Ericson Auto — Local services in Ankeny

Yesterday (10/31) my husband had a terrible experience with Ericson Auto in Ankeny. Husband arranged an appointment to buy a used 2003 Pontiac Vibe with a rebuilt clutch and a hood latch that needed replaced (and was promised to be replaced before appointment) for a negotiated price of $3,000. Husband arrived about 20-30 minutes before schedule with cash in hand. The vehicle was not at the lot, it was apparently being picked up from a CarMax parking lot. After waiting about 30 minutes past the scheduled time my husband went into the office to see what was going on. The car had arrived and was left running with a battery jumper pack in the passenger seat. He was then told that when they arrived to pick up the car it had a dead battery and one flat & one nearly flat tire. Also at this time he was told the agreed price of $3,000 was no longer offered and the final price would be $3,500. Husband decided to inspect the car and test drive before making his decision. Due to the car being left running my husband and brother in law (who is a certified mechanic with over 15 years experience) was unable to hear a cold start of the engine. Even with the vehicle being warm you could clearly hear problems in the engine, the sales person said that it was the engine "relearning its idle after being jumped". Due to this my brother in law used his snap-on diagnostic tool to scan the vehicles computer for any codes. The vehicle came back with many, including misfires in cylinders 1-4 and an engine lean code (which can mean engine vacuum leaks). At this time they inspected the body of the vehicle and saw that the hood latch had not been replaced as promised. It also had a busted tail light assembly. My husband took it for a test drive and found that the gears shifted rough, it needed new brakes and it pulled to the left. After the test drive my husband told the salesperson that he was going to pass on purchasing the vehicle. The salesperson sarcastically replied "Good luck." After the experience my husband decided to post his first ever review onto google, the reply that he received is childish, unprofessional and rude. After reading through all the reviews we found many owner replies that were similar, if not worse. We certainly will steer clear of this business and will advise all of our friends, family and community to...

I bought an '03 Santa Fe back in October of 22 and it is now April 23. I bought a car for a decent price and hadn't even driven it more than 3000 miles in the several months I've had it. the transmission completely gave out - there's no way a successful body shop couldn't tell if there was this type of problem with a car. "Who knows what you did to it during the winter but yet somehow you want to blame me for problem you caused on a 20-year-old vehicle? That's quite a stretch" - The Owner. Not a great way to interact with a disgruntled customer, and not a great idea to assume in the months I had driven it, with very little mileage added, that I, or anyone, could have ruined an entire transmission. Updated a week ago from my original review: "People always looking for someone to blame" - The Owner. I'm wondering how a used car that the owner had gone over, checked to make sure it was running well, and miss something so big like a transmission issue. In the six to seven months I've had this car there is no way that I can ruin a completely fine transmission, as the owner did not mention ANY problems with the transmission, even when asked. When the owner of a shop can't take responsibility for an important problem with a car, I wouldn't call this owner an actual "mechanic". This is just a man who flips cars to people who are desperate. Do not trust...

Didn't even buy the car from this man, just called to inquire about a vehicle my husband asked what accident the car had been in because the website that we searched on through cars guru stated that there was one accident reported, so my husband asked and The dealer stated well it's "2500 bucks what do you expect" but then wanted to know where we got our information and how we knew that it was in an accident so my husband explain to him that it was on the website that there had been an accident reported. My husband expressed that he was very rude and he came back saying "well you're kind of accusing of the worst" again my husband said no I was just trying to find out what kind of accident that it had been in since it had been reported that there was one. And he still did not tell us what kind of accident the vehicle was in. Very rude was willing to pay cash on anything under $3000 yes this was a cheap vehicle for 2500 we expect that there may be an accident so we were just inquiring about what kind of accident. We would never ever do business with this individual and I highly recommend no...