[redacted]WARNING DISHONEST DEALER/OWNER[redacted] I recently purchased a 2007 Ferrari F430 from this dealership. I was told that this was the owner of the dealership's personal car although the owner never revealed his identity and never once corresponded with me directly. When I asked to speak with him/her the sales staff responded by saying he/she is very private and would rather not. This car was adversitied on Autotrader and Cars.com as a pristine well cared for car with a recent Pre-purchase inspection performed by Boardwalk Ferrari of TX. The staff did a great job providing pics and vids of the car to give me a good visual of the car given I live on the east coast and would be buying sight unseen. They provided a copy of the service record for the work that was performed by Boardwalk over the last 30-60 days which included a clutch replacement, fuel sensor and other work that totaled $12k. The presentation of this Pre purchase inspection, the reassurance of the sales staff that I'm buying a "turn key" car along with all the due diligence I did on my part I decided to buy the car. Fast forward a couple weeks later (Monday the 28th of November) I received the car via enclosed trailer. That night I drive the car 5 miles home and by the time I got home, the car smelled like gas. It was bad enough that the smell of gas was penetrating through two sets of doors and coming into our living room. That night I also noticed lifter and valve noise from the engine that was very disconcerting. The next morning I called the my local Ferrari shop Competizione and towed the car there to have it checked out by the two owners/master Ferrari certified techs. They did a inspection of the car and found a cracked fuel pump leaking fuel which explained the strong gas smell. There was gas sitting on top of the pump creating a seriously dangerous environment for a mid-engine car. That was just the beginning. The techs could hear the unusual exhaust note so they inspected and tested the driver side header/exhaust manifold and found that it was cracked and damaged. To make matters worse the headers had been in this condition long enough to spit metal shavings back into the cylinders and damage the cylinder walls. The techs discovered this by using a scope to visually inspect the cylinder walls. We are now talking about $50,000 plus worth of damage on a car that cost less than $100k. Headers $6-$8k, fuel pumps $1500-$2k, engine rebuild $40-$50k.
My mechanics asked to see a full copy of the pre purchase inspection report. They made me aware that what I had in hand from the seller/owner was just the receipt for the items addressed not the full report and Boardwalk Ferrari's recommendations for repairs. I asked both MBNWA and Boardwalk Ferrari but neither would provide it. They insisted what I had was all there was. So an inspection report without a report ?!
I took the photos of the cylinder walls, the videos of the engine noise and all the other evidence I had and shared it with MB. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed that they didn't know these issues existed (I know that the owner knew exactly what he was doing). I offered to ship the car back to them at my cost $2200 total round trip plus $1100 in mechanics costs incurred and asked for my money back. No one in the right mind would pay almost $100k for a car that needs $50k in repairs when it reaches them (I've driven the car 5 miles since it left the delivery truck).
Instead of doing the right thing and taking the car back, I was told the PPI stated the car was fine so they will not take on any other responsibility.
Anger, frustration, sadness, pain, hurt, taken advantage...all feelings I've felt over the last few days. I worked eight years to make this dream come true and overnight they turned it into my worse nightmare.
If the owner of the dealership has no ethics, what can you expect from operations and the general way this group does business. Do your homework before you put a penny in this dealership's pocket. It goes without saying that I don't recommend doing any type of business with this dealership. I'm willing to talk on the phone and share my experience with anyone looking to deal with them.
[redacted]WARNING DISHONEST DEALER/OWNER[redacted] I recently purchased a 2007 Ferrari F430 from this dealership. I was told that this was the owner of the dealership's personal car although the owner never revealed his identity and never once corresponded with me directly. When I asked to speak with him/her the sales staff responded by saying he/she is very private and would rather not. This car was adversitied on Autotrader and Cars.com as a pristine well cared for car with a recent Pre-purchase inspection performed by Boardwalk Ferrari of TX. The staff did a great job providing pics and vids of the car to give me a good visual of the car given I live on the east coast and would be buying sight unseen. They provided a copy of the service record for the work that was performed by Boardwalk over the last 30-60 days which included a clutch replacement, fuel sensor and other work that totaled $12k. The presentation of this Pre purchase inspection, the reassurance of the sales staff that I'm buying a "turn key" car along with all the due diligence I did on my part I decided to buy the car. Fast forward a couple weeks later (Monday the 28th of November) I received the car via enclosed trailer. That night I drive the car 5 miles home and by the time I got home, the car smelled like gas. It was bad enough that the smell of gas was penetrating through two sets of doors and coming into our living room. That night I also noticed lifter and valve noise from the engine that was very disconcerting. The next morning I called the my local Ferrari shop Competizione and towed the car there to have it checked out by the two owners/master Ferrari certified techs. They did a inspection of the car and found a cracked fuel pump leaking fuel which explained the strong gas smell. There was gas sitting on top of the pump creating a seriously dangerous environment for a mid-engine car. That was just the beginning. The techs could hear the unusual exhaust note so they inspected and tested the driver side header/exhaust manifold and found that it was cracked and damaged. To make matters worse the headers had been in this condition long enough to spit metal shavings back into the cylinders and damage the cylinder walls. The techs discovered this by using a scope to visually inspect the cylinder walls. We are now talking about $50,000 plus worth of damage on a car that cost less than $100k. Headers $6-$8k, fuel pumps $1500-$2k, engine rebuild $40-$50k.
My mechanics asked to see a full copy of the pre purchase inspection report. They made me aware that what I had in hand from the seller/owner was just the receipt for the items addressed not the full report and Boardwalk Ferrari's recommendations for repairs. I asked both MBNWA and Boardwalk Ferrari but neither would provide it. They insisted what I had was all there was. So an inspection report without a report ?!
I took the photos of the cylinder walls, the videos of the engine noise and all the other evidence I had and shared it with MB. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed that they didn't know these issues existed (I know that the owner knew exactly what he was doing). I offered to ship the car back to them at my cost $2200 total round trip plus $1100 in mechanics costs incurred and asked for my money back. No one in the right mind would pay almost $100k for a car that needs $50k in repairs when it reaches them (I've driven the car 5 miles since it left the delivery truck).
Instead of doing the right thing and taking the car back, I was told the PPI stated the car was fine so they will not take on any other responsibility.
Anger, frustration, sadness, pain, hurt, taken advantage...all feelings I've felt over the last few days. I worked eight years to make this dream come true and overnight they turned it into my worse nightmare.
If the owner of the dealership has no ethics, what can you expect from operations and the general way this group does business. Do your homework before you put a penny in this dealership's pocket. It goes without saying that I don't recommend doing any type of business with this dealership. I'm willing to talk on the phone and share my experience with anyone looking to deal with them.