This is more to share my story of my first car purchase. My wife had a settlement of 7,000 from an injury sustained at a previous employer, so we decided to use about 4,000 of it for a downpayment on a car that would be about 8-9 thousand. After going to this dealership, they first ran out credit (which my credit was horrible at this point so I wanted to finance a car which I had been told would help my credit) and told us we could be approved for about a 13,000 car.
We decided on a 2003 honda civic that said $13,500. After test driving the car and working out the details, I was then told by the dealership we would have to pay and extra 1000 dollars because we had bad credit. Just being happy we could afford something so new, I didn't care, cause I assumed it was legit. The dealership knew this and took advantage of us for it.
Some other things we didn't know/weren't informed of: We were told the deal was complete and we got the financing, only to later find out that the initial paperwork you fill out when buying a car (unless they have on site financing) is just a "pre-approval." Needless to say, the dealership couldn't get financing for us so we had to take the car back.
During the time we had the car, my wife had a minor accident in it and we hadn't gotten the car fixed. When my wife returned the car, the dealership told us they could either fix it or we could find a place. A couple days late I called to tell them where to take it to get it fixed only to find out the car was already be repaired by them. So yet more lies. They told my they would have the final invoice and deduct that from our down payment and get us our money back as soon as possible.
A few days later I called to find out when we could get our money back and they still said not yet. When they finally told us that we could come and get the check, I went after work only to find out they still didn't have a check for us. This had been about 2 weeks after we took the car back to them. After being told this I procceded to tell the guy we were dealing with that I wasn't leaving without my money that day.
He told be to leave or he would call the cops and I said "go ahead, but I'm not leaving without my money." I went out to my car to get my cell phone only to have someone else who said he was the owner start yelling at me about this and that. The guy got in my face as if to try and intimidate me.
I only write this to inform other buyers to watch car dealers. They are very shady business people. Don't let them push you around when buying a car. Take your time, do some research and know how much you want to pay and how much a car is worth. You never have to pay extra just because you have bad credit (this is why good credit customers pay low interest while bad credit people pay high interest). — (kelley blue book) are great sites, use them when making a purchase this large.
Also realize the BBB is just a "country club" for business. It is made up of business, and for business. After I told the dealership I was reporting them, they laughed case the BBB has no real power. Use your state's attorney general or the national attorney general (I filed a complaint with them).
John
Wichita Falls, Texas
U.S.A.
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