Ask around before taking your car to a place

I bought an old car to help a guy. I got scammed. As luck would have it the car was towed to this place. Took a plane to CPT by the time I landed I felt scammed again. Before I could drive again I would pay two times the actual cost of this car again. I was told this needed to be done and this needed to be done. All the time I just paid and paid. Got my car and it was left in almost the same condition except that it could switch on and drive. No one there cared about the fact that I was now severely out of pocket. I joined a club of Merc drivers to learn more about who could fix these cars and how I could get into another one without ever having to face an issue like this. Ladies and gentlemen please learn from my mistake. To make matters worse they still whatsapp to ask when I am bringing my car in again. They have never once tried to resolve the issue.