Sunset Motors Sucks, 2020 Auburn Way N., Auburn, WA., Darin, DJ, In our view, an outfit to avoid.

How much of a concern to average Americans is the
problem of trying to do business with unpleasant car
dealerships? Well, let's find out!

Several days ago we took notice of a motorcycle for sale on Craigslist
(Craigslist -- need we even say more?).
Here's the ad:

1988 Honda Hurricaine CBR1000 Ridiculously LOW PRICING! - $2200 (Auburn)
Date: 2010-08-20, 2:04PM PDT
In amazing condition for the model year, the miles on this Hurricaine 1000 has just over 16,000 original miles with Corbin Custom Saddle. Priced at $2200 OBO. This bike runs strong, pulls hard, idles smooth, shifts smooth, etc....This is the real deal. Solid, strong running, clean, low miles and priced to sell immediately. DARIN (253)576-0044

[The misspelling of "Hurricaine" is done by the seller - Obviously the bike is a HURRICANE].

Turns out this is a car dealership in Auburn, Washington, called "Sunset Motors". No particular problem there, except that we have a bit of a bad taste in our mouths from used car dealerships over the years, but, what the heck, they can't ALL be bad, so our method always is to deal with them honorably and see how they treat us in return.

We dealt with Darin for several days by email (seemed like a nice enough guy and we felt semi-comfortable with him), then decided to make the TREK down to Auburn to look at the bike and probably buy it on the spot. We went with helmets, riding gear and cash. Darin wanted a call before we left, to make sure he'd be there, so we did call him and we set up a time, and even though traffic was beyond horrific we showed up 45 minutes later, which was exactly on time. We went in and asked for Darin, but of course Darin wasn't there.

Strike one.

We then took a cursory look at the bike. It was represented as being in "amazing" condition. In fact, it was in "average" condition for its mileage. It certainly could have been better and we were lead to believe it was, which is why we drove so far to see it. Lots of little bumps and scrapes, but it didn't appear the bike had actually been down. It needed both front and rear rotors soon, and front pads now. The chain was so loose as to be unridable, so we resigned ourselves to having to tighten it before the bike could even be test-ridden. The chain would likely need links removed in order to adjust it, and you start to wonder: if the owner was so lax and clueless about a simple thing like a periodic chain adjustment (it appeared not to have been done since new), what else did he skip or screw up? -Probably just about everything. Since our sales contact wasn't there as promised, we went in to talk with "DJ", who said he was Darin's boss and could take Darin's place. We wanted to nail down the specifics of the deal before taking the time to tighten the chain and do a thorough inspection and test drive. Unfortunately, we found DJ to be an obnoxious, condescending jackass. Sorry for the adjectives, but that's how he came across to us. By the third sentence out of his mouth I hated the guy. By the fifth sentence my partner hated the guy. But we were there, and we figured we'd just try to forge on through the process and get the transaction done. We had been looking at other bikes of the same model and year for from $1200 to $1800, so DJ's price of $2200 on this bike was way high (note his ad that bills it as a "ridiculous" price -- In fact it WAS a ridiculous price -- ridiculously high). We were willing to go with it because the mileage was low, because we were tired of looking at bikes, but mostly because when you deal with a dealership, you tend to have more recourse than when buying from a private party if something goes wrong. We figured that was worth something, but it seems that no matter how old and jaded we get, there's always room to be surprised.

Finally, I was ready to commit to the sale contingent on a ride. My partner came in at that exact moment and revealed that the front fork seals were blown -- not merely leaking, but totally blown out and the bike was sitting in a pool of its own hydraulic fluid. For fork seals to be blown out at 16,000 miles, the bike almost certainly was wheelied relentlessly and badly for much of its life. If it was abused in that way, how else was it abused? This bike should have never been put on the showroom floor like that, nor should anyone be allowed to test ride a bike in that condition (I lost a friend decades before due to a fork seal that blew on hard braking in L.A.). But being the typical used car hacks that these guys apparently were, they appeared clueless to these kinds of things. At this point it was clear that there would be a delay of at least several days to get the fork seals replaced before it could even be test-ridden.

But before we could even inquire as to how long it would take the dealership to get around to that, DJ piped up and blurted out, "You realize that we won't fix that. We won't come down even a dollar on the bike, not at this price." I took about four seconds to digest that before answering. After all, the bike was overpriced as it was, it was not as represented, it couldn't even be test ridden, and here's this obnoxious jackass blurting forth that they weren't about to even CONSIDER making the bike ridable or even merchantable for the advertised high price.

I replied, simply, that we were done, and we turned without another word and headed for the main doors. DJ then stated that, well, okay, okay, they WOULD make the bike ridable and repair the fork seals. But by that time we had both had enough of the sour, arrogant attitude and neither of us would ever do business with ANY company that would consider, even for a micro-second, not making a vehicle right before it went out the door. No one should ever, ever do business with hacks like that. I explained, again, that we were just simply done here, and started heading for the door again. But again DJ interjected that he would email us the following day to let us know if the bike would be fixed. Again I explained to him that we were done. Period. Fini. Over. The End. No emails. No second chances. He had instantly disintegrated our trust and we were, really, truly, DONE. We departed. It took us an hour and twenty minutes to get home due to horrible traffic.

Bottom line, the heart was cut right out of our entire Sunday due to the stupidity, obnoxiousness and maybe even downright dishonesty of these 1970's-style used-car jerks. The experience was absolutely unacceptable in every single way and actually disgusting. I had thought this mentality extinct as far back as about 1972. I was mistaken; it's alive and well at Sunset Motors in Auburn, Washington in 2010.

We oughtta sue these sons of bitches in Small Claims court for time and expenses.

We now see that this ridiculous outfit has posted the following ad as well:

1988 Honda Hurricane 1000 - $2900 (LOOKING 4 THE BEST DEAL?, STOP LOOKING CLICK HERE!, )

Sunset Motors has reposted their original ad with no mention of the mechanical problems. At this point, we're willing to testify for any buyer who gets mislead on this bike. Unfortunately, even though they've been made aware of this web page, they STILL couldn't muster the two brain cells required to spell the name of their product correctly. Anyone searching for a Honda Hurricane will not find it. We rest our case:

1988 Honda Hurricaine CBR1000 Ridiculously LOW PRICING! - $2200 (Auburn)

In amazing condition for the model year, the miles on this Hurricaine 1000 has just over 16,000 original miles with Corbin Custom Saddle. Priced at $2200 OBO. This bike runs strong, pulls hard, idles smooth, shifts smooth, etc....This is the real deal. Solid, strong running, clean, low miles and priced to sell immediately.

For more information, please ask for DARIN (253)576-0044