Ellingson Motorcars

Its a nice, fair sized (you can easily see it all in an hour and a half) old restored car show.

My purchase of a classic vehicle from the owner of Ellingson Motorcars in Rogers, Minnesota was worse than a lemon. First, I purchased with cash and had difficulty receiving the title. I emailed and called several times requesting the title and I provided the date my county required a registration, which included the title of the vehicle within 30 days of purchase date. A late fee of 5% of the state taxes would be added after the 30-day period. Most of the time I did not receive a response from the owner/Ellingson Motors regarding this matter. The day I received the title, which was in the afternoon, I called the motor vehicles department in my county and was told today was the 30th day and tomorrow I would be assessed the 5% fee. Only on that particular day, the motor vehicle registration department was opened until 7pm. I raced over and got in line and was able to register the vehicle. This should not have been an issue. The vehicle I purchased was at my home for only one day, wherein I discovered the transmission was slipping so badly, I barely was able to drive it to the mechanic shop. The mechanic drove it and confirmed the transmission was in bad shape, but he was unable to rebuild the transmission and suggested I tow the car to a transmission shop. When the car was put on a lift, at the first mechanic shop, 7 leaks were pointed out to me, which included transmission/drivetrain, brake, oil. After having the vehicle towed to the transmission shop the transmission was rebuilt. The brakes were extremely poor. You had to plan way in advance to stop the vehicle by applying heavy pressure pushing down on the brake pedal. The vehicle was in 3 different mechanic shops for almost 4 months to deal with the myriads of mechanical issues. My mistake was that I never flew to Minnesota to test drive the vehicle and trusted what the owner told me via phone and email. In the email we exchanged, the owner told me that the car had a “small oil leak as all older cars have” but, otherwise the car drove beautifully when they took it out for a drive. He stated that he would tighten up pan bolts/valve cover bolts to deal with the minor leak. In the end, the owner informed me by email, that everything was working except the manual windshield washer system.

Please do not purchase a car from here!!! I purchased a car here in April of this year and let me tell you I have had the worse experience of my life. They advertise a great running and rust free car as shown on their pictures/description and it's far from that. After the first week of receiving the car, I had number of issues with it, including the car stopping out of nowhere when driving, engine overheating and fuming smoke, leaks from multiple areas, car not starting, car shaking when driving and that's just 2 name a few. Before calling Ellingson Motorcars or leaving a review, I wanted to verify the problems of the car and make sure they weren't small issues that most classic car have time to time and if that was the case I would obviously have nothing to complain about and get the car fixed but turns out it was quite the opposite, this car was given to me in horrible condition from the bodywork to mechanical work. I took this vehicle to countless shops and mechanics that are friends of mine who I trust and they all said the same thing, the engine was seized and that the rust free car that was advertised is actually just all overspray and that the car is very rusty with some of the rust eating the car up. I have only driven the car once since receiving it so the engine being seized makes no sense on my end. After hearing this I called Scott from Ellingson motorcars and I explained to him the issues I was having with it and the fact that the car turned off on me in the middle of the freeway which could've caused a horrible accident and all he had to say was that theirs nothing he can do about it and its not his problem. Despite hearing him having the remorse for human life, I even offered to ship the car back to them on my expense and asked for a full refund on the car and he declined immediately and proceeded to hang up. Now I'm stuck with a car that's been in the driveway since may because I don't have the funds to fix the car up, and to fix the car it would nearly cost as much as I payed for the vehicle which is absolutely insane. Moral of the story do not trust Scott or do business with Ellingson motorcars, they will literally sell you an unsafe or undriveable car just to stuff their pockets!

I went there today after the Paint and restoration shop they use and who I'm using recommend them. They wanted to charge me to look at the car i was interested in whichi found out is not even there anymore! Wow! Never seen or heard of anything like this 40 years in the car and motorcycle business. Very strange and the lady tried to explain why I had to pay, non of it made sense. I walked out. I even told them who recommended me to them, they didn't care wanted that 10 bucks! Insane and in my opinion bad business. Its a museum possing as a vintage car dealer.

When purchasing the 1955 Oldsmobile, I have found more problems with the car. I called Ellingson and spoke with Scott about the numerous problems that I had and found out the power top was not working-- Ellingson mechanics unhooked and never put it back together! Look at the pictures-- the gauges don't work and the radio antenna is missing-- Here are the pictures and the receipt to fix the air conditioner as well as other items-- The mechanics at Ellingson never screwed in the 2 Schrader valves so trash was getting into the A/C. Incompetent mechanics-- no inspection of the car and mechanics who fix transmission tailshaft seals with silicone and an incorrect seal, thus burning up the transmission. Just look at my first review along with the documentation. Don't waste your breath with Scott, he will just hang up! Don't waste your money for this is a very bad company!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!