arrow truck sales deceptive sales practices lousy warranty Fontana, California

We purchased a 09 VNL630 for $58,950 plus fees, it was covered with the Confidence warranty by Arrow.  We made five trips between Yuma, AZ and Irvine, CA.  On every trip we broke down.  We spent several thousand in Yuma and finally took it to a Volvo dealer in Phoenix, costing 20K to make repairs.  

The first thing the salesman at Arrow told me when I went into the show room is that "we are wholly owned by Volvo, our checks come straight from Volvo, the Volvo dealer down the street is just an independent dealer".  Now I see the pitch, it disarms you thinking the good name of Volvo is behind this transaction, while it is a true statement, at the end of the day Volvo corp. will tell you they have no control over that division.  By thinking the Volvo corp. name was behind this transaction, I did not do the due diligence required for this purchase, mainly taking it to an outside mechanic for the proper testing such as a dyno, I didn't even realize there were already engine codes on the dash board as our old truck didn't have any of these fancy computer dash board read outs.  There are such tremendous problems with these new EPA engines, especially the 08 through 10, mostly because the companies are not servicing the DPF filter which is causing all kinds of havoc on all the engine components.

After getting a truck that was garbage, not even fit to run down the highway due to constant overheating issues, we took it to Vanguard (a Volvo Dealer) in Phoenix.  The estimate came back at 23 thousand for repanest annual.  

While the manager at Fontana was rude, their Western District manager was quite nice, although it didn't put any more moneirs.  The list is too long to go into detail, I will mail it to anyone interested.  I took it up for overheating issues, but after taking off the trailer, I realized I could barley stop the truck and told them to look at the brakes as well.  Some of the problems included, four sets of shoes and drums that were below tolerance, charge air cooler, radiator crack, fuel pump, clogged injectors, dpf filter cleaning, engine oil lead, various sensors, intake and exhaust leaking.  I contacted Arrow telling them I have only driven the truck about three thousand miles and was looking at a 23K bill, they checked everything with their Confidence warranty and got my bill reduced to 20K, they covered the radiator crack and fuel pump.  A warranty that will pay for three thousand out of twenty three thousand in repairs does not inspire much confidence.

I took a mechanic with me to Vanguard (a friend from Phx whom I wished I had taken to inspect the truck).  We were getting five  miles to the gallon running empty one direction, he said any one of these problems (excluding oil leak and brakes) could be causing the power loss leading to the overheating.  The Arrow manager kept telling me the truck was good and that Vanguard was ripping me off, or I must have done the damage the time I was driving it.  They refused any help past what their sham warranty would cover.  I found it humorous a Volvo owned company accusing it's own Volvo dealer of cheating me.  The manager also informed me that many of these problems are the result of the EPA mandates, like somehow that is my fault.

In the end of the ordeal, Volvo Co. gave me a little discount on a new truck and Arrow purchased the piece of junk back for 62K.  Keep in mind that when I purchased the truck it had old warn out re-treads, I spent over 4K putting all new virgin drive tires.  My loses exceeded 30K between the tires, money spent on trying to fix the unit, and another 5K in AZ state sales tax that is non refundable.


If you plan on buying from Arrow, I would follow a few tips.  

Have the rig inspected by an outside mechanic, dyno tested, and if the dpf hasn't been serviced at interval, 250K miles, walk away from it.

As soon as you get it, have it inspected by a DOT authority, usually done by the high way patrol.  I didn't get mine inspected before the repairs, had a dot inspection been done, it would have proven that Arrow is doing annual inspections that will not pass.  If enough people do this, it will at least force them to do an h*oy back in my wallet.  He agreed that there are going to be horrendous problems the next few years because no one is servicing the dpf filters.  He told me someday I would look back at this whole ordeal and have a good laugh about it.  

If you would like any information please e mail me at (((REDACTED))).  Nobody should have to go through this type of mental anguish for a truck purchase.

 


CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.