Econo Automotive Center

Dealer is a dishonest FRAUD, in every way, and uses pictures of OTHER CARS, to sell ~his~ cars, online. You cannot trust the pictures or words in his ads to reflect the actual car he has for sale.
In my case, he used pictures from a Barrett-​Jackson show-​ready 35k mile car, to sell ~his~ very average 81k mile car… The pictures made it look like an extremely well cared-​for car. When the car was delivered to me in Texas, the car he sold me, hardly.
As well, he described it to me as «perfect».
Apparently, perfect to Mike is:
1– Dead battery upon arrival, and it would not accept a charge. The delivery driver said, «We had to jump it when we picked it up too».
2– Top lock cylinder leaks — the convertible top would not come off, and operating the top switch only dumped hydraulic fluid onto my lap.
3– Windscreen included on car in pictures, no windscreen in car. (naturally, because it’s not the same car)
4– Tires, described by Mike as «about 70%». Actual tires have 2/​32″ tread on fronts, 1/​32″ tread on rears, with cords showing through on one of them.
5– Small interior/​exterior trim pieces broken or missing.
6– Now, I’ve resolved most of those things at this point, at a cost of another $ 2k, but most importantly of all, NO TITLE YET, after wiring him funds 37 days ago!
UPDATE: After seeing that I posted this, in retaliation, he told me he’s not going to send me the title until the absolute latest he has to, 90 days…
I’ve learned to believe NOTHING Mike says, so presume it’s never coming…
Mike, and Econo Automotive Center, of La Habra, CA, is ALL ABOUT screwing their customers. It’s like the guy goes out of his way to make things difficult, and will say or do ~anything~ to get the most amount of money out of his customers…
Mike makes OTHER used car salesmen look like breath of fresh air by comparison!
It’s too late for me, but please do yourself a favor, and AVOID this dealer…

Important note: these folks are no longer in Pasadena, but have moved to La Habra Blvd in La Habra. Buyer beware. Mike is a very, very dishonest and disreputable business person.
I attempted to buy a used vehicle from Mike. After waiting for more than 40 minutes for him to show up to show me the vehicle, things continued to go downhill. He raised the price on me while I was at the bank getting cash for him, saying that he had done repairs that he did not remember. Then, when we settled on a price, we agreed for me to come back the next day to pick up the vehicle sniffed and ready to go. The next day he did not have the vehicle ready, and after three hours of waiting, his assistant Miguel told me that he was unable to get the vehicle to pass smog.
He went back on the transaction twice, and tried to cheat me out of the money. It took a long time and a lot of extreme patience on my part just to get my money back. He even tried to give me the car after we had already agreed to cancel transaction, and at that point the car’s rear trunk had been completely caved in for some reason.
I would tell anybody considering doing business with this company to be extremely cautious and careful. If you search for the company name and Mike, you will find numerous other examples of similar stories. Shame on me for not doing more homework in advance.

So we were driving in from Ventura to purchase a vehicle and Mike told us that he wouldn’t be on the lot until 2:30pm and we had a set appointment to drive there (two hours) and pay cash for the vehicle. He told us over the phone that he would hold the vehicle and promised that a sign would be placed for just a few hours that it is on hold. He called us as we were an hour and a half in to our trip to tell us that oops, he sold it. So not only did we take the day off work wasting time and money but he blatantly lied to us and made shotty promises he couldn’t keep. As an owner of a lot, this is bad business and we should’ve known better based off of the other reviews posted for this tool. DO NOT GO TO THIS LOT, do not deal with these people, STAY AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE.

This review is for the car lot.
This process lasted about a week and a half. (April 2015)
I saw an ad online for one of their cars on auto trader, so I made my way over to check it out. Upon getting to the lot I found the car, but no salesman was there to greet me. I called and a guy named Mike (owner) said he would be back in 30 minutes, but I told him I would be back another day since I was in a rush.
Next time I come by a man named Matthew assisted me. I was able to turn on the car and check for any damages, the car appeared fine and I began to discuss pricing. I set my offer and he said he would talk to Mike about it.
I call Mike to see if he can lower the price of the car. He was firm on his price, and I understood his reasoning to an extent, then this is where it goes bad…
Obviously I’m interested in the car, so I call Mike to see if I can come in and make a deal. Mind you, I do have to call because two out of the four times I have gone to the lot no one was there. The salesman Matthew tells me to fill out a credit application online so I send that in. Two days later and I haven’t heard a reply. I have made calls to Mike with no response.
The only thing I could take away from this is that the salesman Matt was a genuinely good guy when showing the car. The owner on the other hand was pretty rude on the phone, and what kind of salesman not return calls? He wouldn’t budge on the pricing of a potential cash purchase. Stay away from this strange lot, I should’ve known better. Waste of time.

I got a car from this guys no issues nice guys not a big dealer but they have a lots of cars for way under market value it’s funny how everyone have a complain about nothing to do with the car or the price

You can get a great car at a decent price, but get EVERYTHING in writing. Time after time we were told things that ultimately were not true or not done. And the one thing they offered to do and charge their cost was not done the way a luxury car should be handled, which has affected the entire experience of driving it. I’ll have to pay to have it done again, properly this time. And the things that were supposed to have been taken care of at no charge have cost me hundreds of dollars that I should not have had to pay. They even acknowledged that they did not do them, but still would not take care of it. Econo, there’s no need to do business this way. If you’d been honest I would probably have bought the car anyway, and paid for the stuff that needed to be done, but I would not have had the really unpleasant feeling about your company and my experience buying from you. Integrity is a worthwhile business asset. What is not worthwhile is the hassle you put me through, which alone is enough for me to never buy from you again.