City Auto Wholesale reviews and complaints

I purchased a 2008 Saturn Vue from this lot in Dec of 2011, and my Vue has been in the shop for a week now due to a busted seam that had been leaking for a very long time, prior to my purchase. I did not notice the leak due to the floor mats covering the pooling of water. I noticed the condensation on the windows and wasn't sure what it was from. Two weeks ago, I noticed about an inch or so of water pooling on the passenger side front floor. I vacuumed water from the floor for several days due to heavy rains we were receiving and called City Auto several times. Each time I spoke with Chuck who told me the 30 day wty was up, and I was pretty much out of luck. I also e-mailed city Auto before my 30 days to have another issue fixed, and they never replied.

It took me a week to find a Saturn mechanic who would fix the car. Other shops told me they could not help me. I went to several wind replacement sghoips thinking it was the windshield, all the time still vaccuming water from the floor. I finally located a Saturn Certified Mechanic, and it had been a wonderful situation.

The repair is costing almost $1, 000.00 and that is above what my insurance will pay due to the damage inside the vehicle. The had to take the carpet our, and the mechanic said there was so much water in the car it was like a water bed. Hopefully, I will be able to pick p my car this week. I still don't have my plates, and never received any communication when I contacted them by e-mail. Do not purchase a car from this lot. I feel as though they are concerned with selling their cars with dishonesty. I am also looking in to Lemon Laws. I feel as though I deserve some compensation from them.

I saw their billboard and I called and spoke with Jake in June 2011. I explained my cirucumstances and I was on unemployment. He said that should be no problem and after he ran my information he told me I was approved for a $9000 car loan. I went in a couple of days later. They asked me to fill out their form with all my information. I already given the information to Jake. I filled out the form. The sales person came back and he stated I was only approved to buy a couple of cars on the lot. One he would not even show me and a second one they had just received in. The windshield was cracked, the radio did not work and all of the inside lights did not function. They replaced the window for me. All the other info. went by the way side. They have a 30 day money back return policy and I was told that I could call in during those 30 days to see if they had any other cars that I qualified for. I also was told that they could get me into another car once I could bring in proof of my unemployment extended benefits which guaranteed me an additional 20 weeks. Jake said that when I brought it in he could get me into another vehicle even if it was past the 30 days. They would treat it as a new car loan. I called every week and was told they did not have anything. A used car lot that doesn't have a car for me? I called and there were many times that a return call was not made by them.
Mid August I called and spoke to Jake about getting a different car as I have the paperwork for the extended benefits. He said, great, just bring it in. I have a Volkswagen Jetta that would be comprable in price. I had to wait until August 24 as they needed additional money for a down payment. I went in on the 24th and I was told that nothing could be done. I explained to the salesman what Jake had said and he told me he had no idea what I was talking about. Jake had the day off. In addition to that the Jetta had been sold the day before.
I called Jake on August 25th and tried to speak with him about the miscommunication. He laughed at me and then proceeded to interrupt me. He started raising his voice at me. I asked several times to let me talk and I explained that when he interrupts what he is saying is that what I have to say is not as important as what he has to say. He was very rude and he claimed he never "guaranteed" that I could get a different car.
I feel as though they stalled the 30 days and once the 30 days was over, I had no recourse. I also think they never had another car for me.
I feel as though I was treated very poorly and treated with no respect what so ever. Their business practices are horrible.

Spent a day on the phone with City Auto Wholesales 'finance manager' JAKE working out pre-approval and current car's trade in value. Next day drove 30 miles to car lot only to find out the entire phone call was a SCAM. Jake is a telemarketer that was hired by City Auto Wholesale to tell people anything to get them to the car lot and isn't there (you will be told to ask for JAKE when you get to the lot). Also, I only saw maybe 3 cars that were on their website.. all of the cars I was interested in were NOT there. The cars on the website looked really nice, but about 95% of their cars were total beaters. The cars are not detailed, some of them even reek of cat urine (not kidding..) Please don't waste the time and gas driving out to City Auto Wholesale.. I read these reviews and thought I'd take a chance they were just some bad experiences, but these reviews are TRUE! High pressure sales that border on abusive (way worse than the average used car lot salesmen), the sales guy will hold onto your car keys so you can't leave.. I had to ask for my keys back three times. I told the man I was going to call the police if he didn't give me my keys back because I was being kept there against my will.

I spoke with Jake through the ad he posted on Craigslist for City Auto Wholesale. We went through the whole credit application and over my credit in detail. He took 45 mins to "talk to the finance company" and called back to say we were approved for $7K, but the bank wanted us to come to finish purchase that day. We explained we lived 2 hours away and stressed the importance of our time not being wasted. We brought all necessary paperwork and showed up only to find he was not there, he doesn't even work at the lot, only sending leads there via internet/phone. The salesman then proceeded to tell us we had two vehicle options: a wrecked truck and a Kia van without a backseat (4 seats total in vehicle)! In addition our loan of $7K included a $2K finance charge which left us $5K for a purchase and only those two vehicles on the entire lot to choose from! Yes, I have bad credit, but no I am not stupid. We expressed our disappointment and frustration knowing that we were out the $50 for travel, but wanted at least a respectful "I'm sorry" for our time veing wasted exactly how we expressed we didn't want it to. Did we get that? No! Instead they denied most of the first phone call's conversation, like I had been having a conversation with myself and told us it was only our fault for having such bad credit. Jacob wouldn't even let me get one single word in edgewise and was almost shouting at me over the phone the next day. I was at work and ended up having to hang up on him. It was so unprofessional and very clear they could care less about good business practices, even if they are a used car lot. Thank goodness we didn't end up doing business with them. BEWARE!

We went to City Auto Wholesale around 2 weeks ago and purchased a 1993 Acura Integra from Chuck. We were merely looking for a second vehicle to get us around, that we could pay off quickly and use while we reestablished our credit. The day we purchased the car, the battery was dead. They told us it had been sitting for a while and there was nothing wrong. We trusted them. The car seemed alright. It has high miles, but Acuras are very reliable cars. The car seemed like it had been well taken care of - clean, no major visible damage, seemed sound in both appearance and ride.

Today my husband was driving it and drove it from Portland to Albany (roughly 70 miles) and on ended up overheating. He opened the hood, and saw holes in the radiator and water shooting out. He had both of my children in the car and they were stranded for 3 hours until I could get there to pick them up.

The car is still in Albany. We intend to go back to City Auto Wholesale tomorrow morning to discuss the situation. We would hope that they will be honest - tow the car back from Albany, and either give us our money back - $1000 down, or provide us with a car that does not have major mechanical problems, or fix the problem. We'll see what happens.