I went to drivetime to buy a car or truck. I traded in my 94 Nissan and received 800 dollars credit, plus I had to put 500 down so a total of 1,300 dollars for a dodge grand caravan 06. It was what I wanted and at first the salesman wanted and kept putting pressure on me to buy this 01 mazda. When he started the car a belt flew off from under the car. I said NO, thank you. So he then wanted me to look at an oldsmobile. I did not like the car, frankly it was not my style and it was as big as a boat, something that perhaps an older man would drive. I really wanted the caravan and it was the same price as this oldsmobile they were almost trying to force me to buy.
The mgr finally said OK for me to get the caravan. The payments were 450 a month. Kind of high, but to be paid every two weeks so it split the payments up to around 225 bi-weekly. My credit was not great but they approved me. The van itself they were asking 14,500 for. I didn't know much about cars and figured it was a fair price. After the loan, I would end up paying 27,000 for this van. I figured I could work and save and be able to pay off the loan early.
I had the van in October 15 through November 11th it
ran fairly good with no problems. One morning, I was driving to work when the van started to lunge back and forth on the highway. Finally the engine just died! I got help to push it to the side of the road. I called Drivetime to ask what I needed to do because the van was still under warranty. They told me to call a tow truck, that they did not offer towing and I should of got towing through my insurance company. I ended up calling a tow truck to tow it home.
I then called drivetime back and spoke with a rude woman who told me that it was not her problem the van broke and to call the 1-800 dtrepair line. I called the DTrepair line and spoke to a man who told me I would need to tow the van to the appointed repair shop in my city. I live in a large metro area but the ONLY repair shop was almost 50 miles away. I informed him that to tow the van there would cost me about 100 dollars or more. He also required me to have the van there by 7am. I informed him that I work until 8 am and with traffic, towing and distance, I couldn't get it there any sooner than 10. He said that there is nothing they can do, 7am or it can't be put into the system for repair.
Angry, I called the manager of the dealership where I bought the van. He said he would see what he could do and call me back within an hour.
Two days passed and no one called me back, so I called them again and they said the manager was in a meeting and would call me back by the end of the day. No call back. I called AGAIN and was told the manager was no here today, she took my message and promied he would call back first thing in the morning. No call back. The van has not been running now for over a week. I continued to play phone tag with this manager and coperate office for a MONTH.
Finally a manager called me back and told me he would personally have a tow company come out and tow the van for me and not to worry. He said he would call back within 2 days to arrange it. Well, one WEEK went by and no one called me. I called back many times and was told everything from the manager is on vacation, to the manager is on an emergency meeting in Denver. I never received a call back about the towing. Finally, I stopped making payments on the van as I wasn't going to pay for this hunk of junk that didn't run.
The day I was late with my payment, the phone blew up with calls demanding payment. I told the lady my situation who called and she finally got a hold of the manager from the dealership. He told me he could pick up the van next week. I said OK and made the payment. Again, I went through phone tag when no one called or showed up to pick the van up.
Finally after stopping the payments again and almost TWO MONTHS of leaving messages and getting the runaround. The manager called and informed me he would be sending out someone to tow the van and fix it today but that the warranty h as ran out and I would have to pay parts, labor on the repairs. At this point I told him to shove it up his you know what and he said no no I will come pick it up and it will be fixed, we can tack on the parts, labor onto your loan. I told him FORGET IT and he started toargue with me. I finally hung up. Stopped the payments and 4 MONTHS later, they came and repo the van.
They are now demanding the full amout 13,500 and services charges. Drivetime is a ripoff and anyone with bad credit should just save and pay cash for a good car. Don't go here, they are con artists!!!
Midnightradio
san antonio, Texas
U.S.A.
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