Beware of Auto Express Alfa Romeo of Erie

tpgh, there is no way to know at this point whether the previous damage/repairs were structural or cosmetic . . . and it really doesn’t matter for purposes of my original posting topic.

And, I’ve had one paintless dent shop and 2 separate body shops look at the car. Each has opined that there appears to be evidence of previous repairs to at least the rear bumper cover. The only way to tell if there is additional structural damage would be to remove the bumper cover. My position is that I should not be responsible for, nor should I be expected to, have the bumper cover removed and/or repaired.

Wheb you got it that was expectation though that they would fix it right?

I’m not disagreeing with you at all, and I’d be pissed too. Just saying maybe they view it as being extremely minor, hardly noticeable and know it doesn’t affect the value as you’re leasing. Provided you don’t get penalized because of it when it’s grounded…

We agreed that, if it was a simple PDR fix, they would pay to fix it. That all changed once the PDR shop said the car has evidence of previous repairs and that it couldn’t be fixed with a PDR process.

What if it wasnt a pdr?

The dealer just told me that they would make it right. We didn’t specifically talk about a non-PDR repair since the last thing I ever expected was previous damage/repairs.

Sorry man. I hear you. See Justin is doing kind of loser deals so thats why GM acts that way? Not sure. But a good lesson in not taking the car unless all is in writing.

For what it’s worth, I have had several cars shipped from Auto Express through Justin and my experience has been great. My clients love their cars, and the dealer was pretty easy to work with. Obviously, sometimes things happen, but not sure it’s a reason to beware of a certain place.

The distance thing is an issue. Makes it harder for the dealer to easily make it right. Assuming they are upstanding folks, if you were local they could look at it and decide what to do based on their mechanics findings. Now they are stuck relying on third party sources without any way of veryifing info. If they agree to take car back and then find fix is minor and should have been made, they have lost probably 10k over nothing.

Would have had them work something out with a local dealer. I’ve had this happen with infiniti. They took care of it between themselves

Great point, Aronchi. If Auto Express was an upstanding place, I would’ve expected them to make every reasonable effort to resolve this issue, including having one of our 2 Kansas City Alfa dealers look at the car and provide additional opinions. However, they have not offered that and have, instead, gone radio silent. I haven’t heard from them for over a week.

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I appreciate everyone’s insights and perspectives on this issue. I’m not naive enough to think that I’m going to get Auto Express to ever do the right thing, despite their original assurance that they would do just that. So, we just have another story of a poor, unsuspecting buyer getting duped. All I can do now is to share my experience so that others don’t fall into the same trap.
I’ve been told that the majority of Auto Express’ Alfa sales are to long-distance buyers. Presumably, most of these buyers probably have their cars shipped to them. For those buyers, just beware that you probably have zero leverage against Auto Express in the event you were to experience a similar issue to mine. Hopefully, it’s not Auto Express’ business model to sell previously damaged/repaired Alfa’s, at very aggressive prices, to unsuspecting long-distance buyers. I wonder . . .

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You still haven’t posted any pictures. Any reason why?:slight_smile:

Photos coming. Had a snowstorm here this week and need to get it cleaned so that photos are decent.

I have a video showing the missing hardware but it won’t let me post a video here. Happy to send it to you if you want to provide email address

Sure they do. They could refuse shipment. If anything, your unfortunate exercise here strengthens the argument to obtain a WE OWE from the dealership, and getting any “we’ll take care of it” promises in writing.

Agreed, you can absolutely refuse receipt. I have never flown someplace to pick up a deal so I can’t imagine how annoying it would be to arrive and then leave empty handed if the dealer won’t play ball but I never accept receipt of cars I lease if there are any issues. I have rejected cars even when dealers were trying to put their shitty logo sticker on the back, body damage would be a definitive no.

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Those burn me up…unless they want to pay me to advertise, of course. I’ve never had a dealer willing to do so, so the stickers are always removed before delivery :slight_smile:

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never had to do this before, and this is actually a good point to think about in advance of delivery(one probably won’t have much time to make a decision on the spot), so i’m curious how it would work out practically:
if you refuse shipment, i assume you’d be on the hook for shipping fees(that you had already paid to dealer prior)?
or if refusal is due to previously undisclosed damage/defect etc, does that absolve the receiver from that responsibility?
also, what happens next? is dealer responsible to remedy the damage or replace it with similar vehicle and ship for no additional charge? i can see this quickly becoming a tangled situation, assuming each one-way shipment is 750-100…
i’m not honestly sure if the damage ‘appears’ to be minimal, if i would just accept the delivery and document damage/get a ‘we owe’ from dealer before accepting delivery.

has anyone been in this situation before?