Balboa Motors

I purchased my 2001 VW Beetle from Balboa Motors 1/17/08. The windshield advertised that the vehicle was "Turbo" and when my husband asked the sales representative to show him the engine, he was told that you wouldn't be able to tell it was Turbo just by looking at it. After we purchased the car, we noticed that nothing on the paperwork said "turbo" and when we asked for proof, we were informed that the car was not, in fact, turbo. We let this slide because we liked the car and did not purchase the vehicle solely for the turbo engine. However, we had to wonder whether or not we paid more for this supposed feature.
When we went to drive the car off the lot, we noticed the check engine light was on. We were told that the problem was the O2 sensor and that they could fix the car the next day. We live an hour away from the lot but brought the car back quickly to get the O2 sensor replaced. We were told to leave the car for the day. We did, and were then told when we came to pick up the car that they had ordered the wrong part and we'd need to come back another day. We drove an hour home and then an hour back to the lot another day to get it replaced. They replaced the sensor, but a couple hours later the check engine light was back on. I called to set another apointment to bring it in and after it had been with their mechanic for 9 hours, I was told that the problem was a cracked air pump and that because the part was $450, they wanted me to pay $180 even though I had only had the car a month, the check engine light had always been on, and it was still under the 90-day warranty. They even accused ME of cracking the part!
I contacted an actual VW dealer and was told that there was no way I could have caused the part to crack. Cracks to the air pump happen because of age or a major front-end collision. Still, Ray at Balboa Motors insisted that I must have caused the damage. I reminded him that the check engine light had been on since the day I bought the car but he continued to argue that it was only because of the O2 sensor and I must have damaged the air pump sometime within the two hours that the check engine light was off. He said that they could not fix "every little thing for the life of the car." I replied that the car had NEVER been right and that I only wanted the engine fixed because I had bought the 90-day warranty and without this repair, the car would not pass smog.
Ray continued to get nasty and when I refused to pay for the repair, he threw the receipt at me and told me that he would not guarantee any of his work.
Ray at Balboa Motors was unhelpful, rude, and did not stand behind his warranty. I would STRONGLY caution anyone thinking of buying a car from this unprofessional company.

I bought my first car here almost 10 years ago. A Nissan Pathfinder that ran great with no problems. I decided to trade it in for something more fuel-efficient - a Honda Accord, also in great shape (and I was able to sell it for a good price). Since then I have switched into a Honda Civic, and most recently into a newer Honda Civic (all from Balboa Motors!). I always receive great treatment from the manager (Ray works amazing deals, and I think he really tries to keep customers happy), and I get fair trade-in values. I have recently moved to the bay area, but I think I'll make the trip down to SD to get my next car (I'm thinking about getting a hybrid). I know, I change cars a lot (what is that? 4 times in less than 10 years?), but with such great deals, I can afford to drive the car I want.

We bought a Toyota 4Runner here about a year ago. We were pretty happy with the service we got (as much as you can be from a used-car sale :-) They gave us a good trade-in value and we got a great car....I would say that the salesman was nice, but aren't they all? We haven't had any problems with the car and are very happy with the purchase.