Buy a car from a crook? No thank you...

A name like Jim Click should inspire trust, shouldn’t it?  I mean, he is one of the most widely known people in Tucson, right?  He has a dealership for almost every make there is, and at one point had banded all the Tucson dealerships together to agree that nobody works on Sunday.  He’s an overall “good guy”, right?  My question is, is he the crook?  Or is it the people working for him that are crooks?

Over the past 7 years we have purchased three vehicles from his dealership.  His new cars are fine, of course.  They haven’t tampered with them.  Yet.  But, his “certified used” cars are another story.  Two of the three vehicles that we have purchased through his dealership have been used.  They have been higher mileage vehicles, yes, but we were guaranteed that there was nothing wrong with them.  I mean, they “certified” it.  Then they back you with a limited warranty and make you feel so good about your purchase. 

Well both cars came with some serious issues.  The day we got them.  In 2007 we purchase a 2001 Honda Passport.  It was a little overpriced, but we were assured that because of the leather, tinted windows, and moon roof that Kelly Blue Book was wrong on their estimates and we really were getting the best deal.  Since it was a close family friend selling us the car, we trusted him. 

Day one it had a pretty extensive transmission leak and bounced really hard if we went over 60.  We took it to get fixed.  They couldn’t “recreate” the bouncing so that was never solved.  But the transmission leak?  Oh, they “fixed” it.  The next week, it was leaking again.  We took it back and this time they had it for three days.  They “fixed” it that time too.  Within two weeks it was leaking again, so yes, we took it back, the kept it for over a week and assured us it was totally “fixed”.  It wasn’t.  And guess what?  We had then passed the amount of time that it was covered by them.  Suddenly it was our problem financially. 

Well, within a year of having it, the check engine light came on.  We had it checked and fixed, obviously elsewhere, more than once but they could just never really figure out what was causing it.  The code would come up, we would fix what the code said, and it would happen again.  Well, you cannot pass emissions with a check engine light one.  So, what did we do?  Well, we went back to Click, of course, to his big indoor TCC event and traded it in.  We had negative equity and they convinced us that our only option was to purchase a brand new vehicle.  So we did. It was a 2008 Ford Focus. 

After time we realized that we were incredibly upside down in the focus.  After talking to people about it we found out that without gap insurance, if we were to crash the car, we would be personally responsible for paying the difference between what the car was worth and what we owed on it.  We were told that they could garnish our wages.  I began obsessing over this and having extreme anxiety that we might get into a crash.  So, what did we do?  Yep, you’re right!  We took it to Click and traded in the Ford Focus and our fully paid for Honda Odyssey.   Stage right, enter the Sequoia.  

When we got the Sequoia we made sure to purchase the gap insurance, we rolled in $4,000 of negative equity, and were sold on purchasing the extended warranty.  The warranty was about $3,500.  Needless to say that even though our payments were only $30 more,  our loan was WAY TO MUCH and we are still paying for this mistake. 

But here’s the thing.  Day one we knew that there were alignment issues and a couple other issues.  Our salesman, who was another family friend, assured us that we would get it taken care of for free since it came that way.  Well, in addition to this, we needed new tires for it and it would mess up the alignment anyway. We couldn’t afford the tires immediately and we told to take our time and that once we got them, they would go ahead with the alignment.  We eventually got the tires, went to get it taken care of and guess what?  Our friend had quit.  So, they refused to help us and follow through on the promises made to us. 

Last night we went to the dealership.  By last night we were totally over Jim Click and his staff, whether at Mazda on the east side, Mazda at the auto mall, Nissan at the auto mall, we were over it.  Last night we went to Kia at the auto mall because this time, it really is totally Jim Click’s fault.  We were ready for a fight if it came to that.  I had spoken to the family friend who had sold us the Passport and the Focus, and he said they would check it out. 

By the time we had gotten there, the staff had definitely been versed on why we were there and what to say.  From the moment we walked in they were denying responsibility for one reason, and by the time we were walking out, they had contradicted their original reason and were still denying responsibility.  Of course. 

This is the story:

Within the past couple of months it has gotten harder to steer that Sequoia, particularly to the right.  Within the past week or so, it has gotten even worse and is now affecting the left turn as well.  When Raul and my father in-law checked it all out, the realized that the rack and pinion was messed up.  Raul was researching why this could happen and the most common cause was the type of power steering fluid being used.  So they went and checked. Raul was right.

Here’s the kicker.  It is messed up because we have power steering fluid where the power steering fluid goes.  Doesn’t sound confusing, right?  Sounds normal.  No.  Actually, the cap says to ONLY use ATF.  If you are like me, you have no clue what ATF is.  In fact, ATF is automatic transmission fluid.  This seemed weird, so Raul called around and checked the manual.  Yep, it needs transmission fluid in the power steering.  To make sure that the fluid was not just old ATF (even though ATF doesn’t change colors in that way and it did not smell of ATF) Raul pulled some transmission fluid out of the transmission to compare.  It was most certainly NOT ATF. 

Since we have never needed to change the power steering fluid, and since Jim Click does maintenance for life and we usually utilize our free oil changes there, they are the ones who would be touching that fluid.  And if they didn’t do it during a maintenance check, then they sold us the car with the wrong fluid.  They “certified” that our car was fine, that everything checked out, and then continued to let us drive 60,000 miles using fluid that was messing up our rack and pinion.  And this part is not cheap and it is a very time consuming replacement.

This is where the contradicting begins.  I called our contact about it and asked that if they were responsible, would they fix it?  After going around in circles about how one, power steering fluid never really gets replaced, and two, he’s never heard of ATF instead of power steering, he said to bring it in and they would check.  So we did. 

When we got there the service manager had already been brought up to speed on the situation.  He opened the cap and said that it was definitely power steering fluid.  It was the wrong color and smell to be ATF.  When Raul told him that was the problem, he tried to convince us that there are different kinds of power steering fluid and that some are broad spectrum and would encompass different needs of different vehicles.  That was defense number one. 

We went inside and the first thing we are greeted by is this display of these little vials of fluid.  There was new oil and old oil, there was new transmission fluid and old transmission fluid, there was new power steering fluid and old power steering fluid.  This reassured us that what was in our car was most certainly and undeniably power steering fluid. 

So, when he came back from having his “master technician” look at it, their conclusion was that it was, indeed, ATF after all.  It was just old, burned ATF. Um, defense number two and blatant lie number one.  I asked them, if I were to go and get a second opinion, and that mechanic verified that it was power steering fluid could we bring it back and prove them wrong?  No, they trust their tech more than any other one and he has more experience, expertise, and training than anyone else.  I mean, he IS a “master” tech after all.  I asked if I went to SIX other shops and they all came up with the same conclusion, what would happen then? I was told that it would then be a game of “he said, she said” and that it couldn’t even be proved that we didn’t switch the fluids. 

They offered to give us an estimate so we went back to the service manager’s office.  At this point Raul lost his cool a little and grabbed the display of the vials and basically called them liars.  He asked them to bring the technician and have him explain the process to him of how the fluid turns a complete different color and smell when it’s used, and how it matches the vial of old power steering fluid and looks nothing like the vial of old transmission fluid.  They of course did not.  Their techs work behind closed doors in secret, scamming individuals.  They are lying and stealing from their customers and I, for one, will never fall into that trap again. 

Mr. Click, if you are not a crook, then you have crooks and liars working for you which makes you a crook anyway.  Stop stealing, cheating, and lying to make a name for yourself.  Get a backbone and do good business for once.  You have a big name and a big empire, but if enough people stand against you, the empire WILL fall.