The Rise And Fall Of A Local Dealership

Wesley Barton

Good morning! Today, I have an interesting story related to a local dealership. It began life several years ago in the neighboring town of Keyser, WV, about 30 miles away from Cumberland.

This dealership was known as Pristine Pre-Owned Autos. It was your run of the mill Buy Here Pay Here lot. Most of their vehicles were new, generally no more than 10 years old, but some were as old as late 90s models. They had a little jingle on their radio commercials. "At Pristine Autos, your job's your credit! Let Pristine Autos put you in a car today! Let Pristine Autos finance it all the way!" It was just a dumb little earworm designed to get peoples' attention.

I want to share this story, not only because it's interesting, but because I also have personal experience with the dealership.

I actually purchased a vehicle from them, myself, and didn't experience too many problems with the dealership.

The car was a 1998 Oldsmobile Cutlass GLS. It was pretty well loaded, with leather seats, a power driver's seat, and AM/FM/CD/Cassette. It was powered by a 3.1L V6 mated to a 4-speed auto transmission. The car had about 136,000 miles on it when I purchased it in May of 2013. It wasn't Maryland inspected when I purchased it, however, the dealer did put it through MD inspection, and replaced a wheel bearing free of charge. I paid $500 down, and the price was something like $3,500. I paid so much a month, for a couple years. The price wasn't absolutely unreasonable either. I had an included 24 month/unlimited mileage warranty on the car, which came in handy. I'll explain why.

The first problem actually came about within 30 miles of driving. The check engine light came on, and I had a high idle with rough shifts. A quick code read diagnosed it as a faulty throttle position sensor. I purchased one from AutoZone with a lifetime warranty, replaced it, and I was good.

I drove this car a lot. As in, I put 10,000 miles on it within the first three months of ownership. That equals to 40,000 miles a year. If it had been driven that much from new, it would have had 600,000 miles. That's a ton.

Anyways, after that three months, my engine blew up. Threw a rod on me. Luckily, it was still covered under warranty. So, it got towed to the shop, the engine got replaced, and they gave me a loaner, a 2004 Chevy Malibu Classic, that I took past the 100,000 mile mark. The Olds was in the shop for nearly three weeks. The total bill for the engine replacement came out to somewhere slightly south of $3,000. Not all the work was covered under warranty, but a majority of it was. After my $100 deductible, I was on the hook for another $500 or $600, which was broken up into bi-weekly payments. It was about $200 for a three week rental, plus the few parts that weren't covered, which altogether wasn't that bad. When I got the car back, it ran like new.

Anyways, the car met an early end in January, thanks to some black ice. Overall, though, Pristine was good to deal with, in my own experience.

This was not true for a majority of its customers, though. They recently went out of business. Why? Well, for one, they were indicted on nearly 30 counts of conspiracy. They sold a stolen car. They also sold a car with a salvage title, that was changed to reflect a clear title. That's not good.

I have an excellent read here on what some of the problems that come with selling a car with a stolen title, written by the very intelligent lemon law attorney, Steve Lehto, who allowed me to use this article as reference for my post. Now, he's based in Michigan, so there may be some variances, but I can safely say, no matter where you try this, it's probably going to wind up in a similar result.

When A Dealer Sells You A Stolen Car

Thanks, Steve!

Continuing, these issues caused a lot of problems for Pristine Pre-Owned Autos. In fact, the police seized all their computers, as well as other property, for an investigation, though they were eventually returned.

Their reputation was permanently tarnished. There was clearly a lot of wrongdoing by this dealership, and they got caught. They suffered for it.

As I stated, 29 counts of conspiracy, and 29 counts of false pretense. That is a lot of felony charges. Just because I had good luck with them, doesn't mean that everyone did. And clearly, there were enough problems to cause the owner to lose his ownership and control of the dealership.

Most used car dealers in the area have been operating for twenty years or more, and a couple at least have been around for more than forty years. They know how to do business, and generally have pretty good ratings.

Now, you're probably wondering what happened to the people who were still making payments on cars from Pristine. Well, a finance company actually bought out their loans. This happened a few months after I got my car from them, shortly before the charges became known. So, anyone who bought a car from them and hadn't paid it off, they were still on the hook. This is apparently standard practice for dealerships in certain circumstances.

As I said, the original owner lost all of his ownership of Pristine. From what I understand, they're not actually out of business, at least not their Cumberland, MD, location, as I thought, when I began doing the research, but instead ownership was transferred to another company. Hopefully, this new company will handle the business better. The original owner is still with them, but now as a service manager. Hopefully, he doesn't mess that up.

The former owner still alleges no wrongdoing, and that the search and seizure of his, and the dealership's property, was completely illegal and out of bound. However, the Judge, as well as the state police, continue to state that they operated within the confines of the law.

There's a bevy of newspaper articles going through the whole investigation. I'll link to them, and let you see for yourself.

Court Considers Pristine Auto Case

Investigation Into Pristine Continues, Owner Files Complaint

Owner of Pristine Asks For Return of Seized Business Property

Mineral Judge Denies Return of Pristine Auto Documents

Files to be Returned to Pristine Pre-Owned Autos

Some of Pristine Auto's Seized Property Returned

Pristine Files Notice of Appeal with West Virginia Supreme Court

Pristine Pre-Owned Autos Owners Indicted On Multiple Counts

Indictment Case Against Owners of Pristine Pre-Owned Auto Continued


And a counter-article:
Police Arrest Man For Asserting His Rights, Then They Raided His Business

There's a lot of reading, and a lot of information there. If you get caught in shady/illegal dealership business practices, expect the hammer to come down. A lot of times, it unfortunately doesn't work this way, but fortunately, this time, justice prevailed.

Also, again, a big thanks and shout out to Mr. Lehto for permission to use his article. I suggest following him on Twitter, as well as reading his other articles and reading his podcasts. He's got a lot of knowledge regarding things like this.