To Cars Etc, I apologize that this public statement, which I’m making voluntarily, is overdue – I’ve been backlogged for the past few weeks and am just now catching up. But the point of this is just to share with my friends and colleagues what became a positive experience with Cars Etc in the end after my complaints (which for the most part I believe should not have been made public) were resolved in what I felt was a very responsible manner.
I’m a fairly chill guy. Some even say too much so. But as some of you may remember, a few weeks ago I sent out ~ 4 or so facebook updates regarding that I was upset with my car situation and in particular expressing confusion as to how the Chevy Blazer I had purchased could have had so many “surprises” that weren’t revealed to me at the point of purchase but seemed to rise to the surface 3-5 weeks afterwards.
But let me start from the beginning.
Back in August I realized that it was time to get a car. I had been consciously without one for over a year in Knoxville for a variety of reasons (which I’ll publish later – in a nutshell, it was due to environmental, political, humanitarian reasons – if you want a quick summary of some of my viewpoints check out http://www.commutesolutions.org/TCODBro.pdf).
I didn’t want anything fancy. My previous cars were still relatively new and usually under warranty so I never have had to deal with “used car issues” before. I just wanted something that ideally I could take to the mountains and camp in from time to time – so, as much as it pained me to admit it, an SUV made sense.
Given that I’ve been doing probono nonprofit work for the past year, my goal was just to pay something under $5500 in cash that would last for about a year. After this time, I’d sell the car or give it to a family member and, ideally, live in a City again with mass transit or – better yet – live in an environment where just about everything is within walking distance.
After the 15 minute test drive, I thought I was getting a good deal. I knew Cars Etc had a good reputation and so I had a lot of trust, too, when making the purchase.
But the car had a lot of problems. The windows would get stuck a couple of weeks later, the fuel gage became broken (it would show empty even if full), the passenger side floor was always wet due to some kind of leak, the sound system appeared to have been replaced with an older used system, and so forth. And, honestly, these things I figured just were bad luck and my responsibility to get fixed if I wanted to. Fair enough. Caveat emptor. Even though the CARFAX report showed no history, I was fine with this stuff for the most part.
But then on the way to Nashville I felt my flexibility and easy-going nature start to stiffen up a bit. The car had overheated due to what I later realized was “stopleak” in the cooling system. Essentially, this is like putting gum down a pipe to stop a leak but of course if you put too much of it in, it’ll stop the flow – in this case, of antifreeze – altogether. This would have been easy to detect – in fact, it just would have taken 2-3 minutes to pop the hood, open the cooling system and recognize that this could turn into a big problem if not addressed soon. But, something that all consumers need to be aware of is that car dealerships don’t have the time, resources, or policies in place to do full inspections of the cars they sell. It’s up to the buyer to have it inspected (I was able to do it for the second car I got from them for $35 down the street in less than 40 minutes) by a mechanic before buying the car to make sure that there are no huge red flags that could turn out to be big costs later. Without question, everyone should do this before buying a car because it’s always possible that the dealer even has the best of intentions but just doesn’t know what the red flags are either.
Anyway, so even with this, I was planning on just getting a new radiator altogether and move on. But then after I got back in the car after a great trip to California, the brakes went out. Entirely. I was in Nashville on Charlotte Ave and the brakes just completely froze. I nearly avoided a serious car accident as I pulled over to the side and let the car sit. The next day, I drove it across the street to National Tires & Brakes (NTB) where they showed me the brakes.
“Everything needs to be replaced; this car shouldn’t even be on the road. These brakes could have caught on fire,” they told me.
I called Cars Etc after this and asked what I should do. At this point I think the car was less than 5-6 weeks old and it was just beyond me how all of these problems could have come out of nowhere, especially a really big one that would cost under two-thousand dollars to fix (according to the quote I had in my hand) and put my life in danger. They said if I paid to get the car towed back to Knoxville that they would be nice enough to take a look at it. So, the next day, I rented a UHaul with a car trailer for under $450 (including gas) and dropped the car off and then paid $35 to take a taxi home.
What had happened, it turned out, was that somehow motor oil had been in the brake fluid. This caused a lot of friction on the brakes and the brakes went out a lot faster than they should have. It was just one of those fluke things that happens practically never and they couldn’t figure it out. It was, in a nutshell, an outlier.
As were the rest of the long list of problems – their point to me, which was well taken, was that they’ve been around for decades and have a great track record. The greater majority of the cars they sell are top-quality vehicles and while unfortunate, the Chevy Blazer I happened to get was just a matter of bad luck on both ends. To judge the dealership based solely on my one experience was biased and, to have made it public was impulsive and out of emotional stress from the entire situation. In retrospect, I apologize for this.
There are other factors at play here too. Several people have suggested “it was Chevy Blazer, enough said,” to, “I should have taken more time out to do research.” As such, to blame a used car dealership for problems known to happen to a car isn’t fair; it’s up to the consumer to know the history of the year and make they’re buying beforehand. Goes with anything. Doing the homework is crucial.
Anyway, but the important part is this – Cars Etc handled the whole situation very well. Realizing the whole situation was a fluke that seldom happens, they offered to trade the car in for another one on the lot. They didn’t have to do this, but they did. I found a similar GMC Jimmy SUV and drove it to be inspected, things checked out, and then that was that. Additionally, they made it clear that they’re available to answer questions in the future – even help with maintenance from time to time. James even took some time out to pop the hood of the car I had just traded in for and point out a few things to me which was very nice of him; since all of this has happened I’ve learned a ton of practical information about how the inside of a car works.
What impressed me the most was the story of how Cars Etc was founded by James Hensley in 1983 with less than a few hundred dollars and grew into a successful operation with, again, a great reputation. I respect this so much. Anyone who starts from practically nothing knows how important it is to always do the right thing and seek improvement continuously. On that point, Cars Etc is really the only dealership in town that I know of that goes to the lengths it does to educate all of us on the inner workings of the business through their site as well as what is happening in the industry. It’s not surprising that they won the 2009 Best of Knoxville award and are beloved in the community.
I doubt that my complaints had any measurable adverse impact on their business, but just in case, I wanted to post this to share my story and emphasize that it was a fluke and nothing more than bad luck rather than negligence on their end. The car I have now, a GMC Jimmy, is a great car (actually a lot nicer than the Blazer) and has been working out well.
Despite everything that happened, I still recommend Cars Etc to anyone looking to get a car in the Knoxville area and again, I deeply appreciate how they resolved my anomalous situation.
