Public Mediation

Andrew A vs. Uptown Auto Imports

A. A. vs. Uptown Auto Imports
3329 Capital Blvd, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27604-3339, United States
Amount Involved: $3,940.00
    • Claimant Seeks: 1 non-monetary items.
    • Claim #: 1785666
    • Amount Involved: 3,940.00
    • Filed On: Feb 27, 2018
    • Posted On: Mar 16, 2018
    • Complaint(s):
      • Bad business practices
      • Problem with a product
      • Customer service runarounds
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Statement of Claim
Complaints Involved (4) - View
Claimant says:
"On February 15, 2018 Andrew Anglin drove to Uptown Auto Imports to look and test drive 1998 Ford Mustang. I returned on February 20, 2018 to take car to get looked at and possible purchase the vehicle. I was told about minor issues, so I decided to purchase the vehicle. I drove vehicle home to Rocky Mount NC 27804 and around 5:15 pm drove to work about 5 miles from my home. Wednesday did drive car until it was time to go to work . My shift is 5:30 pm to
2 am. Thursday took car to get knob for light switch, get new hose for radiator it was loose, and got oil change to prepare for trip on Friday to South Carolina. On Friday start trip to SC and 30 miles from my house car started force brake and jumping out of gear. I lost 5th gear so I pulled over and when I tried to go again the gears started grinding and I lost rest of gears. Had to get car towed back to my house. On Saturday my mother, brother and myself went back to Raleigh to Uptown Auto, arrived around 920 am they opened at 10 am. Talk with salesperson first then ask to speak to owner. Owner was called didn't arrive until 1150 am. give us the run around. Told us he couldn't do anything salesperson told us some things we repeat to owner then he said go get car check to see whats wrong and I will make everyone happy. Tried to get car checked out on Monday, February 26, 2018, got it towed to Tripp's Auto in Rocky Mount off Sunset Blvd. When he tried to start car he said transmission fall out so he didn't need to check it was the transmission, but on Saturday owner Adam J said Manual cars don"t have transmission just a clutch. On Tuesday, February 27, 2018 went back to Uptown Auto spoke with salesperson that sold me the car and he said owner will not be in until pm. My mother explained he told us to get car look at and come back to Uptown Auto and if he's not there then have someone to call. At first salesperson didn't want to cal said we should have called first owner won''t be in until 2 pm. Salesperson finally car I heard owner say he was sleep and would come in at 2 pm and call mechanic and then call us back. We are driving from Rocky Mount, everyday and I have to go to work at 530 pm losing sleep. Car was purchased on Tuesday afternoon broke down Friday morning. Owner trying to say in 2..5 days I messed up Transmission. I told him I think he sold car to me knowing it had transmission problems."
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Additional Communication Between Claimant and Uptown Auto Imports Hide
  • Mar 12, 2018, Uptown Auto Imports (responding party) added:

  • At Uptown Auto Imports we take our reputation very seriously and stand behind our vehicles. We inspect and drive all vehicles before making them available for sale. We do our best to make sure our customers are happy and get a great car.

    Mr. Anglin came to our lot to on February 15th and took our 1998 Ford Mustang for a test drive with no problems. He then came back on February 20th to take the car to his mechanic. After 4 hours he returned and with the mechanics approval he purchased the vehicle as is. After having a problem Mr. Anglin came to the lot with his family telling us he had a problem with the car. We asked him what the problem was and he said he did not know. We advised him to take the vehicle to the nearest mechanic to have the car looked at and let us know what the issue was. The way he described the problem it sounded like he burned through the clutch. When Mr. Anglin came for his test drive he had his friend drive the vehicle since it was a manual transmission and Mr. Anglin didn't have experience driving manual transmission vehicles.

    After Mr. Anglin took the vehicle to a mechanic, the mechanic told him the car had a transmission problem. We contacted Tripps Auto in Rocky Mount where Mr. Anglin had the car towed and asked if it was a pre-existing problem with the vehicle should the mechanic doing the pre-purchase inspection have caught it. He responded that if the vehicle had this problem prior, it should have been easy to identify. We then asked if the issue could have been caused by misuse of the vehicle and he responded yes. We then asked if this was a common problem with this car to which he responded, not with this car. The mechanic said they had advised Mr. Anglin to fix his car.

