Hoffman Ford Lincoln

STAY AWAY FROM THIS DEALERSHIP! Hoffman Ford will sacrifice your safety to make a quick buck! My experience with them was an absolute nightmare. So I was looking for a Toyota Tacoma and I found one at Hoffman Ford. It was exactly what I wanted. I had called to schedule an appointment the very next morning and they had informed me that they had sold the truck. I was pretty bummed but things happened and figured it wasn’t meant to be. Well about 3 days later they emailed let me know the truck was available again and if I wanted to come check it out. At this point it should have raised red flags but I was so excited the truck was available again. It was after hours at this point and called and left a message letting them know I was going to come first thing the next morning. I emailed the associate back as well letting her know the same thing. The next morning I got down there about a half hour before they opened. When I was pulling in I saw someone was underneath the truck. I parked and walked over and the guy got up from beneath the car and I asked him if the car was still available. At this point I noticed he was wearing a Hoffman Ford mechanic uniform and he got really nervous and told me he had put a deposit down the night before. He had the keys and everything and we looking through the truck. He closed it up and disappeared behind the building. I called my wife to let her know and she told me to stay just in case he didn’t really put a down payment on the truck. It was shocking to me because the sales associate had emailed me right before close and I’d imagine she wouldn’t do that if someone put a deposit down. Well they opened and it just so happens the associate that emailed me was the one who let me in. I immediately asked her if the truck was still available and she assure me it was. I had to wait a bit because there weren’t any salesmen in yet. I was eventually paired with Richie G and he also assured me that the truck was still available. I asked him why the truck came back and he told me that the financing on the deal fell through. I then asked him about the guy that was under the truck and said he put a deposit on it and he was unaware of this, or acted like he was. He then got me the keys and told me to look it over while he got a plate and stuff. There was no window sticker on the truck which I’m told is against the law, and he asked me how much the truck was. I was honest and told him what they listed it for. He then asked me if I had a trade and I told him I did and how much I would take on it. I then took it for a test drive and noticed the air conditioning wasn’t working. I brought this up when I came back and he told me they would have everything fixed before I came back and picked up the truck. We then sat down in the finance managers office and talked numbers. He showed me the CarFax and there were two accidents on it which I pointed out. He told me that they were probably minor since there weren’t any notes associated with them. He told me there was nothing structurally wrong with the truck, which eventually I found out was a lie. We filled out all the paperwork and I paid cash for the truck including my trade in. I was a little upset because they insisted on including all these nonsense fees. They didn’t give me ANY paperwork on the transaction and I asked Richie about it and he told me they would have that for me when I picked up the truck. So me and my wife left work early to go pick up the truck. Richie still didn’t give me any paperwork or the title for the truck and told me it would be mailed to me. On the way to dinner it was a little toasty and my wife put on the AC which we immediately noticed wasn’t working. The dealership was already closed for the night so I would call the next morning. I called the morning after and asked to speak to Richie. I mentioned that the AC was not working and it was supposed to be fixed before we picked up the truck. He then said “there’s nothing we can do for you”. After voicing my frustration he told me to hold for a minute and he was going to see if he could do something. He then comes back on the phone and tells me that he’s going to let me purchased a warranty on the truck for $2000 which would cover the AC fix. I was absolutely furious about this. After repeated calls and a complaint to the BBB the manager reached out to me and tried to tell me the truck was sold as is in which I let him know that the ONLY piece of paperwork I first received even before sitting down to go over exact numbers did not have the AS IS checked. I also let him know that they had promised me it would be fixed when I came to pick it up. After some back and forth he agreed to fix the AC and I told him I didn’t want to bring the truck back to Hoffman Ford and they would reimburse the bill from the place of my choice. It took me a while to even get the check from them as it seemed like they were stalling. At this point I was feeling a little uneasy about the truck and a friend had recommended bringing the truck in for a safety inspection to see if there was anything else wrong with it. So I actually called Hoffman Toyota, their sister dealership to schedule an appointment for the safety inspection. I dropped it off that morning and not too long after they called me letting me know that unfortunately the truck was unsafe to drive and they couldn’t let me leave the lot with it. Of course this was shocking to hear. Apparently they had found several LARGE perforations in the frame which meant the truck was unsafe to drive because the frame was bad. He then told me they were going to go over the rest of the truck and get a list of what else needed to be done. At this point I just purchased a truck for a significant amount of money that was unsafe to drive and basically useless. They then got back to me with a video and another large list of things they recommend getting fixed. The calipers were absolutely unrecognizable, the ebrake cables were ripped, the shocks were bad and there was a bunch of other things they recommended as well. It’s funny because after this report was sent to me I got a CarFax report from Hoffman Ford letting me know the things they did before I purchased the car and checking the calipers was on the list and Hoffman Toyota told me they were VERY unsafe and needed to be replaced. They also said they checked the AC which obviously was false as well. I felt like I just got take for all my money. So after everything was said and done Dan S called me to come down and discuss the results of the inspection and recommended fixes. I then told him how crazy it was that I JUST purchased the truck and the frame was bad and all the other safety issues. He then, dead serious, asked me what dealership would sell and let me leave with a truck in that shape. When I told him it was Hoffman Ford he looked so shocked and got all flustered and told me he was going to talk to his manager because there’s no way that they should have sold me a truck with a bad frame and that the Hoffman’s would not be happy about it. I told him it was illegal to sell a truck with a bad frame without disclosing it to me which it was never done. The calipers, ebrake and other safety issues they found were also things that should have been fixed before leaving the lot. I couldn’t believe they would sell me a truck like that and sleep at night. It was a VERY unsafe car and I was unknowingly driving it around with these issues.