Lake City Auto Sales

PLEASE READ IF YOU CONSIDER GOING HERE!!!
Where to start.
My mom and I were looking for a used car for myself. Specifically a Mazda 3. After searching online for a few days I had a couple Mazdas and dealerships on my checklist to peek at, and the ’08 white Mazda 3 at Lake City Auto Sales was first on my check list!
So we get to the dealership. It’s tiny and pretty hard to see all of the cars considering they’re parked vertically down the lot, and then another set of cars were parked across those, horizontally. I didn’t see the Mazda 3 at first so when Simo (Owner?) asked what I was looking for and I told him, he pointed me towards the back corner of the lot, under a bunch of tree and basically in the bushes. But there was the Mazda! It was in pretty good condition at first glance besides the fact it looked like it’d been sitting for a month or two. We checked it out and I was interested so he moved the blocking cars out of the way to pull out the Mazda. Well, it wouldn’t start. And after five minutes of trying he said he’d need to jump it. Okay, no problem, it’s probably been sitting. So he tried jumping it a few times and still no start. «It just has to charge» he said a couple times but after twenty minutes of «charging» the damn car still wouldn’t start!!! My mom finally mentioned she had a real good strength jump box in her trunk so she grabbed that and finally the car started.
So Simo pulls it out, I’m happy and smiling because the car is beautiful inside and out. But guess what happens? The car dies. At that point my mom and I were starting to get uninterested… But he insisted we try again. He tried putting my moms jump box on the battery and wasn’t connecting them to the right piece of metal and my mom mentioned hat over and over but he wouldn’t listen. At this point she’s almost yelling at him to knock it off because the battery, which was already rusted, started smoking!!! But all he had to say was that if we bought the car he would replace the battery. WHY NOT REPLACE IT NOW?! And also this whole time he was on the phone and ignoring us.
Okay, so once my MOM finally got the jump box on correctly, we finally gave it one last chance. I mean at this point I wanted to at least drive the damn car. Meanwhile we inspect it closer and realize the back left fender was rusted and almost starting to chip off. I also realized the door panel had chipped paint near the top of the window and it literally looked like someone took white out to cover it up. We asked if it had been in any accidents and he said no… okay. Asked for car fax. He then goes to get them (keep in mind at this point the car is still «charging»)
My mom and I were basically ready to leave, this was ridiculous and not like any other car buying experience we’ve either been through. This guy was asking $ 5995 for a pile of crap, basically. He took at least 10 minutes to grab the car facts and my mom felt weird about that, she mentions to make sure all of the pages were there (as hey label them at the bottom) so when he brings them to us guess what the first thing I looked for was. Well, the page was CUT!!! they had cut off the bottom of the paper so the pages weren’t labeled. And they were dumb enough to do it by hand so the cut wasn’t even straight. I couldn’t believe this. But as I was reading the fax he got the car started and asked if I wanted to drive it. So we drive it down the highway and I immediately knew it wasn’t right!!! There was a clicking sound both my mom and I could hear but he claimed he couldn’t hear it and once it was so pronounced he finally said it was from being cold. Cold? No. It also felt like the transmission was slipping but when I mentioned that he told me I didn’t know what I was talking about and that it’s a great car.
We pulled back in the lot, got out of the car and he went inside. Okay? So my mom and I got in our car and left before he could come out– and as were pulling away he gives us a dirty look. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t even thank him for his time, my experience was so terrible.
Do not waste your time going here!

i recommend lake city auto sales nice People and they have the best prices.

I’ve referred a few different friends to the guys at Lake City Auto Sales to purchase cars. All have been treated fairly and given great deals on quality cars!

Not really sure where to start this review, but here goes. I drove up from Oregon to hit some lots for a used car. Stopped by Lake City Auto Sales after seeing a 2005 B7 style Audi A4 with the 3.2l engine and auto trans with 130k miles for $ 6995. The listing on their website painted a picture of a flawless silver gem, and indeed upon arrival I found the vehicle and was impressed with the cosmetic condition of the car. During the test drive the tiptronic mode in the trans was great but I was a bit concerned by the hesitation while it was in full automatic. Now for the history lesson, read the carfax report provided by the dealer. The car had a wreck listed no frame damage. But after 2010 the car has yet to pass an emissions test. Now for my due diligence, told the salesman (Simo), before I make an offer I want have it inspected with a compression test completed. He offered to have his mechanic perform the compression test and allow me to watch the test so I could verify the results they got. He offered this as a way «to save me money». Sounded like a nice thing to offer, here’s the problem… his mechanic was doing a Google search on «how to perform a compression test». At that point I just told Simo I’d rather have an independent shop perform the test with the full inspection. Fast forward 3 hours… inspection done, a ticking time bomb dressed up as a gorgeous silver B7 A4. Passenger side cylinder bank compression is pushing the limits of tolerance for the engine, driver side compression has a 10+ psi variance between the 3 cylinders in that bank, it is throwing cam shaft sensor codes, timing cover is leaking copious amounts of fluid, and the valve cover is leaking. Now, a timing chain, usually not to big of a job, for this car the transmission has to be dropped to do that work. The minimum quote to complete the work was $ 3k. I returned the A4 to Simo and informed him about the findings of the report. He offered to only charge me $ 1k to change the timing chain. Stay with me now, he held firm on the vehicles price and then tried to convince me to buy it and charge me to let his mechanic do the timing chain work, you remember the one that was using Google to learn how to perform a compression check. I politely told them there was nothing short of selling the car at half the asking price that would convince me to buy it. They billed this car as in «excellent condition», I couldn’t find any way to bring this car up to a «rough condition» mechanically. One last thing, as I was walking out, his partner was saying we’ll just replace the timing chain and sell it for $ 10k. Yeah guys, good luck with that.

It is not often that you can say you had a pleasurable time buying a used car. Let me say this place was a breath of fresh air. Simo the owner was more than helpful. He locked up the shop and ran all over town with us to finish our loan paperwork and DMV needs. The place is small and you will drive right past it if you are not watching. Do yourself a favor and see Simo the next time you are in need of a quality automobile. I purchased a gently used 2004 Toyota Prius and so far I am very happy.