We bought a car from Auto Experts of Utah this past september. We paid a good chunk of change for a 2005 toyota camry with 98k miles on it. The car was sold as having no known issues. We had to ask for a spare tire to be put in the trunk. We also had to ask for floor mats to be put in the car. The speaker covers in the back of the car were completely smashed open, so we had asked them if they would replace those before we bought the car. They said they would. They told us multiple times that they "ordered the part" and they would let us know when it arrived. It is December and we never got our speaker covers.
When we first bought the car, they actually held it for an extra week because the check engine light had come on and they did a repair. It took a lot longer than we thought it should have. Seemed to be no rush to get the car to us, even though we had just paid them in cash for the bulk of the amount that we owed on the car. To us, it seems like they would want to hurry to get a repair done so that the customer does not feel uncomfortable with the car they just bought having a serious engine issue.
The car was great for the first little bit. There was an issue with the brakes, which they said they would fix as a courtesy. The brakes still squeak all the time, but we've had a different mechanic tell us that the brakes are actually fine. So we are good there.
We went on a road trip and on our way back home we started having issue with the transmission. Halfway home the transmission completely stopped working. The mechanic we took it to said the entire transmission was shot and needed to be replaced. This was about 3 weeks after we bought the car. :( He said that the transmission fluid looked too clean for a used car and it looked like the transmission had been flushed out to work for a little while and then poop out. We don't know for sure, but you can make your decision with this information.
Thankfully we had a warranty. Auto Experts told us they would take care of the repair for the amount that our warranty covers. They were going to put a used transmission in our car. We were carless for about 2.5 weeks while they put the new transmission in. This is way way way to long for this repair. When we got the car back, we were happy to have it back, but apprehensive. We took it to a third-party mechanic and he said there was a giant leak in the transmission that Auto Experts had just put in. We took it back to Auto Experts. They told us that it was just a small leak in the cap of the transmission and it just needed to be resealed. So they did that same day. We then took it back to OUR mechanic, and he said that they had not repaired the transmission leak at all. At this point, we are having a hard time trusting that the Auto Experts mechanic knows what he is doing. It took our mechanic 5 minutes to see this large leak, but the Auto Experts mechanic didn't notice it at all even after bringing it in specifically to look for the leak. Auto Experts now has the car again and is "diagnosing the leak". This whole time, Auto Experts has made it seem like they are taking it to a 3rd party mechanic to have things repaired. Upon digging and asking to talk to the mechanic, we found out that the mechanic actually works FOR Auto Experts of Utah and does not work out of a separate shop of some kind.
With all that has happened we decided to do a little more research on the car. Auto Experts had shown us a Carfax report on the car when we bought it. But I decided to pull one on my own. I noticed that the transmission had been serviced 33 miles before Auto Experts bought the car at auction. Once again, we don't know for sure, but it seems like the transmission issues may have been known. The car fax also said that the car was sold at auction as having frame damage. This is something that Auto Experts did not reveal to us when we asked about known issues with the car.
We know that we've made some mistakes with buying this car. But we also feel right now like Auto Experts of Utah owes it to us to make this right. We are giving them that chance right now. We will report back when we know if they actually are able to FIX the transmission leak...
