool to do this illegal act.
Upon arriving at my home state of Maryland I proceeded to try and register the said vehicle. I was informed by the MVA (DMV) that the seller actually didn't own the vehicle, but 3 transfers back the paperwork was screwed up and that I couldn't register or own the vehicle when it was owned by Dartmouth College Trust Still. I was informed that the dealer should never have sold a truck they didn't own.
I then contacted my salesman who said he could make it right by calling the auto auction he purchased it through. I trusted this to be true, and went ahead and began the other process needed to register, such as inspection.
Since the truck had been inspected in New York as the dealer had touted, I was under the impression it would pass inspection, but upon inspection, the whole suspension required almost $2050 worth of work to be done. The dealer not liking the price offered to fix it (at my cost of bringing back and my time, not to mention driving illegally for 8 hours+ if I did bring back). I didn't want to go up to NY to have fixed because if there was a problem later it would be back to NY again and again. I got 2 local estimates (from national chains) and offered to cover $700 (tires) of the expenses if they would fix the other $1350 (suspension). I was told that he could do the work for "couple hundred dollars" and that he was within his rights to not do ANYthing. He then offered $500 to settle (still don't have). Reluctantly I agreed because I know as well as anyone else that to recover $2000 in court (whether you are right or wrong) costs money. I knew that the process would be more expensive than to just take the hit and fix the vehicle.
He then told me the auction house had st