So I’ve been looking for a new daily driver lately.
On Tuesday evening I saw a pretty looking white 99 GT convertible in the AutoTrader at Woltz and Wind Ford down in Heidelberg. Man, the exact color I want, low mileage, pretty much spot on for what I was looking for. Wednesday morning I got up and drove down to the dealership and arrived at 9AM. I didn’t see the white GT anywhere and was pretty dissapointed.
I walked in and no salespeople greeted me. Okay, no big deal I guess. I asked the receptionist for sales help and she overpaged a salesperson, explaining to me that they were in a meeting. A few minutes later a salesguy, I won’t mention his name (we’ll call him “the salesguy” from this point on) comes out and greets me. I let him know that I was here about the 99 GT in AutoTrader. He told me that he thought the car was sold, but wasn’t sure. He asked his sales manager who told us that the car had been sold, but the guy couldn’t get financed so the car was back up for sale even though the guy was still trying to get financed through his bank. Okay, whatever, can I buy? The salesmanager told us it was at their prep shop being prepped for delivery for this guy still, but that the salesguy could take me down to look at it.
The salesguy asked me if I could drive him down. Sure, so we hopped in the 5.0 and drove down to their prep shop down the street where the 99 GT was up on the rack with no wheels on it. The salesguy told me it was getting new brake pads and new tires all around, along with an oil change. I was told I couldn’t start the car up on the rack. Okay, well it looked super clean and I visually inspected it thoroughly.
**I then asked: “Does it run well?”
The salesguy responded: “Yeah, runs perfect, just needed new brakes and tires for the guy who was buying, that’s all. And we’re changing the oil too.”
Sounded good. I drove the salesguy back to the dealership and we talked price and came to an agreement. I told him that I would not buy the car without first test driving it, but gave them an $800 deposit to hold it for me. They approved me for financing and we agreed on a payment. He told me that the car would be ready by 5PM that day, but I had to work until 10PM.
**I then told the salesguy that I would either come in at 9AM tommorow morning (today), or call him tommorow to setup a later time, perhaps on Saturday. He told me that the car would definitely be ready by then and that he’d be here as well. I let him know that it’s somewhat of a hike for me to get there as I live up in McCandless. He assured me again that the car would be ready. Great!
Shooks hands, left.
Made arrangements for my dad to take me to the dealership this morning. Showed up at 9AM ready to drive my new Mustang home. The salesguy did not look happy.
**Salesguy says: "I thought you were going to call first? Weren’t you supposed to call?
Me: “No, I said that I’d either be here at 9AM OR call if I couldn’t make it. I’m here.”
Salesguy: “Well, the car isn’t ready for you”
Me: “What? What are you talking about?”
Salesguy: “Well, they found a short in a wire under the drivers seat and are fixing it now. I’m not sure when it will be ready. Could you come back Saturday?”
Me: “No, it was supposed to be ready now, where is it? I want to see it.”
This is where is starts getting good.
Salesguy took me for a long walk around their service area looking for the car. Finally we find it parked out back with the hood open…upon inspection we find that all the fuel injector wiring harnesses are disconnected and a spark plug and coil are pulled.
Now I’m getting worried. I asked the salesguy to go get the keys. He brings them back and tells me he drive the car up to my house tommorow morning and we can test drive it and sign the paperwork then…I never got a chance to mention the disconncections under the hood. This is where the mechanic comes in.
Mechanic: “Don’t try to start that!”
Me: “What are you guys doing to it under the hood?”
Mechanic: “A bunch of stuff is disconnected”
Me: “I know, why, what are you doing?”
Mechanic: “The car needs a new fuel system. The injectors are clogged. We going to replace the injectors, fuel filter, and fuel pump and flush the fuel lines.”
Me: “So what, the cars not running at all?”
Mechanic: “It’s running, horribly. Real bad”
You’ve got to be kidding me. God only knows whats wrong with it.
Salesguy: “Uh, well, will it be ready by tommorow morning?”
Mechanic: “No way. We won’t even get the parts until tommorow around noon”
Me: “I want my deposit back”
So the salesguy runs inside with me following. He then tells me that they cashed my check around, and can’t get my $800 back to me for 10 days and they’d write me a check from the dealership. Pretty crappy, but what was I going to do…I had him write me a receipt that they’d refund my check and left.
Two hours later the salesmanager called me and tried telling me that they weren’t trying to sell me a bad car.
Salesmanager: “You have to expect stuff like that from a 99. Bad fuel injectors are normal for a car that old”
Me: “I have a 95 GT with 90,000 miles that’s never had a problem with bad fuel injectors”
Salesmanager: “The mechanic thinks it was just water in the gas that caused it”
Me: “I’m not interested in that car. If your salesguy would have been upfront with me and told me it had problems, I wouldn’t have wasted my time and gas money today coming to look it again. I also wouldn’t be out $800 for the next 10 days.”
Salesmanger: “We’ll call you if we get something similar in.”
Don’t bother. I won’t waste my time with that dealership again.