Choice One Motors, LLC

Complaint: I am rejecting this response because:The fuel smell was noticed within minutes of driving off the lot at Choice One MotorsThis was well before [redacted] re-attached a hose from the evaporative canister [redacted] re-attached the hose in an effort to fix the fuel problemEveryone seems to agree that the evaporative canister was not the cause of the explosion and fire, which means that the car had a fuel system problem that was separate from the evaporative canisterWhen we brought the car back to Choice One, they did repairs; test drove the car and told us the gas smell was goneWe left and again within minutes of driving off the lot there was a fuel smellWhen we parked the car at our house, we notice a puddle of gas under the carWe found it hard to believe the mechanics at Choice One Motors knew nothing about such a prevalent fuel system leakAfter all when we bought the car they told us they had done extensive work on the engine, replacing timing belt, water pump and valve cover gasketsWhen we brought it back to them complaining of a fuel leak, they had a second opportunity to look at the engineWe decided to have a Toyota certified mechanic identify the actual problemThe car was not driven again until that morning when [redacted] attempted to drive the car to Groove ToyotaAs detailed in the 1st letter to Choice One Motors, the car exploded and caught on fireWe called Choice One Motors and when we did not receive a call back from the owner we wrote the letter asking for our money backAs detailed in our original complaint Choice One Motors sold us a car with a fuel leak that resulted in an explosion and fire at the intersection of Santa Fe and Mineral at rush hour which endangered my son [redacted] and the communityChoice One Motors has shown no concern for the safety of my son since the incident, and has only attempted to confuse the issues and deny all responsibilityWe suspect that they knew of the fuel leak when they sold us the carWe are still demanding a refundWe have received no offers for compensation from Choice One Motors because of this incident Sincerely, [redacted] ***

At this point I'm convinced that [redacted] is prepared to reject any proposal or explanation from Choice One Motors or myself that doesn't include a complete refundOnce again we find ourselves in dispute as to what exactly has taken place and what real evidence there is to back it upIn his latest response Mr [redacted] states that we all agree that the fuel leak was not in the Evaporative canister yet still has yet to say where it was or if in fact that was the cause of the fireAs I stated in my last response, I personally went down and examined the vehicle while it was at Groove Toyota after the fireI also stated that the damage I saw was on the opposite end of the engine and engine compartment where the evaporative canister is locatedI also stated that from what I was able to see that the damage didn't appear to be the result of a fuel fire periodThe last time I spoke with [redacted] on the phone (after I'd done my own inspection of the damage to the vehicle) he was very abrupt saying unless I was willing to give a complete refund he had nothing more to say to me, that he would talk with me further after he received word from the fire department and Groove Toyota as to the cause of the fireTo this day I haven't spoke to him nor have I seen anything in the form of a report from the fire department or Groove Toyota stating what the cause of the fire wasMr [redacted] instead has decided to plead his case to The Revdex.com saying things like he and the [redacted] family "feel" that Choice One Motors knowingly sold a truck that had problems involving a fuel leak yet has yet to provide a shred of evidence to me or the Revdex.com that the cause of the fire was even due to a fuel leakAt one point he says that after repairing the vacuum hoses that someone at Choice One Motors said the fuel smell was gone yet if you look I my last response I clearly stated that we told them just the opposite saying that it would take the evaporative canister a while to purge itself and that there would in fact be a fuel smell for a whileAt this point I'm convinced that Mr [redacted] will say or due anything to get his money backAt this point I feel there is no resolution to this matter because it is our position that Choice One Motors has done nothing wrongWe sold a used vehicle as is [redacted]

Complaint:
I am rejecting this response because: The fact that there was a fuel leak is evidence that the explosion and fire started from the fuel leakIt is hard to envision how the explosion would have occurred if there wasn’t fuel pooling up outside the engine somehowI would say that there is not a shred of evidence that the explosion and fire started from anything other than the fuel leakChoice One Motors sold a car with a fuel leak that endangered my son and the community, but insists they have done nothing wrongThey have denied all responsibility and offered us nothing to compensate for selling us a dangerous vehicle.
Sincerely,
*** ***

Tell us why here... To begin with let me clarify a few things by saying to my knowledge there never has been an issue of a fuel leak on the Toyota 4 Runner that [redacted] purchased from Choice One Motors. Also my staff nor myself have ever heard about any explosion in the fuel system. ...

