Fitz Auto Mall Jack Fitzgerald Sold me a lemon/recalled car, hid engine failure, etc Rockville Maryland

This dealer has a reputation for scamming people and then refusing to respond or communicate once it is caught engaging in disreputable conduct.

In this case, I was looking for a new (used) car since my Smart car had engine failure -- and was repaired. I wanted to make sure I had a reliable car for work....

I worked with Armen, who represented me what he said was a "reliable car." According to the paperwork I was presented, this car had a clean bill of health, did not need engine work, had not been recalled....What I asked him why the engine light was on, he dismissed it as nothing and said it would be off before he sold it to me. The engine light flicked back on right when I drove it off the lot....

The fact was, that the dealer knew this 2002 Saturn LW 200 to be an unreliable car. Despite selling it to me way above NADA/KBB value the F&I guy very aggressively tried to foist a warranty on me (for about $2700!) In F&I, Kensington Finance, the dealer's crony bank, was slipped $700 in unauthorized fees into my documents -- and promptly removed them upon being caught. She then very aggressively tried to foist a $500-$600 "car repair plan" into my closing documents. When I questioned the value and wisdom of financing this "repair plan," the banker screamed for the salesman to come in and force me to buy it. 

Unless this dealer is just greedy to an unprincipled degree, the aforementioned determination to wrap repair plans in this bill reflects that the dealer KNEW this car had trouble.  

Two months later the engine failed. When I contacted the dealer to find out what had been done to the engine before I drove it off the lot, the dealer FINALLY disclosed that contrary to its representations, prior to sale, the car needed $500-$600 in engine work. Whether this work was done as opposed to merely resetting the engine light or not is uncertain, but the dealer CLAIMS it did this work.

I then discovered that this model had been recalled ...and that it is a death trap that has been known to have engine failure in the middle of traffic...in other words, the engine can just die unannounced. This is a structural issue with the car.  Consumer groups have filed numerous complaints about this vehicle..and GM has withdrawn earlier models which have the same issues as this one....

I was lied to and misled throughout this deal, which this dealer foisted a car worth $1000 on me for $7500 or so....Why is it worth only $1000? NADA value is $3,500 -- so the dealer didn't even honor its' Fitz Low Price promise...(I found numerous dealers that met or fell below NADA for the same make/model/mileage.) According to a senior mechanic, this car is such a lemon that dealers don't even make parts for it any more...so if the car breaks, it remains broken. The engine trouble is chronic..and cannot be reapired since this is a structure issue with the car.....Essentialy it is unsafe to drive and only good for harvesting parts....

The dealer also neglected to provide tags and registration....and dealt with me in an exceedingly snarky, dishonest fashion throughout this deal, reflecting their voracious greed....

Dealer also  refused to honor the trade in for my Smart car, giving me $6500 for a car worth between $7500-$8500 as a trade in and which they could have sold at auction for $13,000. 

The dealer ripped me off to an extraordinary degree....and the salesmen/F&I people laughed all the whilst they did it, treating me the utmost disrespect.

What is shocking is that FitzAutoMall claims to be the honest dealership...in a business full of sharks, but I have never experienced anything like this in all my years of car ownership.  

So far, the dealer has REFUSED to make right.....