Encinitas Ford

Review: I purchased a vehicle for my son in May of 2012 from Encinitas Ford. It was a used vehicle with 98,000 miles. However, the salesman and the dealership assured me that it had been thoroughly inspected and was in excellent working and operating condition. The first time my son drove it, which was a few days after the purchase, the horn went off and wouldn't stop blaring until we crawled under the hood and disconnected the cable. We went into the dealer immediately and after keeping the truck for several days, told us they couldn't "duplicate the problem" and sent us on our way. It happened again. We took it back in and again after keeping it for several days, they finally diagnosed the issue and did the repair. A few months after that, we had some serious issues with the tires; one had worn down to the metal mesh. We took it into a tire retailer because we were already disgusted with Encinitas Ford's service department. They told us the tire had worn down because the vehicle was in bad need of a wheel alignment. This was clearly not a new problem, however, we did the service and bought 4 new tires. A few days ago my son was not able to rear shift the vehicle. We took it into Encinitas Ford and expected them to work with us even though the vehicle was out of warranty since we had bought it from them not too long ago and our son had only put 8,000 miles on it since that time driving back and forth to his high school. They kept it for 2 days and came back saying it needed a complete transmission overhaul for $3100. Their service tech [redacted] admitted to me on the phone that the repair was "admittedly premature". When asked if they could work with us since we had purchased 3 cars from them in 5 years, his response was rude, unprofessional and basically NO. I expressed my disappointment in the quality of the vehicle they had sold us since it was clear that a proper inspection would have diagnosed this issue on the horizon. His response was again a complete unwillingness to help us. We had the truck towed to another service provider. The other mechanic we took it to, a transmission specialist, said that had they done a thorough review of the transmission, they could have caught the issues that were starting to develop. They clearly did not and sold us a vehicle that needed a complete transmission overhaul in a year after purchase. Their records also appear to be faulty in terms of the tread on the tires, because the vehicle would never have needed a complete set of new tires if it had the tread they claimed it had when they sold it to us. I am convinced they either neglected or hid the repair issues from us prior to our purchase.Desired Settlement: I would like to be reimbursed for the cost of the transmission overhaul we had done at the other shop. We ended up spending over $2900 on a new transmission for a vehicle that was poorly inspected and sold to us with existing issues that I am convinced were either neglected, glossed over, or intentionally hidden. My confidence in the honesty and integrity of this dealership has completely been shaken.

I think it was unreasonable for us to have to replace a transmission in this vehicle so early. I believe the reason it got so expensive was that the necessary repairs/inspections were not done prior to selling us the vehicle. The service department for this dealership is either incompetent, dishonest or both.

Business

Response:

I will address her concerns in order;

1. Horn Concern:Encinitas Ford repaired a horn concern at no charge to her, When the [redacted]s took delivery on 3/30/2012 the horn was operating normally. Soon after deliver on 4/2/2012, due to a “black box “failure, the horn would intermittently activate. This was clearly undetectable at the time of sale, and repaired at no charge to the [redacted]s on 4/6/2013.

2. Tire Concern:The tires were inspected and measured during the pre delivery inspection on 2/27/2012 with 98,371 miles. The front tires measured 7/23” tread depth and the rears measures 8/32” tread depth. On 7/26/2012 the truck was serviced with 100,184 miles, and the tire tread depth was recorded at 7/32” or greater on all 4 tires. I am not aware of when or at what mileage the [redacted]’s replaced the tires, but based on our data the truck tires were in good condition at the time of sale and wearing normally 5 months and 2,000 miles later.

Transmission Concern:

3. During the pre-delivery inspection the transmission was serviced, fluid replaced, filter cleaned. There were no abnormal conditions detected by the technician during the service operation or the road test. The truck was sold with a 1 month 1,000 limited power train warranty. The [redacted]’s had owned the vehicle for 15.5 months and traveled 9200 miles at the time the transmission was determined to need replacing. Clearly the vehicle was not covered by the warranty. Clearly we were unable to predict that the transmission would fail during our pre-delivery inspection. Ms [redacted]s Complaint states the problem Occurred on 4/11/2012. The correct date for the problem occurring as it relates to the transmission is actually 7/23-2013 with 107,680 miles

Ms. [redacted] claims “the service department for this dealership is incompetent, dishonest, or both”. I assure you we are neither. Ms. [redacted] refuses to listen to reason, read her purchase agreement, and accept the fact that she bought a vehicle with 98,000 miles with a 1 month 1,000 limited power train warranty.

Sincerely,

[redacted]. [redacted]

President and General Manager

Encinitas Ford

Encinitas CA. 92024

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Actually this dealership is not offering anything at all to resolve the issue with the transmission. They are basically saying "tough luck, you bought a used vehicle. Too bad you trusted us..." "Buyer beware" is not exactly an offer of anything is it? The technician I ended up taking our vehicle to (and they are transmission specialists) said specifically that had Encinitas Ford done a proper transmission inspection, which would include dropping the transmission and looking at the parts, they would have been able to catch the issues before they became so major as to require an entire rebuild. They could have made some simple parts replacements and repairs, but clearly they were more interested in maximizing the profit they made off this vehicle sale. They should know better than anyone that simply test driving a vehicle is not enough to catch potential transmission repairs. This was the third vehicle purchase we made at this dealership and when this transmission repair came up, all they could do was basically remind us that we bought a used vehicle. The service Manager [redacted], did absolutely nothing to even discount the repair or work with us in the interest of loyalty and customer service. In fact, initially they wanted to charge us $300 more than shop we ended up taking it to.

Also, I have a very hard time believing the so called measurements on the tires that Mr. [redacted] is repeating in his email. Based on my previous experience with this dealership, I have little doubt that their technicians wrote down arbitrary numbers. In fact, I am going to prove it by sending you copies of the tire replacements through Evans tire so you can see that the wear and tear doesn't add up to what he is claiming.

I will also scan and upload my transmission repair slip that will clearly show the worn parts that needed replacements which could have been caught in anything more than a "superficial" overview of the car before they put it on their lot for sale. Mr. [redacted] could have worked with us to mitigate the unreasonable cost of replacing a transmission with only $107,000 miles on it, but he chooses to dig in to his position and assert his "buyer beware" message. He could have avoided going through the Revdex.com had he behaves like a business owner that cares nothing about customer loyalty and customer service. But then his attitude is reflected in the type of interaction we have had with each and every one of his employees in the service department.

His response is completely unacceptable. And so is having to replace a transmission so soon...

Regards,