I've bitten my tongue for too long now trying to resolve my horrible experience with Park Cities Autohaus in Dallas, TX. I'm writing this as my opinion and my recommendation to others to avoid this dealership.

I purchased a 2002 996 C4S. I initially found the car on ebay but dealt directly with the dealer and my salesperson Will at Park Cities Autohaus in Dallas, TX. Their website is http://www.parkcitiesautohaus.com

With 80k, I in no way expected to receive an absolutely perfect car. I did however expect for the items negotiated at time of sale and written into the contract to be honored and completed.

We had settled on a purchasing price, I was insistent on getting a PPI performed from the Porsche Dealership. Park Cities Autohaus is not the Porsche dealership. Park Cities Autohaus like many smaller dealerships buys most of their automobiles at auction and assembles a pretty impressive group of pre-owned automobiles on their lot. The PPI picked up a few things. A faulty ignition switch, bald front tires, worn rear brakes, a leaking rear strut, the usual exterior things you would expect with an 80k mile car. But no leaks.

I managed to get Will to promise and write into the contract 3 things:
1-paintless dent removal
2-new matching set of front tires
3-ignition replacement and fix

I figured the strut I'll take care of when I do suspension and the rear brake pads I can have replaced easy. Perfect, we closed the deal I got my financing in order and immediately got the ball rolling with a down payment.

Where it started to go wrong:
It took over a week to just get the car loaded on the truck. OK, I guess I can accept that. I was anxious to get the car so I wrote off being a little peeved it took so long to my own impatience. However Will and the employees at Park Cities Autohaus were difficult to get in touch with and I received very few updates. However after me calling them I was told the car was loaded/repairs were complete and it was on the road!.. I was pumped.

After a few days on the road I got a call from the driver. Car was here and he wanted to meet up. Driver was great. However, car arrived with a dead battery. Fortunately driver was able to jump it and we got it off the flatbed. Something was weird though, the front headlights wouldn't come on and the electrical systems was acting funny plus I couldn't adjust the seat. It was late so I just drove home the small distance manually holding the lights on by pushing down on the brights light stalk. On the way home, car throws a check engine light - arggh.

So I've got a check engine light and a malfunctioning electrical system and it's midnight - I'm going to bed deal with this in the am. So the next morning I take a good look over the car and discover I do not have a matching set of front/rear tires like I was promised and instead I have mismatched front/rear tires with nearly bald fronts, nice little check engine light's still there and my funky electrical issues seem to come and go if I wiggle the keys in the ignition. Also the manuals which were pictured in the online ad and a front end nose mask also pictured in the online ad were not included. Small but important items to me and advertised as included.

So a quick search on the forum and I find the ignition switch is the culprit for the electrical issues. Run the code on the codefinder and see it's a misfire in cylinder 6. Another internet search says... most likely a coil. My shop confirms these beliefs. These aren't huge issues, but I at least expected for the things I was aware of and promised would be fixed by the dealer to be working.

I would have liked the dealer to step up to the plate and offer to help with the ignition coil since it arrived that way, but in no way did I think they actually would, that would make too much sense. However I did expect for them to address the issues written into the contract. The ignition switch and the tires.

Long story short, car is in the shop. Park Cities Autohaus will not return my phone calls. And I'm stuck with a nice little bill for over 1k parts/labor/tires/install mount and balance. All for things that the dealer had promised me would be addressed by the time the car was in my hands. Also it is a month later and the title hasn't been delivered as promised - that's another story that my financing company is becoming more and more concerned with.

Sorry for the long vent. Just wanted to caution anyone purchasing a car on the internet and/or especially from the dealership mentioned. If possible always see the car in person or have someone you trust very much examine the car, you can't even fully trust a PPI to catch many of the things that us perfectionists demand. I have free legal representation through my work, so I've started to explore those options. We shall see.

 

Friend, I am sorry what you are going trough...
My sys had bought a BMW, and after a few weeks we had to begin playing hard ball...
Check your local laws, i would immediately call your local BBB... Send certified mail, if they don't respond promptly, have a good Indy fix your items, send them the bill for it... I have went the avenue of the courts... Small court got my sys everyting we had asked and more.... don't get frustraited... I'm no Lawyer, but we do live in a state of law where a contract should be upheld....

My .02

 

Thanks Crazy. I've filed a complaint with the BBB in the county that the dealer is registered in. I've also filed a complaint with the state/government dealer licensing association. It can be a lengthy process, but I've been so blatantly wronged here it's worth it to me to pursue it.

 

If it was written in the contract and they didn't do it, small claims court only costs $30-$50.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems. I would first suggest having your attorney send a certified representation letter addressing your problems and a copy of the contract. That and a follow-up call from the attorney should settle the problem. If that doesn't resolve the problem, I think small/JP court would be the way to go (filing + service would be about $110 dollars for Dallas County). However, you may have a claim in District Court under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act as well as Breach of Contract and/or common-law fraud. However, seeing as how you're in another state that may cause jurisdictional issues as well as being prohibitively expensive. So, I would try the letter first!

