This is the entire tale of our horrible encounter with V&L Auto Sales.
Just before Christmas 2011 Jordan and I buy a minivan. A 2004 Toyota Sienna with 94,000 miles. We have it inspected at a local mechanic, and it passes, though the tires desperately need to be replaced. We bought it because we had one car. A 1998 Subaru Legacy with 205,000 miles. We needed another vehicle, and since we plan to add more children to our family we decided a minivan would be our best bet. We should have been tipped off as soon as the dealer refused to fill the tank with gas, and only put $20 in the (almost empty) tank.
The car worked well for us until about February, when it started making a noise when we backed up. Then it started overheating, which turns out was a leak in the radiator. It's still making a noise in reverse, and I start wondering if it's the transmission. I have my dad (who knows cars and fixed all of ours growing up) check the transmission fluid for us. It's overly full, and it's a weird color. We decide to take it to my granddad (who is a mechanic) and after two weeks he tells us that it's definitely the transmission. Whatever fluid that is in the transmission has completely destroyed it, and it's going to have to be replaced. By now we have surpassed the 30 day warranty given to us by V&L, but a transmission repair is just too much for us to take on.
V&L says they can get a used transmission for $1500, and that labor would be $500. So either they will cover half the cost of repair, or they will give us credit for the money we have put in the van and find us another vehicle. We agree to the latter. It takes them two months to get back to us with a Honda Pilot. They say that it has been in an accident, and even though we specifically asked if it had been totaled they tell us it wasn't. But it has a salvage title. Which means it definitely WAS totaled. They still want us to give them our van and $3000 for it. We finally just ask them to cover half the repair, since we no longer trust them to be honest, and they write us a check for $1000. It is now late May.
Jordan takes the car to AAMCO to look into getting it rebuilt, because none of the used transmissions have warranties and we REALLY want a warranty. They tell us it will probably be $2500-$3000, and though it more than we want to spend, we give them the go ahead. They call back once they have taken the transmission apart and say that not only is the transmission out, so is the radiator. The radiator has been pumping antifreeze into the transmission, and the transmission has already been replaced once. They now tell us it will be $5000. Obviously WAY MORE than we want to spend.
We go back to V&L. "The boss" (I don't know his name, but that is what he is called) is FURIOUS, tells Jordan that it isn't fair, that he gave us $1000 and things were settled. I'll save all the verbal sparring, but Jordan tells them that we just want our money back. It's gone on too long, we need a car, we just want it to be over. We even tell them we will take $2000 less for the car than what we paid for it AND we've put brand new $700 tires on it. Again, skipping some verbal sparring... They tell us they want to drive the van and see what they're getting into. That's pretty darn impossible because the van is at AAMCO with the transmission out and it will cost us $1500 in labor just to put it back in so they can take it for a test drive.
By now we have been unable to drive the van for 6 months. We have been paying car insurance, and are now faced with extending our car loan and wiping out savings in order to pay for this. We ask V&L for another $1000. Tons and tons and tons of fighting, negotiating, haggling... over $1000.
By this point I highly doubt V&L will give us anything more, and we have no other options, so we're paying the $5000 to fix it. We may even have it by the end of the week. Jordan is still talking to them, but I'm sure they'll find someway to tell us how unfair it is to them.
Right. I have so much sympathy for them right now.
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