In May I went to Shortline Automotive (580 S. Havana, Aurora, CO 33-364-0225) to purchase a car. I bought a 2001 Dodge Stratus. I was told that my creidt was only approved for the special finance terms and while they would still be able to sell me the car it would have a PassTime (2616 W. Alamo Ave Littleton, CO 303-623-5339) device as required by the lender (Credit Acceptance Corp).
The sales person (Justin) told me that the vehicle was in great condition, they had just replaced the brakes and the battery. The finance manager (Todd H.) told me that if I brought the vehicle back in a week after I bought it that they would "buff out the scratches for free". All things considered I thought I was over paying slightly, but I wanted a dealership I could trust. This would later prove to be a huge mistake.
The finance manager (Todd H.) went over the paperwork in 10 minutes because he had another customer waiting. He told me I had purchased a warrenty that would cover "everything". The price of this warrenty was $1200. I later found out that I purchased 3 products with a price tag of $3800 and almost nothing is covered. Todd suggested after a year of re-building my credit that I come back to the dealership where I would be pre-approved to upgrade into another vehicle. This is very much NOT true. I am so upside down in that car I would have to sink the car into the Atlantic Ocean to ever be out from under this loan. That was actual advice from another local dealership.
When the PassTime device was covered, I was told that it was an anti-theft device that would lower my car insurance.in the event that I didn't make my payments a beeping noise would remind me that the payment is due. If I stopped making my payments the car would be disabled.
Since I drove off the lot..
The brakes and battery were not replaced nor were the scuff marks removed as promised. The contact I was given to follow up with completly blew me off. I found out that she was the girlfriend of the finance manager. Shortly, there after they both quit. Since then NO ONE has attempted to follow up after my calls and letters.
I did find out that the sales person that had ALL OF MY CREDIT INFO was on WORK RELEASE FROM DOUGLAS COUNTY JAIL. Nice huh? How is that even possible doesn't the dealer board frown on fellons selling cars?!
The car has numerous problems, I have a useless warrenty.
The Passtime device is defective and shuts my car off when it shorts out. The passtime company and the dealership refuse to accept responsibility for this and so the car just keeps shutting off. It takes a series of calls to have it turned back on. I have logged my wait time since May 15th (6 days after I bought the car when it first shut off) and so far I spend an average of 6 hours a month on hold.
You can't sell the car with the passtime device oni t and the dealership charges to have it removed. (By the way they won't take it off until the loan is paid for and they receive notice from Credit Acceptance, I was told this can take up to 3 weeks)
SO GOOD LUCK SELLING YOUR CAR!
Regarding Credit Acceptance - They have the largest gathering of rude people working for them, second only to the GAP and their 16 year old sales force.
My payment is due on the 14th. Once they have the payment it can take up to 7-10 days to process. Meaning, if I want my payment to be there on time it MUST be in the mail no later than the last day of the month, TWO full weeks before it is due. After the payment has been processed I have to CALL and get the code to enter the payment into the passtime device. This should work automaticaly, but due to some glitches within Passtime the process never seems to work.
The phone calls for my payment that was just made, almost due, and next month are NEVERENDING!!! It is so bad that I had to switch my home phone to my fax line. The only people that still have that number is credit acceptance and they leave 3 messages per day on average of 20 days of the month. That's only if my payment is on time!!! Don't give them your work number you might get fired for all the personal calls you will get. One associate even told my boss that he was calling in regards to re-possessing my vehicle, this was on the 16th of November. Two days after the payment was due and 10 days after I had made by western union quick collect. WHAT THE HECK?
To sum it all up...
Do not purchase a vehicle from SHORTLINE AUTOMOTIVE unless you like to get ripped off.
Do not finance a vehicle from CREDIT ACCEPTANCE unless you don't mind changing your phone number.
Do not purchase a vehicle with a PASSTIME device on it unless you like to play roulette every time you turn the egnition of your car. Hum, will it start? Nobody knows!
I hope other people will learn from my mistakes and do a little more research before making this kind of a purchase.
0 comments