Do NOT Purchase Penske Auction
To anyone considering purchasing an auctioned or used truck from Penske: don’t. Our company purchased an Isuzu reefer truck from Penske through auction in May. It is now two months later, and only now is the truck finally ready to be picked up in the condition it should have been in when it was auctioned. I understand that auctioned trucks are sold “as is.” But “as is” does not mean a truck can be materially different from the auction report. For example, if an auction report says a truck is red and you arrive to find it’s blue, Penske can’t simply say, “Auction reports aren’t guaranteed.” (Which is what they tried to do) The same principle applies here. our auction report EXPLICITLY stated: * No warning light on the dash * Truck drives When I arrived, there were three warning lights illuminated, including the check engine light, and the truck was in limp mode.. meaning it did not drive. Both issues inconsistent with the report. This wasn’t some minor cosmetic issue that was omitted from the report. It was a material difference from what was represented. I refused to drive the truck off the lot because I wasn’t about to assume liability for a vehicle that wasn’t as described. I left it there. That trip alone cost me hundred of dollars for: * A flight from New York to Columbus. * A rental car to drive back to NY after discovering I couldn’t take the truck. At the time, the Penske representative helping me, Matt Yost, even promised some form of travel reimbursement. Unfortunately, he was later let go from the company (no surprise), and that promise never materialized. Over the next two months, I spent countless hours calling and emailing just trying to get updates. Communication was consistently poor. It was pulling teeth to get absolutely anyone to respond. Finally, after two months, I received an email from supervisor Matt Miller saying the truck was ready. Given the circumstances, I asked if Penske could help arrange transportation of the truck, considering I’d already spent significant time and money traveling the first time because the vehicle wasn’t as represented. The answer was essentially no. No meaningful attempt to make things right. No acknowledgment of the inconvenience. And to be clear: fixing the turbo isn’t doing us a favor. The turbo issue was the reason the truck was undrivable—the very condition that directly contradicted the auction report stating the truck drives. Now, two months later, I have to now spend hundreds more to fly back out and retrieve it. Our company has purchased more than three dozen trucks from Ryder, and we’ve never experienced anything remotely like this. This was our first experience with Penske, and it will absolutely be our last.