Germain Ford of Columbus

I'm not one to complain generally, about anything really, but me and my wife's recent experience with Germaine Ford was horrible and no one has offered anything other than generic apologies this entire time. I'm not even sure what I'm looking for at this point other than to hope this doesn't happen to anyone else. My wife and I purchased a 2014 GMC Terrain from Coleton on July 27th, 2023. We did our usual test drive, pulled it into a parking lot and checked all the features, looked under the hood, etc... The car made no odd noises and everything appeared fully functional in our brief time with the vehicle. Unfortunately, after driving it home and then to Meijer in Grove City the check engine light came on. We purchased the car for my wife to take out of town the next day for job training and she wasn't able to take it. I messaged Coleton and he told me to bring the car in first thing the next morning saying "I am sorry for the inconvenience, we will correct the situation." I was not able to get the next morning off work and the proper technician was not going to be available until Monday so I took the GMC in then. I had also noticed after being forced to drive it over the weekend (my wife had our other car out of town) that it made an odd squealing sound when turning the wheels, especially at freeway speeds. I reported that to Coleton as well when I dropped the car off. On Monday they had my car until midafternoon, and then sent me home with an invoice stating that the check engine light might possibly be a camshaft sensor and that I should take it to GMC if it happens again. As for the squealing when turning they noted that they were "unable to verify my concern." From this point we continued to drive the car because we assumed the technicians at Germain Ford knew what they were doing and would have alerted us if something was off with the car. Also thinking that maybe we just weren't used to the car yet. Fast forward about a week and a half and my wife and daughter are on the side of the road because the car was no longer able to be controlled and the tires had gotten so severely balded that there was no traction in the light rain. We had the car towed to Tuffy in Grove City. The vehicle had bad control arms, blown rear suspension, bad ball joints, and because of all this needed four tires replaced and aligned. That set us back $3000 for a car that we had just driven off the lot and was already "checked" by Germain Ford. From about the time of "service" at Germain Ford our salesman Coleton had become unresponsive. I had similar trouble getting in touch with anyone at Germain for awhile also. I work a lot and have a large family so there wasn't tons of opportunity to call, but when I did try over the next few days the phone would just ring and ring. Then Carfax prompted me to write a review for Germain Ford. I did, which prompted Service Manager John to contact me. He essentially offered a dry apology and promised to pass me on to the used car sales manager. The used car sales manager, of course, never contacted me either. Frankly for all the costs we've incurred and all the inconvenience, one star is too many. Avoid this place at all costs.