That being said this is an account of the facts and what did take place to the best of my knowledge. To be clear for the record, [redacted] purchased a 1993 Toyota 4Runner from Choice One Motors on January 11th. of this year. The following day he called Choice One Motors with concerns of a gasoline smell. He was told to bring the vehicle back so we could check it out and see what the problem was. Our technician discovered that some vacuum hoses had been connected (or reconnected) incorrectly thus causing gasoline to be sucked into the evaporative charcoal canister which is part of the emissions system. When the canister fills up it has an overflow that dumps directly on the ground. When I questioned [redacted] about this, he admitted to me that he had taken a couple of the hoses off after spotting some cracks and may not have put them back properly. We told him that it would take a while for the canister to purge itself because it was full of gasoline and therefore he would probably smell it for a while, we also told him that it would be advisable to take the 4Runner to someone that understood servicing them better than we do. Eight days later we were notified by the [redacted] family that the 4Runner had caught fire while in route to Groove Toyota and the blame for the fire was being placed on Choice One Motors before anyone even knew the cause of it. A day or so later I drove down to Groove Toyota to inspect the damage from the fire. The first thing I noticed when looking under the hood was the fire had been more toward the front of the vehicle and more on top of the engine. I would note that the evaporative canister is more toward the rear of the engine compartment and didn’t appear to be damaged. In my opinion the damage appeared to be more from a possible electrical problem than fuel and I took several pictures which I still have. That afternoon I tried to discuss my findings with [redacted] father) but he was only interested in a full refund and when I wasn’t willing to comply he called me a crook and a liar. He said he would hold off discussing it any further until hearing back from the fire department and their findings. That was the last I heard  from the [redacted] family until receiving this complaint from The Revdex.com. In his complaint [redacted] says “Choice One sold us a car with a fuel system problem that exploded”. This is the first and only time I’ve heard the term exploded, to my knowledge there was never an explosion.  Mr. [redacted] goes on to say “They refuse to take responsibility for the fuel leak”. Once again there wasn’t a fuel leak, the fuel was running out of the bottom of the vehicle due to [redacted] tampering with vacuum hoses. Again there was NO leak either time the vehicle left Choice One Motors. [redacted] says “We feel that they new [sic] about the fuel leak when they sold us the car and were trying to hide the problem from us”. Once again there was never a fuel leak, the only fuel spillage occurred from the evaporative canister being full of fuel due to [redacted] tampering with the vehicle. [redacted] says in the complaint “They keep trying to confuse the issues and the sequence of events to CYA , and have given no apologies or sympathy for what happened, which is also suspicious behavior”. I can document dates and times as well as events pertaining to this matter accept the following day when [redacted] came in with a problem. The reason I don’t have any documentation for that day is because we didn’t charge [redacted] anything for correcting his mistakes and therefore there wasn’t a bill or repair order. The no charge repair was our way of sympathizing with his problem and trying to help him out, we didn’t apologize for anything because we didn’t do anything wrong, we just tried to help. As for suspicious behavior, from the moment we first heard there was a problem we immediately offered help by telling [redacted] to bring the 4Runner in. We repaired (as much as we could) a problem we didn’t create and for 8 days we heard nothing more. After I went down to Groove Toyota to have a look for myself I tried to talk reasonably to [redacted] but since I wasn’t offering the only solution he was looking for which was a full refund he resorted to name calling and cut me off with a last word that said I would hear from him as soon as he heard from the Fire Department what caused the fire yet I never heard back from him. Could it be because the Fire Department’s report was inconclusive or maybe it didn’t support [redacted] allegations? True this is speculation but at this point it’s all I have to go on since I still haven’t heard from any of the [redacted] family and I tend to think that’s suspicious. Twenty more days go by without a word and then the only word was a complaint filed with the Revdex.com. From where I stand it would appear that this is a last ditch effort by the [redacted] family to get the Revdex.com to help get them a refund they don’t deserve. In my opinion there was no wrong doing on the part of Choice One Motors and therefore we will not be issuing a refund to [redacted] or the [redacted] Family.