"the above is only for general informational purposes, and should not be construed as legal advice, please consult your attorney for legal advice about your specific situation"

 

Hopefully you got a great price to put up with this aggrevation.

 

Thanks Peter.

I had received similar advice from my attorney. I've given the dealer many chances to come through for me on this and so far they haven't. I'm close to having final numbers on the repair bills and plan on having my attorney take it from there.

It's been almost a whole month since I bought the car and I've been unable to drive the thing the entire time. I'm hoping that changes soon and I can start enjoying it rather than dealing with this stressful situation.

 

Wow, that's not a good story. I hope you get these issues resolved quickly so you can go on to enjoying your Porsche!

 

Hey,
Sorry to hear about your trouble. I also purchased my car a month ago without seeing it. I had a PPI done at a local Porsche dealership and had concerns since I couldn't see the car. I guess so far the car seems to be in perfect condition. I will have to keep my fingers crossed.

I know the dealer I purchased the car from offered a 30 day warranty. Did the dealer in Dallas offer that? If so, one would think they would be obligated to fix the issues. But above that, it seems you had those things written in a contract. I know it definitely has to be a hassle.

You should also see if they have any online reviews posted and you can look at posting your story on those websites. And I would then send the links to those websites to the dealer.

Good luck and I hope your car gets fixed soon.

 

You bought from a dealer?

 

surprised they are still in business

 

Man that really sucks. Hopefully the car just needs an alignment and a new tire. The other stuff is relatively minor as well, although it is additional cost and time. You can find the armrest and brakelight on ebay.

I'm assuming that you're in Mississippi if that is your zip code. If you decided to pursue this legally, as I told the OP, generally in Texas, the Deceptive Trade Practices Act is your best friend in these types of transactions. If you can get the suit filed somehow, then that's probably the way to go. If you do win under the DTPA, you can collect legal fees and if the "fraudulent" acts were done knowingly, then you can get up to triple your damages.

Good luck!

 

Sorry to hear about your terrible experience with them as well.

Park Cities Autohaus are absolute pieces of garbage. I'm still in the process of pursuing legal action with them. They recently changed their name from Monroe Motors because their previous name was so tarnished.

You can file complaints with these institutions if it makes you feel any better. Although my lawyer after I had allready done so advised me to wait until we had pursued it through the legal system. Park Cities Autohaus also doesn't accept mail from the BBB, so they can't pursue the complaint for you only file it. Hopefully if there are enough complaints from the Texas DMV, they will start to see how shady they are.

File a complaint with the Texas DMV here (download and send in form):
http://www.txdmv.gov/vehicles/dealers/complaints.htm

File a complaint with the BBB here:
https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint/

Do a google search and register for YP.com and all the other review places. Give them bad reviews (after you realize they won't pay you a dime).

Other than that, the lawyer route is the only way to go. But it is a long process as well. I STILL have not received my title and it is a month and a half later. Get the car up to snuff, save your receipts and hand them off to your lawyer. Otherwise the car will just sit there and **** you off. If your stuck with it, at least get it to a point where you can enjoy it.

Sorry again to hear that you've gotten screwed by them. My 996 is actually turning out to be an OK car after I dumped about 3k into items I thought had been addressed. 3k I was planning on going towards fun mods.

 

The point is this car was totally misrepresented to a point where it's almost fraud. The owner shouldn't have to do one damn thing the way it was described to him. As for the issues, those aren't just blemishes for an 8 year old car, they are damages. There's a difference between wear and tear and damage. Even any non car person can easily see that is the case.

In addition to what others have mentioned, I would share this experience and post it on every single car forum out there. They are clearly trying to sell cars online so why not hurt them in the online community?

If they are smart, they will take care of the situation for you unless they wait and see their online sales drop off dramatically, then it would probably be too late for these guys.

 

I'm aware of the point. Sellers/dealers like this company are unfortunately very commonplace. These dishonest dealers don't seem to understand that you can actually make MORE money being honest and earning repeat business, then trying to deceive and make a single sale. As an attorney here in Dallas, I would go after their asses for being such a dishonest company, which is why I also recommended to him and OP a cause of action that a buyer in similar circumstances could likely win and recover under. I've actually got several cases right now in which I'm going after car sellers that have lied and failed to honor their statements and promises, wrongly believing that they can lie to customers, and then be protected by the As-Is clauses.

However, seeing as how the buyer is out-of-state, it may be hard for him to litigate this case. Also, I am an avid car guy and have owned a very similar Jaguar XJ8, and though very well taken care of (although I'm not saying that this buyer's Jag was taken care of), I did have to replace the headliner and the armrest console cover which is very common. So on this type of Jag, a sagging headliner and armrest cover could be considered normal wear and tear. The dishonest part is that the dealer did not disclose these conditions, and their shoddy glue job probably made it worse. Hopefully, the front end is just really out of alignment and the one tire can be replaced. If the buyer can't collect anything from the crappy dealer (which is a high likelihood), then he can still fix up the car relatively inexpensively himself.

Either way the situation sucks, and of course you're right, the buyer shouldn't have to do anything because of someone else's lies, especially when it comes to things that could put your FAMILY's safety in jeopardy!