I found a 98 Pathfinder at Giant Auto online. I drove 7 hours to see the car. I performed a visual inspection. I did not have a hydraulic jack to inspect the inner portions of the frame; I expected fair and full disclosure at the time of the sale. I made the mistake of trusting these shady characters. I should note that the vehicle was advertised at 145,000 miles, and when I purchased the vehicle it had 153,000, and that even though the model trim was listed on Autotrader as an LE, it was in fact an SE. These were, in my opinion at the time, forgivable mistakes. I brought the vehicle back to school in State College and then recently brought it back to Johnstown to have my mechanic go over it and alert me to any trouble spots before I had it inspected in PA. At the time of the sale, the guy at Giant Auto assured me that it would have passed NY State Inspection but that he did not have it inspected because I was an out of state purchaser. Turns out I should have demanded that as well, because aside from needing a new alternator, ball joints in the front, rear shocks, rear tires, rear control arms and bushings (all of which I would have understood due to the car's age) it also has a hole which had been rusted through the cross-frame in the back. My mechanic's exact words were, "this car should have never been sold like this." I called Giant Auto and they responded that "this was an as-is sale" and further argued that since I had the car for 30 days, the rust through could have "just developed" and he would not be willing to do anything whatsoever to remedy the problem. He then insisted that he still believed it would have passed New York state inspection at the time of the sale and that this problem could have deteriorated mostly within the roughly 35 days I owned the vehicle. I can provide pictures that make it obvious that this is progressive rust that an honest dealer would have disclosed. If you are from out of NY state, stay far away from Giant Auto.
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