I contacted the company via email to ask if they could preapprove my wife for a car before she came in to the lot so that she wouldn't be upset the deal went sour. I received a response via phone and email and was told they could absolutely do that, and further, we would only be shown vehicles that they were positive the bank would approve.
The woman sent me another email asking some basic questions so that she could run the credit, to which I responded to so that the process could begin. Later that day I was contacted back being told they could absolutely work with my wife and wanted to set up an appointment to come in, to which I verified we would only see cars that would be approved and met a certain criteria of what my wife wanted (compact, four door, automatic, Japanese, and under warranty.) I later made an appointment that I now completely regret.
I went in to my appointment time and was immediately handed off to a "Financial Advisor" who is NOTHING more than a salesman, one whom was completely unknowledgable about not only what I was looking for, but also lacked basic knowledge about the cars on such things as warranty coverage.
After spending about an hour being shown some ridiculous printed book about credit, how credit works, good and bad scores (the salesman said anything under a 640 credit score is BAD?!?!! And would only be approved by one bank *note this fact later) we finally went out to look at some cars. Of couse, none of them were what I was looking for.
First, I was shown a 2006 PT Cruiser with 30k some-off miles. Not an import, no way. Then I was shown a 2006 Ford Taurus, again, not an import and not a compact, no way. Then, I was shown a two-door Hyundai MANUAL transmission, you see where this is going...
So we go back inside after I tell him those would not work, and after some more time I get the finance manager, who after talking for some time and doing a bunch of paperwork, says he won't show me anything I cannot get approved on and then comes up with a 2006 Toyota Corolla with 27k miles, blue book $15,200, I might add. I see it, like it, and tell them to run the numbers. Of course, it's too late by this time and am told to come back tomorrow.
I show up the next day at 3:45pm, and of course they had not contacted the bank yet, good grief. So after wasting another hour, they finally tell me three banks did not approve it and there was one left to try... Hmmm... Remember the whole thing the salesman said about one one bank would approve someone under 640 fico? Yeah, you guessed it, the last bank came back with an approval for my wife but would NOT approve her for the Corolla. Mind you that we had a 2002 Mazda Protege LX with 75k miles and a blue book trade-in of GOOD at $4600 with a payoff of $3600; PLUS, we were going to put down $1000 cash.
The finance manager says they would only approve it with $3000 down and a monthly payment of $325 at 72 months at 18.99%, plus, they would only give us $2,800 for our car and "No way would we be able to give the payoff amount." Hmmm... So let's do the math, that's $23,400 PLUS $3000 cash for a $15k car that they probaby paid about $9k for.By the way, they refused to tell me what the sales price of the car was. They then told me they could get her a Chevy Cobalt 2006 for the $1000 down.
My wife works for the city with over 1 year on the job, and has made good payments on her car of $310 per month for four years straight.
It's my opinion they lied about turning the offer into more than one bank as I firmly believe they only use one bank for all of their customers. They lied about only showing me cars that could be approved. They use bait and switch tactics to sell you a car.
Bottom line, they COULD have got us the car for terms I would agree with IF they would price their vehicles honestly and give me an HONEST trade-in value; steer clear of this company as all they will try to do is Rip You Off.
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