Back in the beginning of July our van broke down and we were facing having to pay $1500-$2000 to get it fixed. Knowing that we would have to save up the money we made a deal with our auto mechanic to work on it a little at a time until we could pay for it.
In the meantime, I decided to apply for a loan, knowing that our credit was bad from previous lates (but no bankruptcy), upside down van loan, and no money down. I thought it couldn't hurt to try and the worst they could do would be to say no. We had just started to make more in our jobs and thought maybe we could even just get a 3rd car and sell the van when we got our loan paid down.
After trying 2 dealerships and having embarrassing conversations about how there would be no way for them to get an approval - we gave up. Until... We received a letter in the mail from the Phil Long Hyundai in Colorado Springs saying they could get us approved. They had all our information, so again, I thought what the heck.
The Sales person who was so sweet and said we'd never NOT paid our bills and that there were plenty of banks that would approve us did as promised and got us 4 approvals. She told us they were either going to trade our truck (that was working) in (Ford f150) and add $1500 to the loan to fix our van OR they were going to let us trade in the van. Either way, to her and to us it was a done deal.
So we drove the 45 minute drive south to the Springs to sign papers and pick up our car. According to the salesperson the Finance Manager was buried with work and was going to have to just do preliminary paperwork at first and finish the rest in a couple days.
We picked the car up on a Tuesday and were supposed to go back on Friday and finish the rest of the paperwork, pick up some more keys (since they apparently couldn't get them out of the safe with it being so late at night when we left???). We filled out the "what we owe you (car wash, full tank of gas) paperwork, signed a Purchase Agreement that included the total cost of the car, the down payment, and the trade in allowance of $4500 for the broken down van and were told that the sales person would call us to work out the details on how to get our van to them (towing) later.
Friday came along and no one called - so I called the sales person and was told the finance guy was too busy and to hang tight until Monday or Tuesday of the next week.
Tuesday came along and again - no call from the sales rep - so I called her and was told again to "hang tight". He was still too busy to have us come and that he was about 2 weeks behind. I was told basically "don't call me, we'll call you". I was beginning to feel like a major pest.
2 more weeks past and nothing. Finally after almost exactly 3 weeks the MAIN Sales Manager called (not our regular person) and said we needed to give them $$3000 to complete the deal because the bank has only approved us for 18K but the loan needed to be for 21K. There was no possible way for us to come up with that money and if I could have sooner I would have fixed my van. I told him he needed to make it work!
We had already started everything, been driving the car for 3 weeks, and was totally blown away because I thought we had 4 approvals for the amount we needed! After I got off the phone with him I called our sales person and asked what the heck had happened. She said she was going to find out and call me back.
Another day goes by and we hear nothing. I finally get a hold of them on Thursday night and she says they're resubmitting the application from scratch to see if they can get an approval.
Another week passed (4 weeks after taking the car home) we have received a call that we need to bring the car back. Unless we can give them a check for $3000 (now its not even 2-3K) we need to give the car back.
After driving this car (now with 1300 miles on it) with my family, taking friends places, taking coworkers places we have to give the car back and tell everyone we had to give it back. Very humiliating.
Of course we have learned a valuable lesson - although we thought we were pretty smart and not naive - we know now that we cannot ever trust car dealerships NO MATTER WHAT THEY PROMISE. I think they will do anything to sell a car - including letting people take cars home for weeks to feel how nice it is to have it... Then hope that they will do anything to keep it. If not - no harm, no foul for them, they just sell it as practically brand new to someone else. I was told tonight "As long as it has less than 2000 miles on it we can title it and not lose anything".
And if a dealership can't get it done in a day - its not going to happen. I think the most upsetting part is the fact that they strung us along for so long. If they had told us a couple days to even 1 week later it would have made the blow so much less.
I hope others read this and become leery of PHIL LONG (as I see there are many others that have been hurt by them).
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