SO my whole dilemma began Saturday January 26 when I went to Autofair Honda with my boyfriend and my mother to look at a brand new car. We chose to go to this particular dealership because my mother had just bought a 2005 Accord from them and was very happy with the way they treated her. We were going to see her salesman but when we got there I saw an old friend Josh O'shea and chose to go with him as I thought he would give me a good deal and help me out as much as possible.
We did not buy a car that evening as we didnt have a down payment and we didn't have a co-signer at that time. We did test drive a Honda Civic and decided it was too small but that we would be back as soon as we did our taxes. We were told we would definately be approved for a vehicle with a large down payment and trade in.
Saturday February 2nd Elvin (my boyfriend) and I went back to Autofair cash in hand and car ready to trade in. We told Josh we had $2,200 and $500 trade in for our car, so $2,700 in total down. We told Josh we wanted to look at Accords or a larger sedan like that. We then saw him pull up in a 2005 Dodge Neon. We took it for a test drive with Josh and I asked him if there was an accord we could look at or any different kind of vehicle other than the neon because that is not my dream car. He said his boss said this car is what fits our budget best and the only one we would get approved for.
Elvin said he liked how it drove and it was better than keeping our junker, I agreed and just decided I could live with is. So we went and signed the papers being the youn 21 and 22 year olds we are we didn't look closely at the numbers they had made up for us. We left the dealership in our new NEON and went home so I could speak with my mother and tell her the good news.
Upon hearing what our payments would be ($370 a month) with 19.99% interest rate for 6 years.in total we would be paying close to $30,000 when the car was paid off. My mother told me to go online and look at the list price on kelly blue book and NADA. I also went on to the autofair website and saw they had my car priced at $9,995 on both KBB and NADA the car retailed about $10,000. They were selling it to me for $15,000!!!
My mom was not impressed when I told her all the numbers and she called and talked to head of sales Ken L and he told her that they up price cars before they send them to the bank to get approved. He said all the prices would go down on Monday when we were to come in and finalize our paperwork.
The next day we went back in to Autofair with my mom and we spoke face to face with Ken. He said the same runaround story that didnt make sense to us. I then asked him why my car was priced at $10,000 online but Im getting it for $15,000 he told me the same excuse. He then told me they have to up price cars because they want the bank to think we are putting down 30-40%. I did put 30% down before they jacked the price. He said monday we would all have smiling faces because the prices would be down and the interest rate would go down considerably.
Monday came, we didn't hear from any of them, my mother and I both tried calling a few times and only got answering machines we both left messages but never heard back. SO we kept trying to call but we couldnt get through because all of the phonelines there were messed up. Elvin and I decided to go down there when he got out of work.
Our financer Ray Walsh had already gone home for the night so we were told to speak with Jim Ropella head of financing. He seemed like he really wanted to help us out but then he started to try and bully us. He said he wasnt ever going to let us keep that car and he new we werent going to get approved to buy it. He said the only option we had to buy a new car was get in a lease for 3 years. I then called my mother to get her opinion on this because I wasnt about to get screwed over 2 times from them. She was asking Jim the appropriate questions and asking why we cant keep the neon and he continued be very childish and immature and rude to my mother.
Needless to say we turned down the lease they offered and asked for our money back. Jim said he would be sending us a reciept and the money would be back in our account in 2-3 days. We waited until Friday to call them and ask about our money because it still hadnt come in. Elvin spoke with Jim again and he said he had thought it had been taken care of he said he'd call us back. He never did. SO Elvin called him back that night and he told Elvin our credit card information was misplaced so Elvin gave him everything again Jim said he'd call us after he put everything through. He never did.
SO Saturday morning I called Jim and spoke with him again and he said he was going over to the cashier right now and he'd call me back and then hung up on me. I never heard back. SO today Monday February 11th I called back again, this Time I tried to call the cashier and she was busy so I spoke with another man and he said he'd call back shortly. He never did. So i called again and finally spoke with the cashier, she said the money would be in my account tomorrow.
So for about 6 days my $2,200 has been sitting god knows where because this company is awful. It has also really delayed me in finding another car because I didnt have the money to put down. My Salesman Josh is still emailing me and trying to bully me into buying a car from them. I will never do business with them again and I hope everyone who does choose to go there is weary of them. If you do homework after they try to screw you over they treat you like crap.
This is my first time buying a car from a dealership and they have completely drained me and made it an awful experience. I just want everyone to learn from my experience from them. I hope no other young nieve couples go in there without an experienced car buyer with them.
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