Five thousand Southern Arizona soldiers have been banned from doing business with a trio of area auto dealerships amid complaints from troops about the firms' business practices.
Wildcat Mitsubishi, 5200 E. Speedway in Tucson, and Ideal Automotive Group, with locations in Sierra Vista and Huachuca City, are at the center of disputes that led to the rare official Army ban, signed May 20 by the commanding general of Fort Huachuca, Southern Arizona's largest military installation.
"Sufficient cause indicates these establishments are adversely affecting the health, safety, morals, welfare, morale and discipline of the Fort Huachuca Armed Forces personnel," says the order from Maj. Gen. John M. Custer III.
Soldiers who fail to honor the ban are subject to military discipline for disobeying an order.
"It's an extreme step," Fort Huachuca spokeswoman Tanja Linton said, referring to the measure, which she said sprang from "numerous complaints from numerous sources."
People are also reading…
The complaints came from such sources as Army aid agencies and the fort's legal department, as well as information from the Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona.
Soldiers reported difficulties with contracts and warranties and lack of follow-up on resolving concerns, she said.
Because of the transitory nature of military life, Fort Huachuca's Tanja Linton said, troops have trouble fighting consumer disputes once they leave town, so they're at risk of being taken advantage of.
"We get young soldiers fresh out of training wanting a set of wheels, and some of them are not financially savvy," she said.
"Then, in two or three months, they're at Fort Hood or in Baghdad. They're not here to resolve problems."
The businesses affected by the order all are owned by Richard Johnston of Sierra Vista, who could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Linton said Johnston was invited to speak with Army officials about the complaints at a hearing in March and did so.
But whatever he said failed to persuade them to back off the ban.
Johnston's son, Beau Johnston, general manager of the Ideal Automotive location at 645 S. Highway 92 in Sierra Vista, said in his view the company didn't get a fair shake from the Army.
At the hearing, he said, Army officials didn't provide complete details of each complaint, making it impossible for the company to follow up on the concerns being raised.
"We have asked them several times to give us specifics and they basically refused," he said, calling the ban "hard to believe. It's not something I thought the government would do to us. It's very dictator-like."
Beau Johnston speculated that some of the complaints may have to do with cases in which young soldiers applied for auto financing and were allowed to take possession of vehicles before final credit approvals were in.
When the credit reports came back, soldiers deemed bad risks might have been asked to come up with extra down-payment cash or else return the vehicles if they could not, he said.
That upset some soldiers so much that the dealerships changed their policy and now do not deliver vehicles in advance of final financing approval, he said.
The BBB has received a total 29 complaints in the past three years against the banned auto dealerships alleging problems with warranties, customer service, sales practices and other issues.
Fifteen complaints are against Wildcat Mitsubishi, which opened in 2006 and has an unsatisfactory BBB rating because the dealership did not respond to six of the 15 complaints, agency spokeswoman Kim States said.
One of the Wildcat complainants was a member of the military, she said.
The other 14 complaints — five made by military personnel — are against Ideal Automotive in Sierra Vista. Unlike the Tucson location, BBB records show that dealership has a track record of answering complaints and in most cases, resolving problems.
Although the Fort Huachuca ban is rare, it is not unprecedented in Southern Arizona.
In Tucson, for example, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base prohibited its airmen from patronizing the Chicago Bar, 5954 E. Speedway, in April after an airman was shot following an altercation at the nightclub.
Club management attended a hearing at D-M on Thursday to ask that the ban be lifted, and a decision is expected by next week.
Both D-M and Fort Huachuca banned troops from a now-defunct Tucson nightclub, Club Envy, also known as Club Z, 6211 E. Speedway, after one soldier was killed and another injured in a shooting that followed a fight there last November.
Such orders typically are reviewed every 90 days. Linton said Fort Huachuca is willing to reconsider the recent ban if conditions change.
"We want to maintain good relations with the business community," she said.
"But we also need to protect our soldiers."
