Mercedes Benz of Bridgewater - Dishonesty, problematic car, and lack of responsibility

I would like to make public my experience with buying a pre-owned car at the Mercedes Benz of Bridgewater dealership.

I recommend you look for another dealer because these guys are sleazy, and will NOT take responsibility for the faulty cars they sell. If they think they can take advantage of you they will. This was my experience.

Summary:

They sold me a 2006 BMW 325i with less than 50,000 miles but a large number of problems and safety issues. I brought the car back within the warranty period (less than 8 weeks after buying the car) They declined me and said that the warranty they gave me would not cover those problems. I told them that the warranty doesnt matter; they sold me a lemon and better take care of it. After weeks of back and fourth, I got word from a manager that they did not fix anything. So I am making this complaints report so that the Bridgewater Mercedes Benz dealer takes notice.

Below is my experience.

I called them to inquire about a car I found on their website. They had the car available and told me to come in as soon as possible. I drove nearly 1 hour to get there. When getting there they had me fill out all paper work (My mother put it on her name because I recently started working and my credit was low). They showed me the car, but showed it to me in the back of their workshop in the dark with most lights off (I thought nothing of it for now). They took a deposit and sent me home and told me they would let me know when everything would be ready to go soon and I could come pick up the car.

The salesman I was dealing with talked to me on the phone the day I was supposed to go pick up my car and told me that they ran a full inspection on it and found that the thermostat was not working, so they would have to replace that, and told me that when you replace the thermostat you must also replace the filter (go figure.) So the car was delayed by a few days. A few days later they told me it was ready. I tried to come get it but salesman kept delaying me saying they were washing the car and prepping it for me. He finally told me it was ready and by the time I got there it was dark again and they had the car outside for me. I realized the next day the car had small dents in three locations. I am not 100% sure but it surely seems like they kept me from ever seeing the car under light so I wouldnt object the dents.

I found out later by luckily getting my hands on some internal reports that I never saw that in fact they figured the thermostat was faulty because they took the car out to test drive it and the Engine literally stopped. This could have left longstanding damage.

Within the first few weeks I found the following problems with the car purchased at Mercedes Benz of Bridgewater:

1- Emergency brake does not hold (safety issue)

2- Car pulls to a side on the highway.

3- Both rear doors make a horrible creaking noise when opening and closing

4- High pitched ongoing scratching noise when driving at low speeds

5- High pitched sporadic Squeaking noises when driving over uneven roads/bumps

6- Rear right tire has plug in sidewall! This I only found out after reading through some documentation from them. When they returned me the car they did not tell me about this.

I took the car in and left it with them. Here are Mercedes Benz of Bridgewater solutions (I have this in a report from them)

1- Rear parking brakes shoes are burnt up. Found that ebrake handle comes all the way up and car does not hold. Found that rear rotors are burnt. Tightened rear brakes as much as possible.

a. They called it a day with that problem. After I got the car it was barely holding and is no longer holding.

b. Their message to me: Parking brakes now hold but suggest replacing rear pads, rotors and parking brake shoes.

c. They sold me a car and later admitted that it had faulty rear pads, rotors and parking brake shoes.

2- Car pulls left, alignment suggested to fix it. Strike TWO, their fix is telling me to go get it fixed.

3- This is awful, you dont buy a luxury car that has a loud creaking noise. They fixed this by lubing the doors. Said I should replace rear door checks if noise comes back (the noise has not come back yet)

4- They found a rock in between rear right brake rotor and breaking plate. They removed the rock and found that all breaking calipers have been spray painted. WHAT THE ****? they said that because of this the car may always have this scratching noise. It comes back now and then who paints their break calipers? I dont know but its not my problem.

5- Found faulty front sway bar end links, suggested I had it fixed.

6- Nothing, I didnt even know about this until I started writing this report and saw it in the documentation. Their suggestion: Unsafe, Replace tire.

Basically the manager of Bridgewater Mercedes Benz told me that none of these problems were included in their 90 day, 3000 miles warranty. The manager said that they would fix the parking break because it was a safety issue, other than that nothing else would be done. As it turns out the only thing they fixed came with a you should still get this fixed note. If safety was an issue they took seriously, the should also have brought to my attention that the rear tire was plugged.

Today Oct 1st 2011, less than 3 months later the car's engine light came on, this drove me to finally make this post. They sold me such a poor product and took no responsibility.