How would you find them?

That is why i am doing all the work on my truck myself. I want to be able to understand it like my right hand.

I am going to take on a rebuild on my ranger transmission soon as I get a good deal and have the money to do so. I have never done one but have been ripped off twice in the past.

I even have another E40D for my 92 f250 sitting in my garage. I plan on rebuilding it someday as well.

 

Good threat, and outcome. I also complain to my State Attorney General. They don't take actions for you but they do check things out, especially if others are complaining.

I complain every time someone tries to rip me off. I just don't take it anymore. I am sick and tired of corporations that take over every town. Now when you travel every town looks like the other. It takes the character out of the town and destroys opportunities for small business that care about the community, and also keeps the wealth in the community.

 

thats exactly what came to mind when i read this thread title.it would be a lot shorter list lol.but then again the thread would quickly die out that way from lack of additions lmao.

 

Through my extensive and exhaustive research I have already compiled a nation-wide list. I had planned on selling this, but because I like this forum I will provide the complete list at no charge below....

 

Yeah, the 99% of them that are bad apples ruin it for the other 1%...

Jason

 

It was 3.5 yrs ago, I lost my '95 to a woman in a minivan. I was in a mad search for a replacement. I search high and low for a GOOD, SOLID truck. I found a likely candidate in Marion, Ohio(2.5 hr drive)Dodge dealership. It was listed as a beauty with only 66k miles and very well kept, blah, blah, blah.

My buddy drives me down there and there it is...................Ugh. I just walked up and realize it was a POS. Hood chipped to hell(no way 66k miles), It was a Supercab and the whole back was mud city, bed wheelwells were 1" thick bondo, frame was trash, all rear brackets had been replaced, under hood looked like 266K miles in the desert(duh you think they would have hosed that part off?). The seat? The nap was worn OFF the drivers side, all the way to the cover base.

I was beside myself, the salesman was like "ready for a drive?". NO!! I told him I was PISSED that I drove all this way for this POS(They wanted $6500). He played dumb like he didn't know it was "bad". Right. He is like "I'll get on our system and try to find you a nice one". Like nice mid 90's F150's fall off trees in Ohio. I told them someone swapped the dash out because there was NO WAY that thing had 66k miles on it. Also told them they would be lucky to get $2500 for it. The salesman told me they bought it from a fellow that was going to do the cash for clunker deal and it was "too nice" to scrap. Hopefully they did get suckered<be a first.

 

OK one question for all of you, what do you really expect. I have worked in dealerships, been an evil used car salesman, worked in and owned my own repair shop. And well in my experiance most people make there own problems.

First car dealerships, well duhh they are going to present the vehicle the best they can in the add, wouldn't you? They are there to make money after all not take in a vehicle, pay all the taxes, fix it to sell it and give it away. And YES they are going to ask as much as they think they can and still get people in to look at it. After you've dealt with enough a**holes coming in offering $500 or half price or crap like that you have to play the game to. Now lying about the vehicle is one thing, present it well yes but don't lie. It doesn't work out for anyone.

Repair shops, frankly 3 things are often always true when it comes to customers at repair shops. 1 everyone thinks the shop is going to try and rip them off. 2 nobody knows as much as they think they do. 3 nobody realizes this stuff is actually expensive. If your so damn smart and wanna tell the shop what needs to be fixed, how to do it, that it can be done cheaper etc, then go do it your damn self, otherwise shut it. Once again, yes there are bad examples but it's also a VERY relative biz. There is ALOT of room between should be replaced/fixed and needs to be fixed/replaced. Where something lies on that scale and what is recomended is up to the standards of that mechanic. Want a cheap fix for your piece of junk that will never be reliable cause you always do the cheap fix, and want to do it again soon then go right ahead and go to that guy. Want the best so you can always rely on your vehicle and save in the long run, go to that guy and spend the bucks.

 

^^I agree with you to a point. Things are never perfect, you do the best you can. Sometimes that line gets stretched and there are "bad" places. Not all.

