Blown Car Motor - Worn Clutch

Tony Submitted this review about Pioneer Auto Express Corp.
Review made Live: 11/8/2009 11:20:00 PM
Hi everyone this is Seaman Nguyen serving in the US Navy.

This is my story with this shipping company:

Bought a car from California (originally where I'm from) keeping the title and registration in CA. Wanted to drive from the East coast to West coast to my ultimate command in Washington state. Finished dealing with the owner, paperwork, and had my car shipped from California to Virginia state through a broker (Amerifreight). Received it with a dented door, small ding on the fender, and white smoke coming out. The owner that sold the car to me from CA had a video of the car running fine without white smoke before the purchase. White smoke can usually translate in to many things including a blown head gasket.

Pioneer marked on the bill of landing that they were not responsible for the dents due to a lowering system. The owner took off the front bumper and raised the car higher than OE specs with an adjustable coil over system also. It had nothing to do with it being dented on the sides!

I had the car go in the storage near by because I lost my license's card from California DMV so I was going to wait to get my Virginia license. After driving the car carefully around (shortly after I was able to) the car started overheating so I poured more water in to the vehicle and noticed the water leaking heavily out under the vehicle. Lucky to make it back to base too! Took the car to my mechanic and he had the car on a lift. Antifreeze is leaking everywhere! We checked the hoses and they exploded off! Meaning a lot of pressure in the system (ex. redling the car till the motor blew!). Replace the hoses with new lines, check the pressure in the cooling system, and we started the motor but it wouldn't crank. We spent about 5 minutes trying to crank the motor with the corrected pressure in the system. It started but with lots of white smoke! Same as when receiving the car from the trucking company. Did I also mention that my mechanic also drove the car and the clutch was slipping and grinding when throwing he threw it in gear? Seems like Pioneer had heck of a night? The car was jumpy while driving it back to base and a few days later it started to leak all the antifreeze out again. My mechanic is suspecting a blown head gasket and further more.

The car is still under repair and when everything is finished I'll present this a judge in court even if we have to take it this far. I'm going to my law office when everything is presentable. Pioneer will ultimately pay the repairs. You can also check out the other reviews on this website to find out about their reputation damaging cars.

I'm really disappointed right now and its effecting my mood/moods. Can't get it off my mind.

Company Response
Kenny from Pioneer Auto Express Corp. Submitted this response.
Response Date: 11/9/2009 4:18:00 PM
Mr. Nguyen made an online purchase of a 25 year old Toyota Corolla that he has never seen before. Although he claims to have seen a video of the car running smoothly, I would be skeptical, to say the least, of the accuracy of that condition. We can confirm with photos that this car was not in very good condition when we picked it up. Also, Mr. Nguyen did not mention anything to my driver at point of delivery. He needs to speak with the person/dealer he made this online purchase from.