Al Piemonte Ford

First of all, let me start by saying that I am crystal clear on what "as is, no warranty" means. When I decided to purchase a vehicle to tow my lightweight travel trailer, I turned to what I thought was clear on what "as is, no warranty" means. When I decided to purchase a vehicle to tow my lightweight travel trailer, I turned to what I thought was a reputable Ford dealer. Al Piemonte Ford had a high mileage 110K mile, 2000 Ford Expedition advertised on the internet for $4,470.00. Interested, I went to the dealer and talked to Moses (salesperson). We test drove the car. It drove okay for a 2000 model vehicle, except for the brakes. I told Moses I was going to use the vehicle for towing and for family trips, and was concerned with reliability and safety. I asked him if he could arrange to run it through the service department and have them inspect the vehicle to see what repairs it needed as well as any safety concerns, and I would pay for those repairs separately. They agreed to do the inspection. After about an hour, Tom Jahn (Service Director) returned and gave me the good news. The car was "well taken care of" and all it needed was a rear main seal and an axle seal, and it would cost me $516.00. When I specifically asked about the brakes, he told me they were at 60%. He told me there were no safety concerns. I agreed to the additional charges, they did the work the next day and I picked up the vehicle the next afternoon. Within a few days, the check engine light came on (just my luck), and I took it to a Ford dealer that was much closer to my house, Gurnee Ford, to diagnose the issue. They were excellent. While it was there, I asked if they could to a bumper to bumper inspection - just to see if Al Piemonte missed anything. Gurnee Ford did a thorough inspection, and told me it was about ready to fall apart. They gave me an estimate of about $3,000 - $4,000 in repair to fix everything, which included brakes (front and rear pads/rotors were critical), exhaust manifold gasket, rear trailing arms (upper and lower), new transmission cooling lines, a complete parking brake overhaul (the lines for the parking brake had disintegrated from rust, and the parking brake foot pedal would not go down), tune up, and a few other things. I had them do the exhaust manifold ($900) because I thought this may have been something that may not have been obvious to Al Piemonte's mechanics, but I immediately called Al Piemonte and spoke to Chuck Puzzzuto, the General Manager about the rest of the obvious issues. He told me that he would have to have the owner call me back. Todd O'Reilly, the Vice President, did call me back. I explained my concerns to him, including that another Ford dealer found items that required service on the vehicle, and his service department should have caught these issues on their inspection I requested before I purchased the vehicle, especially the parking brake that didn't work, a major safety concern. He dismissed Gurnee Ford's service department's findings by saying that it was "their job" to tell me things were wrong with the car so they could work on it. He told me the car was sold "as is". I explained that it was sold to me "as is", but the sale was contingent upon the condition of the vehicle, and his service department overlooked $4,000 worth of repair work. Todd agreed to have his Service Department look at the vehicle again, although no promises were made. I brought the car back to Julio Garcia and a different Service Manager. Julio set me up with a loaner vehicle and was very pleasant. A couple of days went by and I received a call from the other service manager. He told me that he confirmed, but didn't necessarily agree, with all of Gurnee Ford's findings. He told me that Mr. O'Rielly would agree to fix the parking brake and put front (not rear) brakes on the vehicle, but I would have to pay half. The rest of the items that Gurnee Ford found could wait until later, and were not immediately needed. I reluctantly agreed to that deal, and the next day went to pick up the car. Julio greeted me and told me the service manager (did not catch name) wanted to speak with me back in the shop. This service manager was very personable and was a straight talker. He told me that he was on vacation the week I purchased the car, and would have NEVER put it on the lot. He told me he would have sent it to auction, and to let this purchase mistake be a "life lesson". He showed me the pads and rotors that his mechanics took of the vehicle and said he has "never in his life" seen rotors and pads this bad. They literally crumbled away in his hands. He told me that the rear trailing arms did need to be replaced, but that was an expense they were not willing to go for, and that before I did it on my own, to wait a few months to see if I actually still wanted to invest that kind of money in this junker instead of just getting rid of it. He told me they tried their best to replace the parking brake - new shoes, pads and a line were put on, but they could still not get the brake to work. He told me they would have to take the gas tank off to get to where they thought the problem was, but the expense to do that "wasn't worth it because they were already upside down on this deal". He told me that they would be willing to leave the parking brake hardware that they installed on the vehicle anyway (even though it was still not working), and they would not charge me for the front brake work, and that was as far as they would be willing to go. I was at their mercy. At this point, I knew the car was totaled (it needed more in repair than what it was worth), so I asked if I could trade it in, and use the $4470 I paid for it on a new Expedition. They told me "now since they knew what was wrong with it, they would only give me $1,000.00" for it. And this was about a week after I bought it. I brought it to another independent shop to have it looked at to see if it could be saved, and they told me they have never seen a car that was as rusted out underneath as this, but there was no rust on the body. They could literally take their hand and put it through the holes in the rear trailing arms (I took pictures of this and will try to post). They told me if those would have come apart while towing with my family in the car, it would have been disastrous. The rear brake pads crumbled away when they took them off. They put the car up on a lift and showed me where the front end had rusted away. The bushings were all disintegrated from rust. They advised me not to drive the vehicle, in fear that the rear axle would fall off. I traded the car in a few weeks later for $1,500 and took delivery of a new Land Rover. I thought I was doing the right thing by buying a used Ford from a Ford Dealership that had been inspected by certified Ford Mechanics for obvious mechanical issues. All I needed was an extra, inexpensive, rd vehicle to tow my travel trailer. Instead I got an experience I would never forget and lost thousands of dollars in the process. I would advise you steer clear of this dealership. More