In 2002 I made the mistake of buying a car from 1-800-Own-A-Car.
I somehow stumbled across their website and after making an online inquiry, was contacted by one of their sales rep who assured me he had THE perfect car for me.
I was only 20 and probably more naive about car salesman than I care to admit, but I was SO SURE they were an "honest" car lot, I didn't think to bring someone car competent and saavy with me.
I arrived at the lot with the documents I was told to bring (pay stub, phone bill, references, the usual). The rep I talked to on the phone was really friendly, not overly pushy, started asking me exactly what I was looking for.
Something better than a 1990 Ford Escort with high miles, which was the trade in I barely was able to drive there. They had offered me $500 trade on it and I had $500 cash.
I don't want a manual, only automatics.
I don't want a white car.
I also told him I did not want payments any higher than $200, I was looking for around the $150 range.
I spent about an hour filling out all these forms and what not to run my credit, blah blah blah.
So the guy runs my credit comes out saying it all looks good and he has THE perfect car for me.
Then he shows me a WHITE 1990 Honda Civic with 192,000 on it, with an asking price of $4999. And it's a manual.
I thought the guy was joking at first, what part about I don't want a manual and I would prefer it to NOT be white did he not understand? He got irritated and asked me why the color was so important to me.
Because I don't want a white car, I'm the one who has to drive it, I'm the customer, and that's all that matters.
So he shows me a 1992 Saturn SL. Also a manual. I tell him I don't know how to drive a manual. He tells me I'll learn, I can ride in the passenger seat and he'll take it for a test drive for me.
It's then that I notice the car has no radio/stereo of any kind AT ALL. I go to check to see if the AC works only to discover there is NO AC at all in the car. It seems to run and drive just fine, but my car has a CD Player and a working AC so why would I trade that in for this?
We get back to the lot and he starts to tell me about another great car and I cut him off and say, no, how about I show you what I'm looking for? And I point to a 1995 Volkswagen GT. He asks if I want to test drive it, I do, I completely fall in love with it, he tells me he has to go run it by his boss but we should be able to make a deal.
I had to have been standing out there for at least an hour before the sales rep comes back with his manager only for his manager to tell me in the rudest manner ever, "You think you can qualify for this car with only $1000 down? This is an $8000 car!"
That's the first thing he says to me, not hello, I'm such and such, just that.
Stupid me, should've walked right out of that lot at that very moment, but no, I ask him about the 1994 Nissan Sentra LE right next to it with only 62K on it.
He starts talking about the Saturn again and what a great starter car that is at only $2999...
Starter car?
I may have been young, but I had already paid off IN FULL two credit cards and a previous $2000 car loan. I had 3 active credit card accounts, open more than a year, all with low balances and payments made on time every month. My credit score registered 712. I knew my income wasn't superior, but it was over the $1200 min. Financing requirement by more than a couple hundred.
No, I want the Nissan. I know I'm qualified to finance it at $5999.
If I had known the blue book was only $4500 on the car, I would not have bought it.
So he relents and agrees to finance me. Asks me what financing company I have it mind.
I don't have a financing company in mind, I want to go through Wells Fargo, because I had a previous loan with them and I knew they would approve me. He said that was who he was going to contact. He PROMISED he could get payments around $150.
Three hours later payments are at $198 and 12.9% financing. I'm not thrilled, but I'm content. But he says he hasn't heard back from Wells Fargo or a few other banks he sent it to so he doesn't know the lender yet.
Then suddenly my down payment of $500 trade/$500 cash isn't enough. They need another $500. Which I don't have. So we write up a contract stating I will pay $250 on my next pay day and then the rest the following payday.
And I leave with my new (used) car.
Which I'm very happy with. Until 3 days later when the lot calls me and asks me where the rest of my down payment is. I tell them they have a written contract and a post dated check from me for the following week. The guy that called me wasn't who I talked to before and he was very rude and threatening, telling me they'll take back the car, won't give me back my trade and I'll have nothing if they don't get their money.
Then the boss gets on the phone and apologizes. Asks me to come down to work out some "details". I've already signed everything, what more is there to work out?
Well I get down there and am told Wells Fargo declined me (which I later found out they never even contacted them) and that I have to finance through some place I've never heard from, Reliable Credit (who need their own rip off report). My payments are now $228 and my interest rate is 19.99%?!
No, it doesn't stop there. My first statement comes from Reliable Credit the following month and my payments are $289 with an interest rate of 33%!!!
3 phone calls later I find out apparently I signed for an 18 month extended warranty that was "required" for Reliable to finance me.
At this point I decide to pull out my contract and wished I had read the small print.
The car was priced at $5999, but I had $1500 down, which made the financing price $4499. But then I was charged a TON of ridiculous fees. A $3000 dealers fee, a $1000 finance charge, some misc. Charge for $1200, a few other small charges, plus ALL the interest was figured in from the beginning, instead of accuring like my previous loans, so my $5999 car was more than $15,000.
With no option to pay less.
I later found out Reliable charges a HUGE penalty for early pay off. You aren't "allowed" to pay it off early, because they want ALL the money they can get.
Two weeks later I am pulling out of Taco Bell and the entire car starts vibrating and just running terrible.
I call the warranty people and they tell me I have to take it into one of their authorized shops for inspection. So I do, pay $80 out of my own pocket for them to tell me ALL of the injectors need to be replaced and it's going to cost $1700.
The warranty refused to cover it, even though "fuel system" was check marked as covered. So I had to pay for it myself.