    We at Uptown Auto Imports advised Mr. Anglin to get in contact with the mechanic who did the pre-purchase inspection if he believes it was a pre-existing condition. If it was not a pre-existing condition and due to misuse of the vehicle Mr. Anglin needs to take responsibility and fix his car.

  • Mar 16, 2018, Claiming party added:

  • I'm sadly disappointed in Uptown Auto Imports for taking advantage of me. The lies and bending of the truth to make his business sound legitimate. If this business stands behind its vehicles then people wouldn't have to file complaints and make reviews on social media. On Saturday, February 24, 2018 while waiting on Adam J (owner of Uptown Auto Imports) to arrive the salesperson who sold me the car told us his story. He purchased a car from his boss (Adam J) during the holidays last year 2017. The vehicle broke down soon after the purchase and Adam J (owner) the told him he wasn't going to fix it and the car is sitting in garage behind business with $1500 dollars worth of repairs. If he screws over his own employee I know he would screw me. On a review in google, a mother wrote her daughter purchased a vehicle from there and within the month the vehicle broke down and she was told he couldn't do nothing. Female is working two jobs to cover repairs car is sitting in yard. This is a pattern for Adam J (owner). I wrote same responds to her he stands behind his car and he has a 3 month 4,500 mile warranty at no charge. But he doesn't do anything about the people he (Adam J) take advantage of. During Uptown Auto response they keep on talking about the pre inspection I had done on car, I never told them what the mechanic shop said. The car was with mechanic for about a hour. He did a general assessment of the vehicle no way for him to say the transmission was good without taking transmission out of the vehicle and that didn't happen. Also, Adam J (owner) states I let me friend drive car to pre inspection not because I was an inexperienced driver, but to get a second opinion about what he thought about the car. The vehicle always had little gas in it I believe this was done to keep you from driving far with the car, so you couldn't really feel the car out. I didn't get o real drive car until 3rd day I work 530 pm- 2 am driving only 5 minutes to get to work. so, Adam J(owner) is trying to say I messed up car in one day. Transmission don't broke overnight it takes time and he was hoping the problem would last long enough to clear him from responsibility, but it didn't last. Adam J said he called tripps auto repair shop this is where I took car pre Adam J request to have the car looked at an then come back and he'll (adam J) would make everyone happy, he lied February 24, 2018 was the first and last time we talked to owner. He gives us the run around and never returned any calls and finally telling salesperson to tell us he couldn't talk to us since we filed a complaint. I wet over today (03/16/2018) to verify if he called and found out what they told him. First of all
    Adam J (owner Uptown Auto Imports) stretch the truth and twisted tripps Auto repair shop words to work in his favor . Tripps told him that during pre inspection of vehicle you would have not been able to know if something was wrong with transmission unless they took it out of vehicle and that didn't happen during pre inspection. Adam J was trying to get tripps auto repair to say I messed up car and tripps auto repair said there no way to know if the prior owner messed car up or me. Tripps never told me to fix car like Adam J said they did. I never discuss any plans about the car with them. Adam J has been doing this for a long time and its not fair. People work hard for their money and shouldn't get ripe off. If Adam J was a respectable business man this situation would have been resolved long time ago. He not trying to take responsibility for has actions.

What Claimant Wants Hide
Non-Cash
What By When How Much
1. Repair: replace transmission and anything associated with transmission Mar 12, 2018 N/A
Cash
1. Refund: 3800 Mar 05, 2018 $3,800.00
2. towing Mar 05, 2018 $140.00
Cash total : $3,940.00
Non-cash: 1 items
  • -1
Do you agree with the claimant’s demands?  (If you are a party to this claim, click here.)
Respondent's Counteroffer Hide
The claimant's settlement terms were rejected with the following explanation:
  • I disagree with the explanation / grounds provided

    "At Uptown Auto Imports we take our reputation very seriously and stand behind our vehicles. We inspect and drive all vehicles before making them available for sale. We do our best to make sure our customers are happy and get a great car.

