In March my wife and I went into OH! Orlando Hyundai to purchase an new Hyundai Santa Fe. We know we are credit challenged and explained all of the details to the salesman and the finance rep. After reviewing the credit information the finance rep. And the salesman said there were no problems and they had seen worse credit get approved. (I did find it rather strange that when we signed the contract, there was no finance company name in the poper section of the contract... I was told that this was common practice unitl the best finance deal was secured...'It's done this way all of the time'.). We were delivered our vehicle and went home none the wiser.
Oh, by the way, this sale occurred on a Saturday. Everything was 'hunky dory'. We heard nothing from this dealer, other than when we requested a missing radio antennae. One week and one day later we were told by the 'Special Financing Manager' - "Mr. Marine Corps" (He must have told us 15 times he was a former Marine... I guess to instill confidence in his 'integrity'.) that financing could not be secured, and that unless we had our own means of financing the car, we had to bring it back. Oh yeah, but we did get you financed for a lower amount and if you want to we have a Mercury Marquis or a Dodge Durango. We had told all of them several times that we wanted the Santa Fe because it had a third row seat... We have four children. We told him that that was not acceptable, we will bring the car back. Have our trade-in ready to go and our cash down payment ready to give back upon our arrival... The next day. The response was no problem it will all be ready to go.
We got there early evening, as we both work during the day. When we got there the 'Special Financing manager' wanted to talk to us and took us to an office. We told him we could not believe that we had gone over a week and no one mentioned that they were having a problem getting financing for the Santa Fe, and now over a week later they wanted the car back, after we had signed a contract and were assured several times that everything was O.K. How could they let us drive the car off of the lot under the assumption that it was ours, and everything was done. The response was oh it's called a 'Spot Delivery' everyone does it. When people want a car, they want to take it that day. Again he tried pushing the Durango and Grand Marquis. No, we don't want it. Every time we disagreed with HIS plan he got upset. He even yelled at my wife. I was told how long he had been in the special financing, he was the best in the business, he had worked at several of the Big Dealerships and knows all of the special financing people there, oh yeah... He was a Marine
We were not going to get financing for a NEW car anywhere, the deal for the Durango or Grand Marquis were all we were going to get anywhere, and if we didn't take the deal he had called in a favor for on the financing he was going to call them back and we would never get a car. We told him no, once again. He got up to leave and we told him we wanted our trade-in and our down payment back. He appointed someone else to get the trade-in ready. He told me we would have to come back tomorrow for the down payment... That office was now closed. We said you specifically told us they would 'cut a check' and you would have it ready for us. His response was I thought you wanted the Durango or Grand Marquis. When I demanded he give us our down payment that night he directed me to the on-duty sales manager. As I went to the on-duty sales manager Mr. Special Financing packed his briefcase and attempted to make a speedy exit through a side door. (I didn't know Marines cut and ran). Of course the on-duty sales manager could do nothing about refunding our down payment, nor could he do anything but apologize for the way we were treated as the special financing manager was not one of his employees.
An hour or so later they finallly found our keys and our trade-in and presented it to us... We had to return the next day to get the check. After this was all over we discover that the reason he said we would never get financed anywhere else was that there were over 14 credit inquiries from this one transaction alone.
Oh, just a note, we did get a new car from Bill Heard Chevrolet... A little costlier but low and behold through one of the companies Orlando Hyundai got us declined through.
Doug
St. Cloud, Florida
U.S.A.
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