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DARCARS

Lanham, MD

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Stephen of Bowie, MD, writes:
I purchased a new Chrysler 300M in Pennsylvania in December 2000. The list price of the car was in excess of $30,000. I recently relocated to Maryland which requires license plates on both front and back. I contacted the nearest dealer to request a front bracket which had not been provided on purchase. The "Manager" attempted to charge me for what he referred to as an "accessory". He became very abusive and told me that he had not "made a penny off me and was not going to give me $25.00 from his pocket" He also told me that Chryslers' problems weren't his dealerships.

I recently had a heart attack and have developed asthma as an after effect. After being berated by this person, I began having asthmatic symptoms and chest pains.

Michael of Upper Marlboro, MD, writes:
On 10-14-99, I purchased a 1999 Jeep Cherokee Laredo from this dealership. We bought this jeep as a demo and at the time we received it, it had 5,495 miles.

Prior to completing the sale, the salesman and manager told us a wheel had been stolen off the Jeep while it was parked on their lot. They showed us a damage report claiming they replaced the wheel/tire, and all the locks. They showed us the top of the form which described this info and the total of $965.27. we purchased the vehicle for $26,535.00. As soon as we drove off the lot, we noticed it was pulling to the right.

We brought the vehicle back and the dealership allegedly realigned the front end. This helped somewhat, but didn't fix the problem. Then, while washing the Jeep,, we noticed the left front end of the hood had been repainted. Now suspecting this vehicle had been in an accident, I ran the VIN through the NICB computer system in my Police Station. (I am a homicide detective.)

This check revealed that the new "Demo" Laredo Dar Cars Jeep sold us was actually stolen from their lot on 12-31-98, and was not recovered until 02-24-99. At the time of the recovery, the vehicle had been driven 3,941 miles and we suspect had been damaged during this time. I spent approximately one week obtaining statements, police reports, etc. to prove our position that we were not sold a "New" vehicle, but were sold a "Used" vehicle for the price of a new vehicle.

When we confronted the dealer and Vice President of Dar Cars, Mr. A., he denied any wrongdoing and claimed the vehicle was still "New." They refused to take the vehicle back unless we purchased a 2000 Laredo and paid "only" $50.00 over what they say they paid for the Laredo.

As a result, we are stuck with a damaged 1999 stolen/recovered vehicle. We bought a demo because we couldn't afford the $30,000-35,000 price of a new one. Now all the 1999 vehicles are sold and we don't know what problems may occur with our jeep down the line. Finally, I have obtained documentation describing what Maryland considers new or used. Clearly, they are in violation of the state law.

Good work, detective. Now for the remaining piece of evidence -- what does the sales contract say? Salesmen like to describe used cars as "demos" but oral representations are meaningless. We're still awaiting the verdict on this one.

Sheila of Marlboro, MD writes:
My 98 Ford Taurus engine blew up and the dealership says it going to cost nearly $5000.00. They were only willing to pay $1000. I have a 24 valve V6 engine. This is a brand new car and I didn't expect to have to come up with $4000 in less than 2 years. I have contacted Ford several times by mail and the customer service reps are not helping at all.

I have learned that Ford has had several problems with their Taurus engines since 93-95. I am being forced to eventually turn my car back in for loan default because I can not invest $4000 into a new car and still continue to make payments. Because Ford refuses to stand behind their shaggy low-down defective engines my credit will be tarnished.

This is really hard on my family since this was our family car and I'm borrowing the company car and I don't know when they're going to ask for it back. I've had it well over a month and I just purchased a new home weeks before this happened, and where I live there is no public transportation.

August 21 2008

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