LONE JACK, Mo. — When you pay nearly $17,000 for a used car, you expect to be able to drive it.
But the car a local 19-year-old was sold was so bad, it shouldn’t have been on the road. That’s why he called FOX4 Problem Solvers.
“The way they described it was a one-owner car,” said Sam Weber, who bought the 2016 Mustang with 40,000 miles on it in December from Car Store USA in Olathe.
Although the car looked good from the outside, on the 40-minute drive back to his home in Lone Jack, Sam noticed the clutch was slipping.
“To point where it was almost undriveable at times,” he said.
Car Store USA promised to repair the clutch, but after keeping it for two weeks, the manager called Sam and his father Dave and said the mechanic couldn’t find a problem.
That’s when Dave Weber decided to bring his son’s Mustang to an expert at Bob Sight Ford. The news wasn’t good.
According to Bob Sight, besides a slipping clutch, there was no catalytic converter, meaning the car isn’t even street legal, and the engine had been tuned for racing and driven hard.
Bob Sight’s final verdict? “Do not recommend buying.” Advice that unfortunately came too late for the Weber family.
And then it got worse. On the way home from Bob Sight Ford, Sam started hearing some strange noises from the engine.
“It sounded like someone throwing around Legos,” he said. “Then I heard a boom, smoke everywhere.”
He coasted into a parking lot. The Mustang’s engine had thrown a rod. Sam’s dad immediately called Car Store USA.
“We will get this taken care of Mr. Weber,” he said he was told.
And at first he was hopeful. After all, Car Store USA had sold his son a $2,100 after-market warranty for the Mustang. But that warranty turned out to be invalid since the car’s engine had been modified.
“This car has been raced,” Dave Weber said.
FOX4 Problem Solvers paid a visit to Car Store USA for answers.
Manager Brenen Frye wasn’t eager to talk to us on camera. But Frye did talk to us without our camera. He said he was unaware the car had been modified when he sold it.
However, FOX4 Problem Solvers found this inspection report, paid for by Car Store USA several months prior to the sale, showing it had been modified with after-market parts.
Also disturbing was Car Store USA’s solution for fixing the problem. It told Sam and his dad it would pay 25% for labor and repairs, which are estimated at about $8,000.
“That’s absolutely absurd,” Sam said.
But Car Store USA pointed to the terms stated in its limited warranty.
Consumer attorney Bernard Brown said no matter what the limited warranty states, Sam deserves to get all his money back. Brown said Car Store USA should have never sold Sam the Mustang.
“Come on, you are selling a car that has been modified to be a race car and doesn’t have a catalytic converter, come on,” Brown said. “They are supposed to fix it, not fix 25% of it.”
Every car sold in Kansas comes with something called an “implied warranty,” meaning it’s fit for ordinary use. The Mustang clearly wasn’t and Brown said a car dealer can’t create a lesser warranty than the implied warranty.
That’s a violation of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act.
“Something like a slipping clutch or an air conditioner not working or brakes or any of these things — those would break the implied warranty,” Brown said.
When FOX4 Problem Solvers raised the issue of the implied warranty to Car Store USA, we were told it would review the matter. Two days later, Car Store USA refund all of Sam Weber’s money.