    Mr. Anglin came to our lot to on February 15th and took our 1998 Ford Mustang for a test drive with no problems. He then came back on February 20th to take the car to his mechanic. After 4 hours he returned and with the mechanics approval he purchased the vehicle as is. After having a problem Mr. Anglin came to the lot with his family telling us he had a problem with the car. We asked him what the problem was and he said he did not know. We advised him to take the vehicle to the nearest mechanic to have the car looked at and let us know what the issue was. The way he described the problem it sounded like he burned through the clutch. When Mr. Anglin came for his test drive he had his friend drive the vehicle since it was a manual transmission and Mr. Anglin didn't have experience driving manual transmission vehicles.

    After Mr. Anglin took the vehicle to a mechanic, the mechanic told him the car had a transmission problem. We contacted Tripps Auto in Rocky Mount where Mr. Anglin had the car towed and asked if it was a pre-existing problem with the vehicle should the mechanic doing the pre-purchase inspection have caught it. He responded that if the vehicle had this problem prior, it should have been easy to identify. We then asked if the issue could have been caused by misuse of the vehicle and he responded yes. We then asked if this was a common problem with this car to which he responded, not with this car. The mechanic said they had advised Mr. Anglin to fix his car.

    We at Uptown Auto Imports advised Mr. Anglin to get in contact with the mechanic who did the pre-purchase inspection if he believes it was a pre-existing condition. If it was not a pre-existing condition and due to misuse of the vehicle Mr. Anglin needs to take responsibility and fix his car."

This claim will remain posted until resolved.

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  • Contributed Solution: by Alan Trachtman On 03-21-2018
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    People generally believe claims made against used car dealers due to their well earned negative reputation, and while that may be true here, the statement of the claimant here, has numerous troubling aspects that make it hard to say that the seller is at fault here based on the incomplete evidence presented. The following problems with the complaint are rather obvious: 1: Nowhere in the initial statement does the claimant mention any warranty made either in writing or verbally by the respondent “Uptown Auto Imports”, nor any specific material representations about the condition of the car. It was apparently sold ”as is” and the claimant was offered the opportunity to have the car inspected by his own mechanic which he did. I doubt seriously that the seller ever told the claimant that the car “didn’t have transmission just a clutch”, as I’ve never heard anyone in the car business make such an obviously false and absurd representation” 2: The car involved here was a 20 year old Ford Mustang with a manual transmission of unspecified model. It could have come in two basic configurations. The most likely configuration is that it was an entry level hardtop with the standard V6, small engine. If so, this is an inexpensive car to begin with, and especially since claimant fails to even mention what the mileage on it was at time of purchase, there’s no reason to assume it’s the more expensive high performance Mustang GT model. 3: The claimant admits that he bought a car that he didn’t even know how to drive at the time of purchase. Using average figures for mileage etc., in “good” condition (choices in Blue Book are fair, good, very good & excellent), the car’s Blue Book trade in value is only $781. It’s Blue Book average selling price in a private sale is $1,920. A normal retail used car dealer’s price is of course typically higher, but it’s hard to make any assumptions as to what that should be in this case based on the few details about the car offered here. My assumption here is that the claimant is not an experienced “car guy”, was not a “smart buyer” in this transaction, and didn’t even take any of the commonly available protections such as getting a CarFax report on the car etc. This assumption is bolstered by the fact that he admits to buying a stick shift car that he didn’t really drive until 3 days after taking delivery of it as he didn’t know how to drive a “stick shift” car at the time. With only a few days to learn how, after originally deciding to buy the car, he obviously wasn’t experienced in the use of stick shift cars when he began to drive it. This can be a bit intimidating to drivers with such limited experience, and therefore the chances of driver error being the cause of the problem, in an inexpensive 20 year old car of undetermined mileage, should NOT be ignored here. If the car was indeed the more expensive, high performance Mustang GT model, the chances of this being caused by driver error are even greater. Were this a courtroom, based on the evidence presented, and absent any written warranty from the seller, I believe the case would be dismissed on the defendant’s first motion. Since that’s not the case here, my suggestion to the respondent “Uptown Auto Imports” would be to consider what his time is worth if he chose to continue fighting with this buyer, and offer him a settlement of $500, which, based on the selling price, I assume that he can well afford to do in this instance, based on my long experience with this business, I assume his cost on the car is most likely half or less of the selling price. If the claimant refuses such an offer, I think he would be making a mistake.
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