Capital Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram

This is a review of Capital Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Garner, NC. This review is concerned only with a bizarre, unsettling experience I had when I visited the dealership at the end of March, 2021, to look at a used Golf R. Their website showed that they had two low-mileage 2019 Golf R vehicles, and since this is a difficult car to find in March 2021, I decided to go have a look. It was not a pleasant drive due to the congestion in the I-440/I-40 area, and due to the number of very reckless drivers in this part of Raleigh. I found both cars sitting next to each, one dark blue and the other a reddish orange. I looked both cars over for several minutes, then walked up to the entrance to the dealership. Standing next to the entrance, there was a skinny older gentleman who looked to be maybe fifteen years past normal retirement age. He wasn’t wearing a mask and began speaking to me without first putting one on, even though I was wearing one. I went inside and glanced around, and was shocked to see that almost no one inside this dealership was wearing a mask. It was like going back in time, to the time before the pandemic broke out. The old gentleman found a sales guy to help me. After he made a copy of my drivers license, he and I sat in the blue car for several minutes while I played with the settings menu. When the time came to drive off, I kept my foot on the regular brake while I released the electronic parking brake and put the DSG transmission in the drive position. So far so good. When I took my foot off the brake and gently pressed on the accelerator pedal, there was a very conspicuous grinding sensation, coming from the rear of the vehicle. I applied the brake, and since we hadn’t moved but a few inches, I suggested to the sales guy that we should get out and make certain that there wasn’t anything obstructing the rear wheels. We did that, but there wasn’t anything there. So we got back in the car again, and I released the parking brake again and let my foot off the regular brake again. The car started slowly forward, and while the sensation wasn’t exactly the same as it was the first time, there was still a very obvious grinding sensation. As I drove the short distance to the end of the row of parked vehicles, less than 50 feet, I noticed a distinct click occurring at a regular interval. At the time I didn’t have a clear sense of what this was, but later as I was driving away from the dealership, it occurred to me that this clicking sound was synchronized to the rotation of the wheels, and that the cause was most likely a bad CV joint on one of the two rear axles (the CV joint is the joint found at both ends of both axles, which permits the angle between the axle and the wheel or differential to vary as the wheel rotates). I had no interest in driving the car any further, so I simply turned back, around the adjacent row of parked cars, then drove the car back the spot where it had been and carefully backed it into the slot. I assumed that the grinding sensation had been obvious to the sales guy, so I didn’t say anything, but waited until I had parked it, and then I said, “Well, maybe we should try the orange one.” He went back inside the building while I waited outside. After several minutes he came back out, but now there was another man with him, an older man who looked to be in his fifties maybe, maybe even as old as me. As he approached he spoke, and while the words seemed polite enough, the tone of his voice and his mannerisms left no doubt that he took umbrage at my having suggested that there could be anything wrong with the car. He said, “That car has 10,000 miles on it!”. I wanted no part of any confrontation, so I spoke in a calm, respectful tone, but he insisted that I go for a drive with him and show him what was wrong with the car. I politely declined, but he was adamant, so I agreed and got in on the passenger’s side. He started the engine and pulled out of the spot and used full throttle to reach the short distance to the end of the row of parked cars, less than 50 feet. I again felt the grinding sensation, which to me was unmistakable. I was very uncomfortable with the way he was behaving and the way he was driving, so I said that it was obvious that something was wrong and that if he hadn’t felt it he probably wouldn’t, and then I asked to be let out of the car. He said something to the effect that I needed to stay in the car. I repeated in a more assertive tone that I wanted him to stop and let me out. I got out and walked back toward my vehicle. Before I reached my vehicle, he had re-parked the blue Golf R, and when he got out of it, he turned and looked at me and said, in a tone that was very arrogant and surly, “Good day to you, Sir!” As I was sitting in my car preparing to drive away, the first, younger sales guy got in the other, orange-red Golf R and drove it somewhere, which struck me as very peculiar. A possibility that occurred to me later was that the orange-red car had already been spoken for, maybe by an employee or similar, and that if it had been still for sale, the younger sales guy would have come out with the key to it and he and I would have taken it for a test drive, without the older fellow coming out to confront me in the exceedingly bizarre manner that he did. I also recalled that the younger sales guy had told me that the blue car had been taken in trade for a new jeep, from a close relative of one of the sales managers. Putting one and one together, I think it is all but certain that the sales manger who took the car in trade and the sales manager who came out and confronted me in a very surly, wholly inappropriate and surly manner are one and the same. I also think it all but certain that the blue car had not undergone a proper inspection by a mechanic before being put up for sale. If it had been properly inspected by a mechanic, he would have said this plainly and without hesitation. And it likely wouldn’t have been put up for sale with what is most likely a busted CV joint. I’m a retired professional engineer, and over the years I’ve bought and sold my share of cars, and have dealt with my share of car dealerships. I’ve also worked on most of the cars that I’ve owned, starting with my first car way back when I was in college. I know enough about cars to know that when I feel a grinding sensation in the drive train that this means that something is broken. Some car dealerships are excellent, with courteous, professional employees. Some are the opposite. This experience was unsettling. Suffice to say that I will not be buying anything at Capital Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Garner, NC.