Contra Costa County Public Auto Auction — Local services in Pittsburg

I was a public transit rider before the COVID-19 outbreak. Early in March I decided it would only get worse and I wanted to get a car just for work commutes since I work in an "essential" capacity and can't work from home. I had been doing online shopping for a specific used car with specific features within my price range, and I was thrilled to find my ideal car via the CARFAX site. It was being sold by CCCPAA, which was about 90+ miles from my home. I felt it was just close enough for me to drive the car home myself. Brady was my sales rep, and he made the whole experience very smooth and easy -- I ended up getting financing with a very low APR which I was very happy about.

I visited CCCPAA on Saturday March 14th 2020, test drove the car, loved it, and put a deposit on it with intentions of returning the following Saturday to finalize the purchase. Then the next day, I heard on the news that Contra Costa County was now under a shelter-in-place order, and only essential businesses would remain open. My heart sunk, and I panicked, because I needed that car now, not in a month, or whenever the order would be lifted. The next Monday I called frantically wanting to know if they would be open on 3/21. Alex (another rep) said it was a new development and no one really knew how their hours would be impacted, but he told me their attorney was working on it. Luckily after a couple of days, they confirmed they would remain open, but with certain restrictions related to COVID-19 safety, and I was relieved that I would get my car as planned.

But then there was a snag with procuring my full-coverage insurance, that I needed before I could take the car. My insurance rep wanted pics of certain views of the car, and CCCPAA had numerous pics from their web site, which I forwarded -- but the insurance rep said I needed recent pics with current date stamps, not old pics from the web site. There was a glitch in communication of this requirement, but after a few email exchanges, Valerie was able to take current pics that got me my insurance policy. I had gotten a bit heated in my tone because it seemed like no one understood why I needed new pics. But after I explained, Valerie was very accommodating and patient and forwarded the pics I needed the same day.

So on Saturday March 21st, I was able to take my car home. They handed it over to me in immaculate condition for a 2014 car, but there was a problem with one of the side mirrors being loose. Brady said he didn't want to send it off without repairing the mirror, so he called their mobile mechanic who came and fixed it immediately. And since it is an EV with a limited driving range, Brady even went the extra mile and looked up a charging station that I could stop and recharge at on my route home, since It wouldn't reach my destination on just the initial charge. Finally, I had to contact them about a second key that appeared on the web site pics, but I hadn't received. Brady said he would search for it and he found it -- and then FedExed the extra key to me which I received a couple days later.

Overall, I would say that everyone at CCCPAA did their best to give good customer service during a very nerve-wracking and uncertain time, under very new and confusing circumstances, and they did great. I would 10/10 recommend them for purchasing a used car at a great price with very thorough service. I love my car and have been driving it every day since then. They really worked hard to make it happen and I am...

I had found a car online and went early to look. Friendly but not outgoing people. I went in and asked to look at the car and they gave me the keys to open it up. They did not go out with us and just said to let them know if we wanted a test drive. When we test drove it again nobody came with us. There was no sales pressure but also nobody to ask questions of. There was one person who came in, returned the keys to the car he was looking at and said that it just wasn't for him. The sales person merely said ok, come back again and hopefully they'll have the right car for him. So if you know what you want and don't want to be bothered while looking this would be a place for you to check out.

Prior to going I called about for a mechanic to look at it prior to purchase and found the mechanic who inspects all the cars. He said that you can ask for the inspection notes and he'll write down anything that catches his eye for something that is wrong. I did ask and they found the inspection notes in the binder and let us look at it. We ended up purchasing the car and took it to our mechanic the next day (we live over an hour away) and he did not find anything outside of some cosmetic issues that we were already aware of.

I did feel I got a good price when I compared what the same type of car was being priced and sold at around the area. Given the lack of sales pressure I did not get the sense that they cared if I bought the car or not so I am not sure how open they were to haggling down the price. I went in knowing the price and that it was lower than I would have expected so did not bother. However if it was beyond what I was willing to pay I just don't feel they would have come down in price. If you are someone who loves the haggling you may find this place not to your liking...

Unfortunately we did not have a favorable experience at this dealership. Initially we were told that in order to test drive the vehicle we needed to have a loan pre approval. We had one already it just needed to be emailed from the bank to the representative we were working with. During the first test drive there were several things about the car that were not sound. It hadn't been serviced for 16,000 miles, had a brake light out, the AC was extremely loud, and the car would not accelerate appropriately. Once we got back to the dealer we turned the car off then back on. It was sluggish to start then after the second time of trying to turn it over it died. The sales rep said it was only a battery and they would replace it and allow us to drive the car again before we made our final decision. The battery replacement took about an hour but we waited. Upon getting the car back to take it on a second test drive we hit a bump in the road and the entire rearview mirror fell off. So now we are dealing with a vehicle with electrical issues, the tires were rubbing, the power steering had a problem and was squealing , the AC was loud and their mechanic told us that the air filter had been changed out by him because it had been installed backward. And the best part was that the car was 2 seconds away from overheating. -- On top of all of that the sales rep minimized everything and tried to sell us a $3000 extended warranty for the car to cover anything that may go wrong after purchase. Needless to say we decided to pass on the car. If this car is any indication of what this dealership is like as a whole I will not be back. -- to let everyone know which car I'm referring to its the white 2012 BMW 335i that they have on the...