Complaint: 11133540
I am rejecting this response because:The fuel smell was noticed within 15 minutes of driving off the lot at Choice One Motors. This was well before [redacted] re-attached a hose from the evaporative canister. [redacted] re-attached the hose in an effort to fix the fuel problem. Everyone seems to agree that the evaporative canister was not the cause of the explosion and fire, which means that the car had a fuel system problem that was separate from the evaporative canister. When we brought the car back to Choice One, they did repairs; test drove the car and told us the gas smell was gone. We left and again within 15 minutes of driving off the lot there was a fuel smell. When we parked the car at our house, we notice a puddle of gas under the car. We found it hard to believe the mechanics at Choice One Motors knew nothing about such a prevalent fuel system leak. After all when we bought the car they told us they had done extensive work on the engine, replacing timing belt, water pump and valve cover gaskets. When we brought it back to them complaining of a fuel leak, they had a second opportunity to look at the engine. We decided to have a Toyota certified mechanic identify the actual problem. The car was not driven again until that morning when [redacted] attempted to drive the car to Groove Toyota. As detailed in the 1st letter to Choice One Motors, the car exploded and caught on fire. We called Choice One Motors and when we did not receive a call back from the owner we wrote the letter asking for our money back. As detailed in our original complaint Choice One Motors sold us a car with a fuel leak that resulted in an explosion and fire at the intersection of Santa Fe and Mineral at rush hour which endangered my son [redacted] and the community. Choice One Motors has shown no concern for the safety of my son since the incident, and has only attempted to confuse the issues and deny all responsibility. We suspect that they knew of the fuel leak when they sold us the car. We are still demanding a refund. We have received no offers for compensation from Choice One Motors because of this incident. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

To the Revdex.com or whom it may concern; This will be the final response from Choice One Motors involving this complaint. We've been over and over this and see no resolve. Mr. [redacted] keeps alleging that it was a fuel leak that caused the fire in question yet has failed to come up with a shred of evidence to substantiate his claim such as the report from the fire department he told me about  when we last spoke that he insisted on waiting for before we could speak again, or something in writing from Groove Toyota (the place I myself inspected the damage to the vehicle) stating that the fire was caused by a fuel leak or otherwise. We keep rehashing the same things over and over again and will continue to disagree until such time that Mr. [redacted] provides me with something in writing (besides his own allegations) that the cause of the this fire was due to a pre-existing condition that the vehicle had prior to his son taking delivery of it from Choice One Motors. Until such is evidence is provided Choice One Motors is closing the discussion regarding this case and will not be responding again.

At this point I'm convinced that [redacted] is prepared to reject any proposal or explanation from Choice One Motors or myself that doesn't include a complete refund. Once again we find ourselves in dispute as to what exactly has taken place and what real evidence there is to back it up. In his latest response Mr. [redacted] states that we all agree that the fuel leak was not in the Evaporative canister yet still has yet to say where it was or if in fact that was the cause of the fire. As I stated in my last response, I personally went down and examined the vehicle while it was at Groove Toyota after the fire. I also stated that the damage I saw was on the opposite end of the engine and engine compartment where the evaporative canister is located. I also stated that from what I was able to see that the damage didn't appear to be the result of a fuel fire period. The last time I spoke with [redacted] on the phone (after I'd done my own inspection of the damage to the vehicle) he was very abrupt saying unless I was willing to give a complete refund he had nothing more to say to me, that he would talk with me further after he received word from the fire department and Groove Toyota as to the cause of the fire. To this day I haven't spoke to him nor have I seen anything in the form of a report from the fire department or Groove Toyota stating what the cause of the fire was. Mr. [redacted] instead has decided to plead his case to The Revdex.com saying things like he and the [redacted] family "feel" that Choice One Motors knowingly sold a truck that had problems involving a fuel leak yet has yet to provide a shred of evidence to me or the Revdex.com that the cause of the fire was even due to a fuel leak. At one point he says that after repairing the vacuum hoses that someone at Choice One Motors said the fuel smell was gone yet if you look I my last response I clearly stated that we told them just the opposite saying that it would take the evaporative canister a while to purge itself and that there would in fact be a fuel smell for a while. At this point I'm convinced that Mr. [redacted] will say or due anything to get his money back. At this point I feel there is no resolution to this matter because it is our position that Choice One Motors has done nothing wrong. We sold a used vehicle as is. [redacted]