The car never did really run well again. It didn't gain speed, it just sort of chugged along like a 77 Ford Pinto.
A few months later the oil pan gasket starts leaking. Not wanting to bother with the warranty people I have it fixed myself.
Then periodically the check engine light starts to come on.
The car starts to emit a burning smell, but no one can figure out what it is.
The alternator goes out.
All this time I'm sending in $300-400 a month trying to get this car paid off.
I sent in $2000 when I got my taxes back and the car only went down a few hundred dollars.
This entire time they are sending me offers to extend my loan with them every few months by obtaining a personal loan for $1000. But then I call them about the offer and they tell me I owe too much to qualify.
After 15 months, I called for the pay off, because I was going to trade it in, because at this point, all my credit cards are maxed from car repairs and I'm barely able to make the payment and keep the car running.
It was $8,948. I went straight from the phone to the car lot (Thomason Toyota), and after nearly 2 hours of getting my hopes up, I am told by the general manager at the lot that the highest he could pay off on a 1994 Sentra was $5000 and even that was excessive. There was no way he could swing $9252.
$9252??? How did it go up in less than hour by $304!
He showed me the blue book prinout, which by this time was in the low $3000's range. He then showed me my credit report and told me that I had really good credit and he couldn't understand why I was financing through reliable in the first place. He told me 1-800-Own-A-Car operated to scam people, they charged high end blue book price, or even over blue book price for nice looking, but POS cars and then tacked on ridiculous "dealers" fees and charges so they make the bigger buck and I'm stuck with the higher payment. He told me to come back when the car was paid off below $5000. What, in 10 years?
About 6 weeks later my engine started leaking oil from five different places. I knew my 18 month warranty was just about up and I decided to try one more time to use it. They gave me the runaround for two weeks and then told me I exceeded the numbers of allotted miles "allowed" for my warranty. First, I wasn't even informed I HAD a warranty, then I was told it was 18 months, and now I'm told I'm only allowed 10,000 miles since I purchased the car. And I was only a couple hundred over that.
At this point, I'm barely making the min. Payments on all my bills, everything is going to my car. I can't afford to fix it. So I keep driving it. Soon it's going through a quart of oil a week.
At 24 months my car "should" have been paid off. I only had a two year contract at the $289 price and I had been sending in over that for the entire term. So really, it should have been paid off BEFORE that. But at 24 months when I call to check on the pay off price, I still owe over $6800!
I still can't get anyone to take the car as trade, especially in such poor mechanical condition, and I can't even get it refinanced because at this point the blue book is only $2800. And I owe almost triple that.
So this month I'm 3 days late on my payment. 3 days. Keep in mind I had never been late ever in those 24 months. I received 17 threatening phone calls from reliable in those 3 days, both at work and at home. I would tell them that I got paid in 3 days they would tell me that answer wasn't good enough and until they got their money they would keep calling. I told them they could call 1000 times, but it was still going to be 3 days. When I went in to drop off the payment, they snatched it out of my hands and said, "This better NEVER happen again."
The following month the car is now going through 2 quarts a week. I end up being a day off on the date and go in to pay my payment a day late. One day. I am told that because this "keeps happening" they are charging me a $100 late payment. I tell them to drop dead and leave.
Approximately one month later I am driving on the freeway when the check oil light comes on... And the car dies. Really dies. Engine fried. Dead as a doornail. For good.
I manage to get it towed to the nearest repair shop only to be told I am looking at $2700 in repair costs, when the car isn't even really worth that. The mechanic told me to donate it. He couldn't believe it when I told him how much money I still owed on the piece of junk.
The next day my payment is due. I don't pay it. The very next day I answer the phone at my job to, "Where the hell is our money? We have talked about this before!" Very professional. Right.
I told them feel free to come repossess the wonderful piece of machinery, where it was parked, I had left the keys in the car, good luck starting it. She goes, "WE WILL GET OUR MONEY BITCH!"
Oh no, you won't.
Three weeks later I'm informed it sold at an auction... For $250.
I now owe reliable $7300 for the car itself, and $2000 in "personal" damages to reliable.
The following week their is a knock at my door and I am served papers. I am being sued.
Two weeks later, court.
Since I signed the contract, I'm liable. The judge doesn't want to hear my lemon sob story.
My following paycheck is garnished 25% and I can't pay my bills.
I end up having to file bankruptcy.
This entire nightmare started with 1-800-Own-A-Car.
Less than one year after my bankruptcy I bought a 1996 Toyota Camry for $5500 with $1000 down and in perfect condition except for a small oil leak that cost less than $100 to fix. I wasn't charged any strange excessive fees, just the typical lender/dealer/licensing fees, I think it came to just over $1000. My payments were $260 a month on a two year contract through United Finance Company at 19.99%. After sending in $350 a month for 6 months I had the car down below $4000 (yes, it actually went DOWN when I made a payment who would've thought), I was able to trade it in at Thomason Toyota for $4000, I owed around $3800, so they payed it off and gave me a couple hundred towards my new car, I put $300 cash down and drove off in a 2003 Chevy Malibu for $280 a month at 7.9% through Capital One. And this is with a 3 year extended warranty that covers almost everything. And this is with a credit score of 564 after my bankruptcy.
I recently had a small issue with the cooling system in my car and had to take it in to Thomason to have it fixed. They were very nice about it and set me up with a 2005 Nissan Sentra rental free of charge.
So be careful who you buy a car from out there. There are some decent car lots, but 1-800-own-a-car IS NOT ONE OF THEM!
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