My biggest complaint was getting suckered into driving that far for a POS. Granted, they are NOT going to post pictures of the bad parts. From 20ft away it looked like a shiny new penny. It was a PIG in Minks clothing. Hate to see that truck in 6months, after the bondo falls out.

BUT in all this bad, I did find my '89 F150 at a little private lot 45 minutes away. It was a true southern truck without a single scratch of rust ANYWHERE!! Period(frame still original black, not spray bombed). For $3200 I drove it home that night.

 

Blah, blah, blah. You're defending the indefensible. Nobody said there weren't good shops or dealerships out there, just that the general opinion among car owners in this country is that most of them are dishonest at best, and outright crooks at worst. We're not talking about repairs that are straight up and the customer wants to save money on some of the parts. We're talking about the shops that try to sell repairs that are totally unnecessary. I think every TV station has probably done an exposé piece or six on their local repair shops. I remember years ago reading an article (I think it was in Reader's Digest), where they took a car cross-country, then right before each town, they would pull a plug wire and take the car to a mechanic. If the mechanic suggested repairs, they had them done. Only a handful reattached the plug wire and sent them on their way--a few did so at no charge. The average repair bill was something like $800, and it was a very large percentage of the shops.

Yes, there's overhead in owning a repair shop or dealership. But they'd have more trusting customers if they were to acknowledge the poor overall reputation and demonstrate trustworthiness. I'm self-employed, and I have non-wealthy, repeat customers that don't question what I charge, nor do I give them reason to question.

I've known a few car salesmen over the years, and I stand by my post above. If you had a proctologist for a friend, would you want him to suggest a rectal exam or ask for referrals every time you saw him in a social setting?

Jason

 

I agree totally, and don't like your attitude. That is the attitude of a bad repairman. I do my own work. I get O.E.M parts or better at discount.
I just spent $35 for a starter. It works better than the O.E.M. As you should already know there are O.E.M part manufactures that sell the same items to the public. The have not always done that, but the internet has changed things.

$80 an hour for shop labor, B.S.

An honest shop can pay off his building or if he is renting he can move and buy his own building which is the best option for any business.

I have a degree in Business Administration and have owned my own business for more than twenty years. When it burned down one fateful day on September 09 1999 I did not want to rebuild.

So I went into the film industry. I have done hundreds of car commercials. I have seen trucks and cars brought in from other states where they salt the road. The under belly is the first thing you should look at and see if it has been totally rusted out. They are not safe or fit to drive, and you want to try and defend this? I don't think so.

 

I have no problem with someone trying to make a dollar. But when you flat out LIE, I do have a problem with that.

The dealer listed the truck as CLEAN.
When a truck had ROTTEN wheel wells, blistering fenders, ROTTEN rad support, ROTTEN bumper and scaly frame. that is NOT clean, No matter how old the vehicle is.

I buy and sell trucks all the time. This truck in the condition it is in, I would ask 4500-5000 and hope to get 4000.

The dealer has a lot of ***** to ask OVER CLEAN Book value for a AVERAGE 96.

The price difference between CLEAN and AVERAGE is $3,000(almost HALF the cost of the truck)

 

Well, they washed it..........so it was "clean" in their eyes LOL!!!

The tiny pictures do it justice, but from 15ft so did the one I looked at too.

 

Its funny. I know EXACTLY where the rust is and I cant see it in the pics. Almost like they photshopped it. And the rust us bad enough to put your finger THRU it

 

I'm defending myself, go ahead try and claim that I don't have grounds to.
That is EXACTLY the problem, that general opinion is WRONG and caused by the combination of jerks and morons like I described and the even bigger jerks and morons you describe here:
There is HUGE overhead and they can't get trusting customers cause of all the jerks and morons that spread all the bull like in this thread. How can even the best most honest and competent shop ever have a good reputation in a world that rates them so low and doesn't understand what they are paying for? This is the problem, when EVERYONE accuses you of cheating them, you end up having to cheat them to even get a fair deal. It's no different then when everyone asks for half price you double the starting price. Auto mechanic is of the most under paid and under appreciated jobs around. Who else do you rely on so much for your well being and safety, pay so little and treat so crappy?

