My 19 year old daughter, Hailey Bockholt, moved from South Dakota to Colorado for college on June 1st, 2015. On June 8th, she got rear-ended and her car was totaled. She was waiting for her insurance check and was renting a car. She went to Centennial Chrysler to buy a car. The salesman knew she was in a desperate situation, and that she was a young, naive 19 year old girl who was buying a car without her family. They found a Saturn Vue at the dealership and was told car was inspected, her boyfriend witnessed this. Seller told them everything was great and had her sign papers. This was June 19, 2015. She called them on June 29th to tell them the car was acting funny. Salesman told her too bad, she signed a paper saying it wasn't inspected and didn't have a warranty. They would not pay to fix it. She took her car to the service department, who said they wouldn't look at it until following week. On July 3rd, she drove her car to go to her extended family's Fourth of July celebration in Iowa, which was 10 hours away. She and her boyfriend made it to Kearney, Nebraska, which is still 5 hours from Iowa, and the car shut down on the interstate. She had to have the car towed to an auto repair shop in Kearney. Because of the holiday, they would not be open until Monday the 6th. So my daughter and her boyfriend were stranded in Kearney until we could find someone to drive out to pick them up and bring them back to Iowa in the middle of the night. We paid $300 to have someone pick them up. I called the dealer and was told by 2 different people that she should have bought a better car and it was her fault and that she signed a piece of paper saying she knew car was not inspected. I then talked to the general manager, Steve Barr. He said car didn't have a warranty so it was her fault and it didn't matter if car broke down after 2 hours, it would not be his problem because she should have bought a better car. I asked him if he would give her her money back. He said no. I asked if they would pay to tow it back and fix it. He said, she would have to pay her own towing for the 4-5 hours it would take to get back there. If it was a minor problem, they might fix it, but if it was the transmission, they would not. He said maybe IF she found a way to get the car back there and IF there wasn't anything major wrong with it, he would consider trading her a different car IF they had something there. I told him I was writing a review of the company and he said not to write a review until it was all over or he would get pissed. After we hung up, I noticed that this company had an enormous amount of bad reviews and my daughter was having so much emotional distress caused by them using predatory selling practices. I wrote the review and encouraged my family and friends to also after hearing about how they treated my daughter and wouldn't give her money back or fix it or trade it if it was the transmission. Steve then called me again because he was upset about the review. I told him I did not trust their company and wanted her money back. Steve hung up on me. The auto dealer in Kearney called and said the transmission is ruined and they don't even make that kind anymore. He said it would cost $3500 to fix plus $10/day to keep it there until we figure what to do with it. She only had the car from June19-July3 and is told she is now out an enormous amount of money for a college girl just trying to start out in life. The emotional cost that this company has caused her is even more than that.
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