Ideal Classic Cars

Not sure how to put this but I went in and inquired about two cars. Thought I was being cordial. Ended up getting a bit of attitude upon my second inquiry while there. The response was "What do you think it costs?" Been dropping in there when in the area for a while. First time I asked about any cars or prices. Guess Ideal isn't the place to go. If you don’t want anybody to ask you about the prices then put it on the car. I would be happy not to ask.

Worked with Felix on a purchase very professional transaction, needed a couple of things fix, it was finished the next day, great job. I have bought several cars from vintage dealers and ideal was one of the best to work with.

Secret Shopper Review... Not a single person greeted us. Yes, they have a great selection of cars but we did not feel welcome at all and will not be spending money at a place where we are not welcomed. We did speak to a lovely photographer who did answer our questions but a rude salesman interrupted her mid sentence with an irrelevant request which the photographer completed already, as if to tell her to stop speaking with us and go back to work. He did not acknowledge us at all either. A place of business should never assumed who is ready to make a purchase and who is not by the way the customer looks or sounds. Lovely store but none of the half of dozen sales staff offered to assist any one of us. In our experience (there were 4 of us, and we were the ONLY customers in the place) this place has horrible customer service except for the kind photographer. I own a 1966 Barracuda 273c.i. Commando, 1970 340 c.i. Cuda, 1970 340 c.i. Duster, 1962 170 c.i. Mercury Meteor and was looking for a Bel Air convertible. I hope this was a one-off day for such a great looking business but judging by everyone's miserable looks, from the lot folks to sales, this must be a horrid place to work at. Good luck.

Don't expect any help, the sales people sit and stare at their computers, they ignore everyone. THE WEB SITE HAS MAYBE 1 OR 2 PRICES ON THE CAR. So you have to beg for a price. I went in to look for a car, didn't even get a hello ,so I went to the Punta Gorda auction (Premier) and ended up getting one. I went looking for another today and got the same treatment.

My father in law purchased 2 cars from here. The first one had a problem with water leaking through the door/window seals. The second car we had multiple minor repairs we pointed out which they said would be taken care of before being shipped to Pennsylvania. None of it was handled before or after shipment! It's very unfortunate when a business "owner" doesn't "own up" to the product he or she is selling for top dollar. I'm sure the trade in that his wife is driving around runs beautifully! Needless to say we will NEVER be using their services again!

John.Aurelio is a wonderful salesman and a great person to do business with. I'll reommend him to my friends and family for any of their car buying purchases.

Ideal classic cars sold us what was a “turn key fully restored truck”, they said there mechanics went over the truck and it was good to go. The truck was delivered and the gas gauge didn’t work, so on the way to the gas station, it made it about 4 miles and the wheel fell off, causing a lot of damage. 2nd time on the road, on the way to the body shop the throttle linkage fell off. 3rd time on the road, on the way home from the body shop the rear end had a catastrophic failure, it had never had a drop of gear oil in it, bone dry.4th time on the road, had a bad fuel leak so as soon as the rear end was replaced to the gas station again, filled it up and the truck wouldn’t shift out of first gear. It’s in the transmission shop now, it was improperly installed. 700r4, cables that run the transmission never hook up, torque converter lock up was never wired up. The transmission guy said the transmission was so full of rust it can’t even be used as a core. He said it looked like it had sat for years with moisture in it. Not to mention the motor is missing, I’m probably going to end up replacing the whole drivetrain. The manager we were dealing with is no longer there. The owner will not return any calls. This turn key truck has already cost over $10,000 in repair and it has been driven 25 miles sense it was purchased. I would avoid them at all cost!!!

I purchased a 1957 Ford Sunliner from Ideal Classic Cars in late August 2020. In November after negotiations they are to be commended for returning my beautiful 442 Oldsmobile. I returned the Ford. The issue has been resolved.

Avoid this business at all cost. They sold me a lemon and lied the entire time. I had to spend $4,500 on repairs just to drive the car. They said they would stand by their car. xxxxxxxx!

I wanted to share my experience with trying to trade with Ideal Classic cars in Florida ...after negotiating with this company for over a week I was ready to trade for a 1965 GTO convertible but because it was long distance I wanted to have a professional appraiser to come by to inspect the car before totally committing to the deal (just a side note I spent over 40 years in the car business so I knew what questions to ask) the GM is a dude names Kermit and this guy is right out of the old movie Used Cars ...first he gives me a trade difference and 2 days later goes up on it by $5000 ...then he says if I would make a "today" decision he would honor his ealier price ...I explained I had read all the negitive customer feedback online and even the BBB had complaints about him and this company so I still wanted to have a professional come by to inspect and drive the car ..he then said ok but I had to give a $2500 deposit to just get the car off their showroom to be inspected ...obviously I said no way Im doing that and hung up the phone ...later the salesman Fritz ( a good guy ) contacted me and said Kermit had agreed to wave the deposit but it all had to be done by the end of the month and this was on December 24 ...I contacted a pro to find out when he could inspect the car ...called them back and when I did Fritz told me that Kermit had decided he didnt want to do the deal after all ...this was after 4 days of phone calls, text, sending pictures in email ...just a lot of time wasted ...Kermit is your typical used car flim flam kind of guy the ONLY positive out of this was dealing with Fritz its to bad he has to work for a xxxxx like Kermit ...so beware of Ideal Classic cars and now that I think of it it seems to me that was the name of the car lot in the movie Used Cars !!!