Project One Auto

Project One Auto responded

Thank you for your feedback, it appears there has been a lot of miscommunication and we want to make sure you have a direct line to our GM to resolve all of the outstanding issues that haven't been resolved. Please contact us at your earliest convenience so we can make sure this is communicated and resolved. Although the litigation you presented was dismissed as it was without merit; as a sign of good faith we did not seek any recovery of court fees nor press any charges for the slander on reviews such as this. In fact, we have refunded the money for the warranty, which was used successfully by you over half a dozen times, and paid in full for the replacement key that was never in our possession. We also offered to purchase the vehicle back even though it was 6 months after you purchased it, when you notified us of these issues, at the full asking price you paid, less shipping of the vehicle. Finally to clear the air we will respond to the items you brought up to make sure we live up to being as transparent as possible, even in our mistakes. First, we want to apologize for the experience you have had. Our dealership no longer sells salvage title vehicles because despite all of the precautionary steps we take as a dealership, there is too much risk in these vehicles having issues that technicians are unable to assess in advance. As you experienced, the vehicle you purchased seemed excellent for over 6 months of use until we heard from you. As the Carfax you signed showed, the vehicle did have a salvage history, and our dealership did not see any signs of water damage but could make no assurances as we had no records for the vehicle beyond what was provided by Carfax. As with all of our sight unseen customers, we do require an out of state inspection to be performed by an independent 3rd party chosen by the customer. This is to protect our customers from any mistakes or accidental misrepresentations made by our dealership as well as protect our dealership from being told we have made misrepresentations. Since you arranged to have the vehicle inspected by Audi, they should have been able to assess any water damage, but as was similar when our techs inspected the vehicle, there was no sign of any water damage. You also signed the paperwork stating you were willing to take the vehicle AS-IS, as our dealership has very limited resources to assist you in the part of the US we were shipping out the vehicle, so instead we offered the vehicle at a significant discount. There were no other promises provided in writing, expressed or implied. Our dealership performs a 120 point inspection on our vehicles before they are sold. This is to make sure all necessary maintenance and safety items are checked along with all core components of the vehicle along with title ownership. Advanced options such as multiple memory settings for seats, rear sunshades, rear climate control, etc are only checked AFTER all core components are checked. Due to the many options on premium brands such as Mercedes, Audi, BMW, etc we ALWAYS encourage customers to either spend as much time with the vehicle to make sure they are satisfied or instruct the parties performing inspections to test the options that are important to them. Since you purchased this vehicle 2 days after it was in our possession, we explained in the contract you signed we had only checked over our standard 120 point inspection of the vehicle and since no major issues were found, and Audi cleared the vehicle during your inspection we had no reason to believe there would be any ongoing issues. In regards to why the original employee was unable to work with you, serious health concerns caused him to take a leave of absence from which he has currently been unable to return. Normally our sales staff that you work with are trained and equipped to resolve any outstanding issues after delivery to have continuity rather than begin working with someone brand new. Due to the large gap of 6 months in between you receiving the car and having any complaints, the original employee you were working with was on his leave of absence, and as a result you worked with one of our managers. We apologize for the inconvenience in this area. We provided multiple warranty options to you, explaining the different costs and the different benefits and locations you could have the vehicle serviced. The warranty you selected and signed was for a powertrain warranty - covering engine, transmission, drive-train items and would only cover a labor rate of $120/ hour. That rate is comparable to Audi dealers in the northeast. However, the quotes the Audi dealership you took your vehicle to be serviced had labor rates in excess of $280/hour ~ which is more than Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and any labor rate we have heard of. As a result, the warranty company informed us they contacted Audi North America and no Audi dealerships were allowed to charge over $160 in the US. As a result, the warranty company was still willing to cover the $120/Labor hour rate, but the excess portion was not covered. The warranty never covered the premium options that began to malfunction as those were only covered by the top level warranty that was significantly more money. At the time the vehicle was sold, our dealership only had one key in it's possession, but was promised that we would have the valet and an additional key. When the vehicle shipped we included all keys we had, and provided the valet a few weeks later. Our dealership never received any additional keys and as a result was unable to pass them on. However, we did pay in full for an additional key to be provided to you. Finally, because of the nature of the vehicle and it's history, our dealership was able to sell the vehicle over $10,000 under comparable vehicles that are currently sold. At that price, there were very limited options our dealership had left to assist with some of the trouble that later developed with the vehicle. We tried to maintain contact with you regularly however, sometimes we did not have the time to follow up on these outstanding issues overnight as your emails requested. I apologize for the inconvenience that caused you. Again, we appreciated your purchase and have tried to satisfy you to the best of our abilities as one of our customers, and we hope the additional efforts we have made in refunding your warranty and providing an additional key have proven that to you. We wish you the best in the future and thank you for this opportunity to serve you.

2891oooo responded

I never received a single item or refund mentioned. I have spent thousands out of pocket to replace the transmission due to flood damage and both front and rear differentials and exhaust. I tried to resolve this without legalese but at the end of the day people will follow their moral compass!

Project One Auto responded

Thank you for your feedback, we sincerely apologize for the challenges it seemed you faced when working with us. We hoped that by responding it would alleviate some of the confusion of the misinformation it seems was either perceived or communicated during your experience working with us. Our GM would be happy to personally work with you to help you find a vehicle from any of our sources and sell to you at our cost as a way of showing our good faith in wanting to earn your business! First, our exotic vehicles are in extremely high demand due to their scarcity. That means in the very rare event they are not in our showroom, they may be at an inspection facility for a customer looking to purchase from out of state, receiving service at an outside facility, or occasionally movie studios will include them in feature films as part of the scenery (please note that our vehicles are always flat bedded and never driven on set or even turned on! When Christopher Nolan needed to have multiple exotic cars in his garage for Bruce Wayne to choose from, they had to get them from somewhere!). We know about any of these rare small windows of unavailability well in advance and as long as we are contacted by phone or email, we are happy to supply the dates/times the vehicles may not be available for viewing to ensure you can plan accordingly. Secondly, it appears you were informed of our deposit policy which allows you to have the exclusive option to purchase the vehicle you are interested in. If a customer waives purchasing the vehicle and the deposit, as a sound business practice, we will sell to the next willing customer. In this case, due to the great value of the vehicle, it was purchased online that night after our business had closed. That is why when we called you the following morning, we were calling to inform you the vehicle sold while we were closed and were unable to contact you sooner. Finally, we have a personal relationship with multiple lenders like Chase, Wells Fargo, etc. In fact we have over 10 different banks we work with to ensure you get the best deal possible! The bank you are referring to, Bank of America, stopped working with independent dealerships back in 2007-2009 as part of the restrictions imposed upon them by the Government aid they received. As a result, no independent in NJ currently works with them. When they commented on the book value of the vehicle, remember banks only refer to the wholesale NADA, Blackbook, etc value. So when they said we were selling the vehicle $400 above book, that actually meant $400 above the wholesale value the vehicle books out at. Which for a vehicle in this category just continues to reinforce the excellent value proposition we offer to all of our customers! Thank you again for your concern, and please do reach out so our GM can personally work with you to ensure your complete satisfaction!