East Side Auto

So more people need to give props where deserved. i drove up to St.Paul Park from 4hrs away to come look at and hopefully purchase. The salesman, Tom was great. i initially called and he was honest, straight forward, and very helpful. He even took additional pics and emailed them to me. when i got there i was VERY pleased. the vehicle (2010 Nissan Rogue) was just as described and even better than the pics. And i got a GREAT deal. based on what i had been seeing, and i was looking online, all over the midwest...(IL, IN, IA, MN, NE,MO,KS). Yes, it was a previous salvage, but for the price i got it for, the shape it was in, the LOW miles, i couldn't find a better deal. Plus Tom seemed honest, was great to work with, and seemed like an all-around good guy. Not to mention i have full trust in Nissans. my last car was a nissan & my wife drives a nissan. neither of us have had any out of the ordinary large issues with either of our cars. And Tom allowed us to take the car and have it inspected (which it passed w/ no problems). I would tell anybody that purchases a car they are an absolute idiot if you DON'T have it inspected....yea, it's an additional charge up-front, but may save you thousands in the long run. And it just so happens that the nissan dealership that we had it inspected at said they deal with East-side auto all the time, and they hear nothing but good about them as well. SO with all that said (sorry for the rambling) Yes, i would highly recommend East-side auto. In fact when comes time for the wife to get a new car, we will definatly make the 4hr drive up to East-side first. more

I figured I would speak up, because the feedback I've seen regarding this place hasn't been the most balanced. The two gentlemen I dealt with @ East Side Auto this past April were quite good. After getting the runaround at an established & glossy dealership west of the twin cities about a car in my price range I had been losing interest in with by the minute, I decided I was going to rid myself of the red tape of the finance department & the inability for this other dealership's used car guy to be punctual in returning a call. I saw an add pop up on autotrader one evening about a 2002 Honda Civic for $5995 @ East Side Auto, and I was driving home in it less than 24 hours later. I'm a college student with 'good' credit (used to not be 'good') with a solid/steady income, so the BS the other place was hung up on was the last thing I was looking to deal with. I called East Side Auto, said I saw the ad & was told to come on over & they'd have the keys waiting for me to try it out. Making the trek that was almost an hour from the northern suburbs to their location didn't come w/o hesitation, but after it was all said and done, I am glad I followed through with it and would do it again w/o question. I'm not going to kid myself, or those of you reading this review, buying a salvage title is a noted risk, but I felt in having driven a honda for years before, by buying the carfax & extended report on the car, and by having my own mechanic take a look @ it (yes, you can leave the lot with the car to have 'your guy' look at it as long as you bring it back by the time they close) I felt fully confident in buying the car from East Side Auto. Do your homework people, buying a car from a private party or even a glossy dealership comes with the same risks as buying from here if you don't do your due diligence. This car has run like a beast from the day I bought it, and for someone who drives a lot (logged about 9900 miles since the purchase), it's easily been everything I could've asked for, and more. more

I would never buy a car at East Side Auto again and strongly caution anyone considering it to run the other way. I have since learned that it is never a good idea to buy a car with a salvage title, especially from an untrustworthy dealer like East Side Auto. more

I will always go back for more cars. more

My family owns two East Side Auto cars. One purchased in 2001, one in 2006... both have been great cars and are still going strong. From the other reviews, it sounds like there's a chance you'll get a bad car, but both of mine are great. more

I have purchased 3 cars from East Side Auto. Two of them were great the other had been in a flood and it continues to have problems with the turn signal lights and the headlights having moisture in them. A seal of some sort must have been damaged. So, I think you have to be careful about the type of damage the car had. The best ones are the stolen cars or hail damage cars that never had much if any mechanical damage. At any rate, you can get a good deal, but definitely find out the type of damage the car had before they fixed it. more

Purchased a 2003 Cavalier about 5 years about 5 years ago for my daughter. I needed a reliable but inexpensive vehicle. The car was salvaged from a flood. Body had 6000 miles and different engine had 4000. It has been a very good car the last 5 years. After 5 years the car has not had any issues related to initial purchase. While there is more risk to buy a salvage car, sometimes it works great as it did for me. Pros: Lowest cost car Cons: Greater risk, but was worth it more

Bought a 2000 Plymouth Voyager with 66,000 miles from them in August of 2009. We were given a 30-day warranty on the transmission but were not informed of any transmission issues. Our mechanic looked the van over and noticed a leak in the transmission line and a bent stabilizer bar. We took the van back and they told us they fixed everything before we paid for the van. So - we paid $4000, plus traded in two vehicles for $1200, and drove away with a vehicle we thought would see us reliably through. A couple weeks later the van started to develop an odd squeaking noise in what we thought was the front end. Thought it probably had something to do with the front end damage which they told us was minor and that they had fixed so the Salvage title could be cleared to be a Prior Salvage title. Anyhow, we were going to take it back to our mechanic for another look-see while we were under warranty, but then got sidelined with a family hardship (kid in the hospital for a week and then all of the fam sick for the following week) and we missed our window. We assumed everything was probably fine - just some grease needed since it was just a squeaking noise. Jump ahead to roughly two weeks post warranty and the transmission goes out stranding wife and the kids in rush hour traffic blocking both lanes. Couldn't even push the thing out of the way it was so locked up. Okay - so no car is perfect, but our mechanic said, call them back they should help you out with this. Seems reasonable. Guess what? NO HELP WHATSOEVER. The service dept. manager said we could try to find a new tranny on some used parts web site (how does that help us? we are not mechanics and this is our only vehicle so we can't be out of commission indefinitely) and if we couldn't find it there he could probably find one for us at a salvage yard. Nice. These guys are jerks. Our family is out of work and we told them our situation hoping they wouldn't steer us toward a lemon. Our mistake. These guys don't give a crap what happens to you or your vehicle once they have your money. The service mgr said we should have taken out a longer warranty, but we were never even offered one. They are crooks. Stay away from them. Their offices are filthy - even the coin operated candy in their office sucks. Pros: Cheap Wheels, I mean LEMONS Cons: Dirty offices, these are wrecks without history, unhelpful more

I bought a car from them..I don't want to be specific. I noticed the next day, it had a screw in the tire; I had a flat. Went tires plus to get it patched and the tires rotated. Tires plus found a bad tie rod end...went back to the place to get fixed...now it gets interesting. They fixed it all right, a wheel bearing and the tie rod. One mechanic said it needed alignment, the other said it didnt. The one that said it needed it said they would pay for it. Never did. And here where it gets interesting...the next week the engine light went on and I noticed the power steering container leaked (big bill), then on the highway the lug nuts came off on the highway ( mistake from this place). Rotor damaged, lower ball joint, and many other things. Along with that there is something wrong with the battery and the engine light came on again. Since it was their fault, I tried getting them to pay some of it. They give me the run-around. NEVER buy a car from them. Pros: Cheap cars Cons: They are all lemon cars, and they screw up fixing problems more