CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Diana Martinez and her boyfriend, David Arias, already have their own vehicles, but decided they wanted a truck for more room on trips.
"It’s not that we needed it; it’s just that we wanted to buy a truck," they told the Troubleshooters.
So in March, they bought a 2011 Dodge Laramie, with a little more than 140,000 miles on it, from AutoNation Ford. They put a down payment of $2500 toward the vehicle.
They told the Troubleshooters they chose AutoNation Ford because they had purchased vehicles from the dealership before and didn’t have any issues.
They bought the truck ‘as-is’ because, as Arias told us, "we had to sign a paper saying that they would buy it back within five days or 250 miles. So which one is it?"
They showed us a copy of the agreement.
Martinez and Arias insist they had not driven the vehicle more than 250 miles when they took it back to the dealership on April 6, because they were having so many issues with it.
They said they had issues with the remote-start function, the air conditioner, and more. They say it would cost more than $6000 to fix everything.
So they called the Troubleshooters, saying they’re fed up with what they perceive as a failure to communicate on the part of the dealership.
"You can’t get an answer. You just can’t," a frustrated Arias told us. "They just give you the runaround. And the runaround. And the runaround. And it’s tiring."
Tiring because the couple estimates they’ve made 20 trips from their home in Robstown to the dealership on SPID, trying to get resolution.
The couple claims Cole McLeod with the dealership told her "not to worry about (it). I got your back. We're gonna get you into something else. We don't want you to worry. We don't want a bad rep."
On June 8, the Troubleshooters went to the dealership, left our business card and asked for someone to contact us for this story. No one from the dealership has contacted us by phone or through email.
But on Friday, June 11, Martinez sent us pictures of the paperwork of the agreement with the dealership.
It includes a check from the dealership, to Martinez, for the first month's note.
However, the couple still found issues with the truck, so it's still at the dealership being repaired.
As far as the title and plates, which Martinez had not received, she says that's been taken care of as well.
This is another Troubleshooters case closed!
