Merced Volkswagen Kia ripoff, sold bad car, didnt disclose problems with car Merced California

OK, so quick story, back in October caught wife cheating and left my apartment. Had no car sold it because she spent all the money on her stupid drugs. Borrowed mom and dads old car they had, it broke down, it was a 13 year old car. My dad had a heart attack and was in the hospital, didnt need his car for a while so i was let to use his car to go to work in a different city where I live in the Bay Area. When he needed his car back i had to get my own car again, dad was kind enough to cosign for the car loan and i purchased a 2000 Lincoln Continental from Merced Volkswagen Kia for $12,500 minus 1000 down payment on February 4th 2006,total amount financed after taxes license and fees was about 14.5k at 312 a month for 60 months. Car only had 43k miles and seemed in top shape taking it from the dealership.

Now here is where i feel ripped off.

I drive the car from Merced to the Bay Area where I live and go to work on Feb 6,2006. Everything is fine getting there. A few days later a friend and i decided to go to Half Moon Bay in my new car. The transmission slipped in and out of gear repeatedly and created a jerking motion when trying to go uphill and then even just on the highway all time. The transmission now slips in an out of gear regularly and is now overheating because it has a severe transmission leak from several areas leaking into the catalytic converter, now at 52k miles and 6 months later.

I tried to call them a few months back to see what they could do, but because i purchased the car AS-IS there is nothing they can do, they offered an extended warranty at the time of purchase but didnt want to tack it on to the loan said i had to pay $1500 up front. They also added on GAP insurance to the loan that they didnt mention was optional until after all the paperwork was finished.

I feel they sold me a car in bad shape and they knew it, sold it to me AS-IS so i couldnt bring it back to be repaired and offered an extended warranty to be paid for all upfront knowing that i couldnt give them that money upfront possibly so they could just get the junk out of their hands and make some money.

I had told somebody i purchased the car, he is a CPA and Financial Expert and has purchased many cars before he looked up the price for KBB the day after i purchased the car and i purchased it 1k over retail kbb value in excellent condition, and when i called him back 2 weeks later and told him what happened to the car he got a new KBB price of worth about $6500 in fair condition, which 6k oversold in the actual condition it was sold to me in.

After calling the dealership they refused to talk to me about the purchase and said they cannot and will not do anything.

I dont believe a vehicle with only 43k miles should have such major transmission problems. I have been religously paying the monthly payments and taking care of the car the best i can in its condition. I thought about trading it in but my credit is not that great and no dealership will take it, just yesterday the dealership i visited said they would only give me $3700 for it when KBB trade in is $5300 in its condition and the cost of repairs on the car for everything including the transmission is over $3.5k, the brakes just recently started giving out as well and somehow seems to be a clog in the fuel system which started showing up a month after getting the car.

The carfax they gave me wasnt even the real carfax it was from some unknown company that i never heard of before. the report was also 4 months old.

I believe they sold a car to me in an unsatisfactory condtion and overcharged me for the vehicle in its condition, passing on the problems to me without disclosing the true condition of the vehicle.

I just want the transmission replaced or better yet into a different car that isnt going to give me problems. Out of the loan and down payment returned would be good as well as help getting into a different car.

What can i do?

I dont assume to know a lot about how dealerships work, but i feel like i was done wrong and now I am paying for it. The only intent i had when buying a car was buying a reliable dependable car with low miles so i could go to work and visit my family in merced every so often.

Alexander
Merced, California
U.S.A.

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