FWIW I don't think flat rate repair is all that fair of a way to charge for either side. It punishes those that take good care of their vehicle and rewards those that don't. On the same token it steals from the mechanic with the harder job and gives to the one with the easier one. I charged a flat time plus expenses. However the moronic customers made this very hard to do as it made estimates almost impossible to make accurately so cause they would all assume I was ripping them off if I went over my estimate I had to estimate high. This fair practice cost me business. On the flip side I could charge less per hour as I was actually charging for time. When a flat rate shop charges by hour they aren't real hours worked but flat rate hours.
Old school used car salesmen are the lions of the sales world picking off the week from the herd. You don't get mad at the lion for killing the sick gazelle. Like it or not this is a capitalist society and they are in it for the money not your pleasure. Your delusional to think that any car dealership is going to go "yep this thing is junk, I wouldn't buy it if I was you, I got it off a guy for 500 bucks so to be fair I'll sell it to ya for 600" Don't like it leave, go move to China or something you might be happier there.

I KNOW there are plenty of complaints about me when I was a used car salesman. Hell I'll admit we had a hell of a good time of it, my boss and I played a great game that involved making our customers emotional, crying, red face angry, etc. But when everyone is looking for a unicorn (example; like new, low miles, loaded, diesel, crew cab, 4wd, manual 97 F350 in black) then demand that it has to be perfect, and pay $100/mo but gee you had a repo last week, it's not going to go well. Believe it or not they don't make those anymore, yeah imagine that, there aren't any new ones and the ones that are out there aren't cheap. Car salesmen don't get paid by the hour to listen to you jaw jack about your petty unreasonable demands, and "one day I'm gunna" bull.

 

Reminds me of the time I went to look at a 00 or so F150. Drove 2 hours to get there, the ad online and the dealership (I called) stated 50k and they wanted 9k for it. Stated truck was super clean and in excellent shape.

I get a ride there and look it over. Truck had a toolbox or something mounted to the rails as there are many holes form self tapping screws in it, odo said 150k!, they painted the running boards and did a bad job overspraying the body too! Tires were worn, seat (which they conveniently) had a large tear in it that surprise wasnt in the pics cause they cut the pic short, but the best of all...I open the hood and notice there is a slight crease on the pass side support-then notice the pass side is slightly a different color-then see the painters tape still covering some parts. I walked away after informing them they outright lied and wasted my time.

Another time I really wanted an older toyota 4runner to use to beat around the woods. Found one on ebay nearby and hounded the guy to go see it. Wouldnt return my messages, but the pictures (musta been old pics) showed it was ok. I figured for 500 Id gamble since it claimed rebuild motor 50k ago and they had a pic of the paperwork. I LOST BIGTIME. Total rustbucket with bad brakes, horrible rust all over, body mounts literally rusting off the cab, bad starter, such a sloppy shifter that I missed gears, etc etc. The only nice thing about it was the wheels and tires were pretty nice (shoulda kept them!). I bought it figuring it couldnt be that bad, but after tearing out the interior I was way wrong. Finally sold it for a G to some guy who wanted the engine. least I made out in the end.

Its not just cars either. I went to look at an atv once that was over 2 hours away cause i couldnt find something close. Drove all the way out there and as I pull up I can see it doesnt look nearly as nice as the photo. I give it a once over and notice it has MANY things broken, missing or just plain wrong. Fire it up and ride it, axle was bent, wheels bent, tires bald, handles oddly cause the steering stem seems bent, etc. So I come back and look it over and then notice the engine case is cracked, common problem but this sucker is so badly cracked its leaking oil profusely. Inform the guy Ill buy it for 500 bucks cause he has a title (I can fix everything cheaply myself no big deal and a title is like gold for them things). No luck he wants 3500 bucks. I laugh and tell him thanks for wasting my time. Craigs ad was up for eons, I doubt he ever sold it.