Complaint Review: Greenwood Chevrolet - Hollister California

About 2 years ago I purchased my vehicle from this dealer. I paid a pretty high price for a used vehicle with alot of miles. I was trading in my 2 door for a larger vehicle to provide room for my new baby. I asked numerous times about the history of the vehicle and was told the car had no prior accidents, I was told the vehicle was clear of any prior damage period. Well, ablou 3 months ago I decided to upgrade to a larger vehicle with 3 rows. I went to a dealer to trade it in and to my surprise they pulled a carfax report on my vehicle. It showed that the vehicle which I thiught was perfectly fine had been in a major accident causing pilar damage to the center and the rear. Pilar damage is frame damage to the unibody structure of this type of vehicle.

So I then went to my insurance company who did a little research and found that it was in 3 accidents. Wow, was I surprised! Well I proceeded to call each insurance company listed on a report I got and found that my rear bumper had been replaced in the first accident, that my vehicle was broadsided in a 2nd accident (which was over $3500 in damages) and there was a 3rd accident which I have no idea what happened cause the insurance company could only tell me that it was hit by an undisclosed car while parked. So anyhow I called Greenwood to see what they would say. It is family owned and I spoke to one of the brothers who basically laughed at me. I then proceeded to court. I wrote a demand letter since it is the first step in filing in Ca.

Shortly after the owner Marty recieved the letter he called to set up a meeting. We met about a week later. He seemed really concerned and nice. He admittled that he would have not bought the car if he were us and if we would have known what we know now. He also showed us that he ran an "Auto Check" history report not a carfax report so supposidly he did not know. (come to find out that on that report it shows an accident also) Is'nt that fraud? The only reason he showed us part of the "Auto Check" report is because there is a $5,000 guarantee he asked us go to them and submit a claim for not properly reporting all of the accidents. He was on our side in admitting there was a sour deal here. He sent us off to do that on our own. We tried but no luck.

When we purchased the vehicle they did not tell us about the report (probably because the report showed an accident) and you must register within a couple of months to even make the guarantee effective. SO they blew that oppertunity too.  We met with him once more... he said he will do whatever it takes to make the situation better. He called his brother at thier sister store in Gilroy and his brother had just got a brand new vehicle at an auction like one we wanted that he said he could give us a great deal on. He told us to go to meet the manager in Gilroy the next day and look at the car. So we did. We go to check out the new car like we were told, but first of all the manager that was supposed to be there was gone, secondly the car was not even there at all.

We ended up talking to another guy and basically this was it. Marty, the owner never called us again and never apoligized nor did he ever return any of our messages left on his voicemail etc. So we wait and then we go down to the dealer when the car arrived. We meet with the same guy we spoke to a couple days earlier. He is so excited to show us the vehicle. Problem is that there is no 3rd row. Our main concern is that we wanted a third row. So they called us to go look at this car and it did not even have tho one thing we wanted. They did not even check before showing it to us. They still tried to sell it to us at some outragous price.

Good thing we said no cause come to find out that they bought it from god knows where and it can not even be registered in California. Go figure, not suprised. Anyhow they then tried one more attempt to sell us a new car and use the manufactuers rebates as some special incentive. But that is the manufacturers rebates not their discount! I asked for a better deal, they said no and off to court we go. Do not buy a used car form this dealer unless you want to get ripped off. Order your own reports and take it to your own inspector, cause you never know.