White House Motors

I drove to Portland, from Eugene, to test drive a specific truck that was uncommon. There were two dealerships in Portland and one in Eugene that had the approximate age and miles that I was looking for.
I could tell by looking at their website that it was a small, family run dealership. I called that Friday night to let George know that I was interested in meeting him and test driving the truck on Saturday morning. I was the second person from the Eugene area to make the drive up to look at a vehicle in their lot.
George was easy to work with. His brother, Harry, was also very experienced and easy to work with. It took all of two hours from the time I got there to talk with George, test drive the truck, answer questions from Harry and complete the paperwork.
I love my new truck, and the experience was hassle-​free. I’d have no qualms with doing business with this family again.

I bought an econo-​box for my daughter here. I hate car salesmen, but these guys aren’t so bad, at least they didn’t throw my keys on the roof. The price was good and the car works OK. I bought Japanese so I didn’t have the problems you commonly see with a ten year old European car. Thanks guys!

A few years ago I bought a car here and it still runs great. White House Motors is a family owned business that I would recommend to a friend looking for a European car.

Just got back from White House. It’s run by two Greco-​American brothers from New York. Cool facility with nice inventory. George was affable and I felt comfortable. I took a test drive with George and everything was going well. The car was not «immaculate» as described but I can put up with a little «licentia poetica» considering I’m dealing with a used car dealership. There had obviously been some sort of front impact and there was a deep scrape down the driver’s door (touched up of course). The car had a design flaw mentioned on every message board and website pertaining to it. It involved the air ride suspension and many boards posted what to look for if buying the car. The fix is not cheap. I had some concerns regarding this, but being a professional mechanic, I was still interested (plus the car did have very low miles). George showed me all the paperwork which was excellent but I also found out more stuff on the car wasn’t «as-​advertised». The car is also approaching 20 years old and will need to be gone through solely based on age. I didn’t want to «tire kick» so I focused on my suspension concerns (which is NOT my area of expertise) as to why I didn’t want to pay 70% over Blue Book. I made an offer of about 40% over Book. This offer was $ 700 under what they wanted. In between multiple phone interruptions I was expecting some negotiating. What I got was to talk to Harry on the phone. He started by badgering me, then he belittled me, during which he told me the car was in «showroom condition». I disagreed on the condition and then Harry told me that I could not buy the car and that I had to leave the premises immediately. Then he hung up on me. Hmmn, odd. I told George that I must have offended his brother, was sorry that we couldn’t do business, and that «it’s unfortunate your brother is a hothead.» He said «what can you do?» So I left. After the initial shock and bemusement I experienced, I did a search and found this Unilocal.I’m glad that I didn’t offer full asking price or I may have had more to complain about in the future! These guys are mooks! Please see «J» below. I was not paying attention to this earlier today and should have. I’m considering myself lucky.
Used Car Dealers. What can you do? Here’s some suggestions: A) Expect dealers to be sexist. B) Expect dealers to falsely advertise. [sometimes an honest mistake — these guys deal in numbers all day long] C) Expect dealers to lie or feign ignorance. D) Bring or hire a mechanic. E) Do research on the particular model you might be interested in including recalls, TSB’s, and blogs. F) Be willing to leave and do more research or offer less $ [I may have been wrong about the suspension and would have gone back if Harry «The Hammer» Chalpoutis hadn’t ruined his brother’s deal.] G) Carfax is useful but is just one tool and should not be the basis of your decision to buy. H) Bring a flashlight. I) Ask for paperwork! J) When someone tells you repeatedly they’re being honest they are usually liars.

You come to expect a small amount of sliminess when you go to a used car dealer. I was under no spell while being talked to by either brother working at White House Motors. I knew full well that they were completely full of shit, e.g., «a timing belt can last the lifetime of the vehicle». Um, no, it cannot. I knew the entire time that they were lying… but what I did not expect is that they would sell me a vehicle that needed thousands of dollars of repairs without any disclosure whatsoever. The best part is that apparently it is illegal to sell a vehicle with the check engine light on — which they also did.
The experience was pretty much as painful as it gets. If you feel that you absolutely must buy a vehicle that they have, make sure you take it to a reputable shop first — Tom Dwyer will do the trick. If you can avoid ever stepping foot near either of these guys, you’ll be doing yourself a huge favor. The fact that I had any dealings with them makes me feel dirty even 3 months later. You just hope that one day the karma catches up — it’s all that can be done at this point. Well, that, and write this review.
For more detail:
1. Bought the vehicle, they wrote into the contract that they would service the timing belt if the mechanic deemed it «unworthy» (had less than 10k miles left on it). They completely lied to me, because I later had it checked out and they said that it will not go another 10k miles.
2. The driver-​side inside handle broke one day after getting it. I told them, they blamed me — sweet. They had their mechanic look at it — it was fixed for another one day. It is obviously not fixed, and they continue to have this loser mechanic partially fix all the vehicles that they have — hence the warning about never buying a car from them.
3. The check engine light was «fixed» (same stellar mechanic) and came back on the second time I turned on the engine. Lovely.
4. The vehicle was kept by their mechanic twice for over a week — just to partially fix things.
5. The guy said that he would have the paint on the side mirror touched up. Apparently his paint guy was supposed to get in touch with me. Never happened, even though I inquired 3 – 4 times.
6. The fact that they exist in this world hurts me. It’s like watching a movie where you cannot believe that the bad guy could be that bad. They are. Steer clear. Better Business Bureau, here I come.