B&B Auto

In early May 2021 I was looking for a car and one that was being sold by B & B auto caught my eye. It was a 2008 Subaru Outback, being sold for $4995. I was pretty excited about it, because where I live, Outbacks are in high demand and therefore much more expensive. I contacted the dealership to express my interest and they said that we could have a video call so they could show me the car. In the video call they showed me the car, and everything seemed good. However, because I know that a video call can’t show you everything when it comes to a car, I made sure to ask some specific questions. First I asked about the amount of rust on the car. The immediate response was that there was very little rust. I then asked if they had had a mechanic look at it, and they said yes and it looked good. Their answers were to my satisfaction, and I decided that I would buy the car. On May 7, 2021 we made the transaction, and I began the drive home (I live in Utah, so it was a long drive). However, before I had even left Cleveland, the engine started to be a lot louder than it was when I had test driven it. At first I couldn’t figure out what was causing the problem, but at a gas station a few hours into my drive, I realized that the tailpipe had rusted through and part of it was almost dragging on the ground. I got some wire and used that to get the tailpipe back together (temporarily) so I could finish the drive home. By that time it was far too late at night to try to contact the dealership. I made it home, and took my car to a shop. They looked at the bottom of the car, and told me that there was far more rust there than would be expected on a 2008 car, and that it would likely cause me a lot of problems. I immediately reached out to the dealership, sending them pictures and letting them know what the mechanic had told me. They didn’t respond for over a week, and when they did respond it was just to let me know that they were out of the country and they would call me when they got back. From that point I didn’t hear from them for another 2 weeks, so I finally reached back out to them to see what was up. During this time I had tried to get my car to pass the emissions test so I could get it registered, but it turns out that the catalytic converters were also having a lot of trouble due to the amount of rust and had to be replaced. By this point, it hadn’t even been a month since I had bought the car, and with these two repairs I had spent over $1,000 in addition to the money I used to buy the car. When I finally was able to reach the dealer again (nearly a month after I bought the car) to discuss with them the issues, their only response was something to the effect of “you bought the car ‘as is’ so it isn’t our problem.” While this is true, my purchase was made on incorrect information that had been fed to me by the dealers themselves. But he was right, there was nothing I could do. I paid for the repairs, and decided to just put it behind me, that it would all be ok. I wish that was the end of the story. It isn’t. Just this week, I started smelling something while idling in my car, so I decided to take it to the shop. They took a look at the engine, and saw that the head gasket has been leaking for some time, likely since before I bought the car. In addition to that, they told me that the timing belt is about to snap. The one currently in there is still the original (should have been replaced at 80,000 miles, the car is now at 147,000 miles only 5,000 of which were put on there by me). Total, these repairs are expected to cost another $2,400. I do not have the money to pay for those repairs. This is the exact reason that I made sure to ask those specific questions prior to buying the car. In total, after these repairs, I will have paid nearly $9,000, nearly doubling the price that I originally paid for it. Had the dealers been honest with me before I purchased the car, there is no way I would have bought it.