Daniel Link

Review of Sears Imported Autos, Inc.

Let me apologize for the length of this review in ...

Let me apologize for the length of this review in advance, I want to thorough and accurate. Let me first state that I am a "car guy", I have and currently own several cars, they evoke emotion in me and I am truly passionate about each one I own. My wife is very similar, a ride in an awesome car puts a smile on her face. On Oct 25th, 2017, I finally convinced my wife to purchase her first MB, a beautiful blue GLC 43 AMG. Sara, her sale rep was great. Within the first week of owning the car my wife asked me to take it for a drive as it was making a loud noise when she drove around corners at a slow speed. As I backed the car out of the driveway I immediately noticed the front tires were "scrubbing or tire hopping" on the pavement, and it was horrible, the scrubbing actually causes the car body to shake. We took it in for service and they had an update to change the fluid in the trans case, didn't seem like a fix to me but, we tried. It did nothing. After being in and out of the shop a few times with no solution I decided to start trying a few different things myself. I have owned several MB over the yrs and have collected a few sets of aftermarket wheels. I started trying different combinations of wheels and discovered that if i used the factory wheels with 5 mm spacers the scrub was completely gone, problem solved. Jump ahead 3 months, Im driving my wife's car and notice a bad vibration when braking, I know immediately the rotors are warped. Please remember, I am car guy, I haved lived cars since I was 12 yrs old. My wife took it into the dealership, they called her later in the week and informed her that the brake rotors were warped and that it was because of the 5 mm spacers that were used and that they would need to contact MB to see if the warranty would be voided on warped rotors at 10,000 miles. You can image my reaction, I called and spoke with the service manager and asked him if he could explain to me how a 5 mm spacer would cause the rotors to warp? After a 30 minute call with him it was clear this was a story he could tell my wife, but now that he had to try and explain it to someone who new cars, he was lost.The conversation ended with no solution, a day later I received a call from the same service manager letting me know that he had "went to bat" for us over the bad rotors and had gotten MB to cover the cost. That's great, but don't make it seem like this was something special, if it would have been just my wife, they would have charged her for the repairs. Lets now jump to Nov, 2018, fed up with the scrubbing issue not being resolved and the front tires now being shredded because of the scrubbing, I meet with the sales team and let them know we are considering dumping the car since it has become a sore spot for my wife to drive and experience this everyday with her brand new MB. We have a conversation about getting her out of the vehicle and into another MB, I make them what I think is a fair offer, $25,000 cash and our GLC for a 2018 GLC with a sticker of $104,000. The sticker on my wifes car was I believe $76,000. So after depreciation, discount on a 2018 model and everything else we have gone thru, $25,000 seems reasonable. I understand that may not be the number they need, but the last time we spoke, I was told they would be in touch in a couple days-its now been a week and I have heard nothing. Once again I can only assume they are hoping we just go away-which is what we have decided to do. Sell the MB and get into another brand. I can't tell you how disappointing this has been for my wife, her first MB and it turns out to possibly be the worst buying experience she has ever had. It's unfortunate because I truly love the new MB's, but I would never have been as patient as my wife has been. Daniel