Generally automobile dealerships can’t assist however be sacks of shit. Over the summer season, a Florida man purchased two used Volvos from a used automobile dealership, it wasn’t till after the deal went by that he came upon each vehicles had been in accidents. Nearer inspection from impartial mechanics exhibits that each vehicles had non-functioning airbags and seat belts. When the client came upon, he instantly took them again. That’s all dangerous sufficient as it’s, however because it seems this story will get worse.
The vendor offered one of many Volvos once more, and the I-Group at ABC Motion Information in Tampa Bay tracked down the proprietor to seek out out if the right repairs had been achieved on the automobile. Wouldn’t you realize it, the fixes hadn’t been achieved on Gilbert Santiago’s new-to-him 2022 Volvo S60. An impartial mechanic appeared over the U.S. Navy veteran’s automobile and located that the seat belt pretensioner and airbags didn’t work. He was additionally by no means advised the automobile was offered at public sale in 2023 following an accident the place a number of airbags have been deployed.
Final 12 months, Ron Egbert purchased the Volvo from the vendor in query – HGreg. He took the automobile to a Volvo dealership in Sarasota after his airbag warning mild got here on. What they found was slightly troubling, as ABC Motion Information explains:
A technician found the motive force’s airbag was rusted and had markings from a junkyard. Wires had been tampered with, and the airbag was incorrect for the automobile.
Egert took the automobile again to HGreg, and that is what occurred subsequent:
“I confirmed them the photographs. And I stated you’re taking this automobile again. I’m going… this automobile is unsafe to drive. Nobody must be driving this automobile,” Egert stated.
HGreg’s spokesperson stated the corporate “solely purchases automobiles by essentially the most respected public sale corporations” and “conducts a multi-point inspection,” which incorporates “a evaluate of diagnostic indicators.”
She additionally wrote in an announcement, “If, for no matter motive, HGreg believes the automobile airbags wouldn’t function as meant, it will not be retailed by HGreg.”
That’s an amazing sentiment, however right here’s the factor: HGreg did certainly promote the automobile to Santiago just some months later, and he instantly had severe issues with it. The airbag mild got here on virtually instantly, and that’s when he took it to the Volvo tech. Right here’s what ABC Motion Information says they discovered after some digging and what Santiago did subsequent:
He stated the technician on the dealership advised him used salvage elements have been put in in his automobile.
That technician’s picture exhibits the identical junkyard markings as the image taken by Egert’s mechanic at a special dealership a number of months earlier.
Santiago paid to exchange a number of airbags and associated elements.
“In all probability across the ballpark of six grand out of my pocket,” Santiago stated.
[…]
Pictures taken by Santiago’s technician present wires wrapped in electrical tape, like these taken by Egert’s technician, who wrote that the wires to the airbag “have been tampered with.”
We requested Santiago to satisfy us at Brazzeal Automotive as a result of his mechanic in Tampa didn’t uncover points with the seatbelt pretensioner we discovered about from Egert’s report from the mechanic on the Volvo dealership in Sarasota.
“Now it’s going by all of the completely different modules within the automobile,” licensed technician Chris Wallin advised us as he connected a diagnostic software.
“I don’t see any energetic codes,” Wallin stated, which might usually point out all security techniques have been working.
Sounds good, proper? Improper!
However when Wallin popped open the inside door panel, he discovered the seatbelt pretensioner system wasn’t plugged into the wiring harness, which might enable it to deploy.
“This must be plugged into right here,” Wallin stated, pointing to wires wrapped in electrical tape. “That is the seatbelt pretensioner. And it seems to be like there’s one thing wired in there. It’s all taped up.”
Wallin peeled again electrical tape to discover a resistor.
A resistor is a passive element in {an electrical} circuit. It may be used to control or restrict the circulate of present.
[…]
“What they’ve achieved is simply take a resistor that matches the resistance that the pretensioner is meant to have and simply type of shoved it in that wiring harness to trick it into pondering it’s obtained pretensioner,” Wallin stated of Santiago’s automobile.
The tech stated it was achieved deliberately, however there’s no approach of figuring out who put in the resistor. He stated it was put in to maintain the seat belt restraint system from popping up a warning mild. That’s some actually evil shit, of us.
He says he contracted HGreg they usually gave him the runaround, saying “it handed their inspection,” and due to that “nothing was displaying that was mistaken with it. So there’s nothing they’ll do.” Terrible.
Right here’s what HGreg needed to say for itself, which isn’t a lot:
We contacted HGreg on Sept. 19 with a listing of questions, however they didn’t reply them.
A spokesperson replied in an e mail, “Thanks for bringing the case of Mr. Santiago’s buy to our consideration. We’ll join with the client instantly.”
Greater than a month after receiving that response, Santiago stated he hadn’t heard from anybody from the corporate.
“They must be held accountable for that as a result of we’re speaking about folks’s lives once they’re on the market on the highway,” Santiago stated.
They actually do. You recognize, I’ve heard tons of tales about sellers doing shady shit, however it often has to do with monetary offers. It’s very uncommon you get a vendor that goes out of its option to promote folks unsafe vehicles twice.
