Complaint Review: Sonny Manny Used Cars U-SAve Auto Rental - Binghamton New York

Don't buy a vehicle from this place!

I purchased a vehicle from this used car dealer on March 7th, 2006. It is now April 14th and the vehicle has had to be repaired three times, twice for what I sincerely believe to be the same ailment.

The first time it died on me, about a week after I got it, I had to pay almost $100 to have it towed back to their service shop. Supposedly they did fix it and I wasn't charged for repairs.

Upon getting it back, I took it to my local mechanic to have an electric brake controler for my horse trailer installed. While he had it, I asked him to check over the vehicle for any possible problems. He told me the tie rod ends were bad and it shouldn't have passed inspection, and also 3 out of 4 tires shouldn't have passed inspection. My local mechanic had no reason to misrepresent the vehicle's condition... he knew it was under warranty and I was planning to take it back to the dealer if it needed repairs.

I knew the tires were bad and was planning on replacing them myself, since I wanted particular tires on it, but the tie rods were another matter.

So I took it back to the dealer for work on the tie rods. This time they told me it wasn't the tie rods, but the ball joints that were bad and that those had been fixed.

No sooner had I gotten it back when the truck died again the very next day... with the exact same symptoms as the first time. Unfortunately this time I was 2 hours away from home and had a carful of co-workers with me returning from a meeting. The service manager told me he would talk to some people in his office and would get back to me. I never heard from him again... for all he knows we're all still sitting on the side of the road!

At any rate, I had to arrange transportation home for my co-workers and wait for someone else to come give me a ride to a local repair shop. I had the vehicle towed there and repaired. That bill came to over $600.00 I also had to make an extra trip of 4 hours up and back to retrieve the vehicle from the service shop.

Upon return to Binghamton, I went to speak to the service manager where I got the vehicle and he told me it was something totally different this time, and the vehicle was now off warranty and he wasn't going to do anything about it. Since I can't prove the second break down was the same problem (or that he "fixed" the wrong thing) I am probably out the money.

But I wanted to warn everyone else not to buy or rent a vehicle from this group of auto services. There is the used car dealer, the auto rental place, and the repair shop that are all associatd with each other. Since I have been talking to other people about my troubles, I have heard many other stories of this company having a very bad reputation. One person even said faceitiously, "Oh, is he out of jail now?"

They are definitely not concerned with customer satisafaction or worried about repeat business, or even about doing the right thing by people. More than the vehicle breaking down and costing me alot of money the first month I've had it, it was their attitude that was distressing.

Let the buyer beware! This is the kind of place that gives used car dealers a bad name!

AJ

Apalachin, New York
U.S.A.