GR Auto Gallery of Grand Rapids

I bought a 2005 Jaguar XJR from GR auto Gallery in late December, 2017. I picked the car up in early January. Cars transmission had a major malfunction less than 25 miles from the dealership, with more than 375 miles left on my drive home. Car was also unable to create heat, and the windshield washers were not operational. I was able to nurse it home through rough conditions, and then had it towed to a well-regarded, independent Jaguar shop. What the shop found was disappointing to say the least: The car was critically low on both transmission fluid and engine coolant. When filled with test fluids both the transmission and coolant system exhibited significant leaks. Damage to the transmission was catastrophic, damage to coolant system significant, and the total repair bill to simply get the car in condition to drive down the road was $7500 (now up over to $8000 when full extent of gasket damage from overheat was uncovered). This repair cost is more than 70% of the purchase price of the car, and that does not include the almost 1k I had to spend on tires with their preferred vendor to simply drive away from the lot (I was made aware the car was undrivable in any inclement weather on the current tires after I had wired them the funds). As soon as I had the diagnosis I reached out to the GR sales person, let them know what I had been through in the 3 days since picking up the car, provided any/all detail I could muster, and then asked them if they would be willing to help me in some meaningful way in order to make this right (I asked for them to share the cost 50/50). Their co-owner emailed me back, provided no apology, suggested I had errored in not getting a pre-purchase inspection, told me that they were not going to take any action towards restitution, and then thanked me for my business. I responded by letting them know how unfair I thought that stance was, and that I was highly concerned that they would let a customer drive off their lot with a car that was obviously leaking critical fluids, and in fact was so low on those fluids that the car catastrophically failed before I could get out of their zipcode, and that it was my duty to let the buying public know about my experience. The co-owner responded by saying they had no “crystal ball” that could have told them the car was leaking critical fluids, and as a result was catastrophically low on such fluids. He insisted that I should at least be grateful that they had been kind enough to let me know I needed to buy new tires, after I had paid them for the car, so I did not end up “in a ditch”. He then told me that I was free to “rant” all I wanted to about their business online, but it would not affect their happy customers, and that threatening to use “gossip” was not a way to induce them to help me. Again, there was no apology, no responsibility taken for allowing the car to leave their dealer in such a dangerous condition, and nothing that indicated they would do anything to amend for this situation, or do anything different to prevent such a happenstance in the future. I responded to him letting him know I thought the whole thing was unacceptable, that I did not plan to “rant” or “gossip”, but that I was simply going to tell my story and let others understand the nature of their operation. He responded a final time with a two-sentence email offering me a pittance of restitution ($550) if I signed some type of hold harmless paperwork, and tell me they “were sorry that this happened on my purchase”. Again, no responsibility taken for the clear neglect they showed, no phone call, not earnestness or honesty. I told them they could keep the money. Bottom line is this: Do not do any business with this group. They clearly do not have any best practices in place to insure the vehicles they sell can even be started without potential damaging effects, but more importantly they take absolutely no responsibility to do such due diligence. The nature of the leaks the car they sold me had makes it hard for me to believe they did not have any warning that there was serious issues, but that is not something I can know with certainty. What I do know is that this group is not a partner, does not take responsibility for their negligent actions, and will not even take the time to simply pick up the phone and show any empathy for a customer who has had an unbelievably bad experience directly caused by that negligence. If you care about your own wallet and sanity just move to the next listing, work with a dealer who has a semblance of honor, best practice, and decency. James Randall-