READ THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS! - Levi Smith
READ THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS!!
This dealership has restored my faith (or lack thereof) in dealerships. As someone who has been turned off to dealerships and not used one in 10+ years, I took a leap of faith, and it cost me $500. At least that’s all it cost me.
The truck in question is a 2016 F150 with 91,000 miles on it, stock ID: J812 VIN: 1FTEW1EF0GFA75408.
Now, this dealer is 4 hours away from my house, and I had to travel to see it. The dealer asked me to place a “hold deposit” on the truck so it would still be there when I got there, which did alleviate my concern. I have since learned however that while this is a somewhat common practice it’s considered shady because most dealerships won’t hesitate to sell the vehicle out from under you and just return the funds to you. They will likely keep the money if you decide not to buy, padding their bottom line. So, I won’t make that mistake again.
After arriving at the dealership I had to wait a bit for my salesman as he was helping another customer. Then, once he was available he gave me the keys to the truck. Once I had completed my inspection/drive I came to several conclusions;
- The codes had been recently cleared
- The transfer case had a MINOR leak
- The truck vibrates between 75-85mph
- The leadframe likely needs replaced
- There is still an open recall for the PCM flash that protects the truck from rapid downshift from 6th to 2nd upon leadframe failure.
- There are 2 codes locked in:
U0452-82 and U0121-00
- The dealer did SOMETHING with the pano sun room, maybe replaced? Not sure.
When I asked the dealership how flexible they were on price they informed me they were a “No-Haggle” dealership. Something that until that point had not been disclosed and I cannot find on their website. It is also just a low accountability move by dealers, in my opinion, it’s the “easy button.” Either way, at that point I told the salesman that I guess I would go home them. He asked what issues I had with the truck, I gave him the list above and he wrote down what seemed like all of the issues. He said he’d get a mechanic to take a look and have a chat with me.
After a long period of waiting and just being left in the dark on what was going on, I texted the salesman that I was going to head home. At this point it was almost 2pm and I had another 4 hour drive ahead of me. He caught up with me, had the mechanic speak with me, and this is where it went even more sideways.
The mechanic assured me what I was seeing on the transfer case was not fluid leaking from the transfer case, just “road debris.” Personally, I’d like to know how “road debris” sticks to the transfer case, but not the whole thing just around the mating surfaces of the casing halves. He then, assured me the two codes (which could indicate a CAN bus communication issue, or a blown fuse) were just issues with the PCM and it needed flashed at a ford dealership. When I tried to argue this he just assured me his code reader was more expensive than mine. When I asked about the vibration, that I was very specific about, I was told that he “got it up to 70mph” and there was no vibration. They wouldn’t test drive it faster than that because the local speed limit. Guess if you buy this truck you should just stick to 70mph or below. All my other concerns were largely ignored.
When I got home and cooled off, I reached out and asked if since the experience was what it was, they would refund the deposit as a show of good faith, which they declined.
Heed the warnings of the negative reviews. I’d not recommend this place to friends or family, I suppose if you’re local it may be ok, but if you’re traveling to this dealership from a ways away…just don’t. Don’t waste your time or money. They’re sneaky, disingenuous, condescending, they will absolutely sell you a truck with problems. If you try to ask about the problems, they will just try to convince you they’re not problems.
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