I've waited a few months to post this review - I'll explain why…read more
Our 20 year old daughter wanted to buy her own car, paid for by her, all cash. She had her eye on used Subaru models. We spotted a 2004 Subaru Forester at West Raleigh Auto, called and drove down the same afternoon.
Really liked the car, the lot owner, Patrick, was extremely friendly and professional. We planned to come back the next day to get dad's opinion and most likely buy the car.
Came back following morning, test drove a second time, made an offer on car (considering how much daughter had saved for a car), Patrick happily accepted and she bought the car.
We noticed a few issues with car - rear view mirror was very discolored (with age), passenger window motor broken, car needed new wiper blades and car was not clean (it had literally only been on lot 1 day when we bought it).
Patrick gave us an IOU for complete detail, replace all wiper blades, new window motor and new rear view mirror. No questions asked.
We took the car home and I drove it back down to Patrick following Wednesday for the detail and repairs to be made - it took the mobile detail guy a few hours to clean, Patrick lent me a car from his lot and I just drove down to Crabtree Mall and killed the time. Very generous to lend me a car!
ONLY issue we have is the following week, our daughter was running a few quick errands, locally here in WF. After her third stop in about 1/2 hour, she came out of Dollar Tree and the car would NOT start. She freaked out, called us panicking and said she turned key over and it wouldn't start. Tried four tries until it started for her. OMG.
Car was only two weeks old to us and wouldn't start! What?! I texted Patrick immediately, he said bring it in on Monday, I'll have my mechanic look at it.
Monday, I drove car down to Patrick, he loaned me a car again and his mechanic tried over and over to replicate stalling. He could not get it to stall...
Long story short - we've owned car since first week of October. The car has stalled on me once (again after running a few quick in and out errands) and stalled on daughter on December 16. Very frustrating. Car will catch after a few tries but it undermines your confidence in the car.
Oh, and there seems to be an issue with the passenger window again - we had window down, car stalled, window wouldn't go back up. After a few tries, we got car started again and window back up but daughter refuses to let anyone put passenger window down now.
Saddens us that she saved up hard-earned money and there are still issues with the car but what can you do?
Update 1/8/18: rear view mirror that Patrick installed completely broken and fogged over. Car stalled again twice today before finally starting.
Final thoughts:
Would I buy from Patrick again? Maybe.
Would I get the car checked out independently before I bought it? Definitely.
Is he a stand-up guy? Yes, he did try to replicate issue and just couldn't get it to happen. He stood by his word on all fixes and the complete detail (guy did a bang up job cleaning her car).
Hope this review helps future used car buyers!