My wife and I went to TAG to purchase a Nissan 2005 XTerra for $8,800. Ronnie, the owner, told us that the car was "clean", and that Nissans as a rule were very reliable. So reliable, in fact - that he had just sold one to his girlfriend's mother.
I reached under the car and showed Ronnie the oil that was dripping from the engine. He reassured me that the oil that was dripping was left over from his mechanic changing the oil....that it was fine.
I pointed out that the tread on the tires were unnaturally worn, and were the tires okay? He said they had at least 10,000 miles left on them. The noise that we heard at high speed would go away when we drove the car for a while and the wheels "rounded out".
1 week after driving the car home - the SERVICE ENGINE LIGHT came on. The code was a Catalytic Converter code. The mechanic said that whoever sold us this car had "forced" the code off before they sold it to us....that the service engine light was on before we got the car, and to make it pass inspection, it had been shut off. Looking underneath the car, we saw that the 1st converter had already been replaced and the 2nd was on its last legs. I called Ronnie, and left a message regarding the code - he never once to this date returned my call.
I took the truck to a mechanic to address the noise at high speed. The mechanic with the truck in the air turned the wheels in the back and told me that the rear end of the truck was completely shot, the entire axle needing replacement ($1,500+ job). When I called Ronnie immediately afterwards to ask for a help with the repair, he told me "sorry, that truck was sold 'as is' " and wouldn't pay for a dollar of the repair....
I took the truck to another mechanic. Remember the "oil"? Turns out the oil cooler had a bad seal on the o-ring and was leaking nearly a quart of oil a week.
Each mechanic I brought my car to asked me "who sold you this?". They couldn't believe someone would sell a car like this to someone and be able to sleep at night.
Ronnie the owner seems like a nice guy at first - but he's really very bad at car mechanics, has the worst mechanic in the world, or is a deceptive person in general. Once he got our money - we were completely on our own.
He's new in business, and hasn't figured out that lying to people to get their money and turn them away when they catch the lie is a sustainable business model. I doubt he'll be in business very long and wish I'd never purchased anything from him. read more