My husband and I don't have the best of credit since we recently decided to let our expensive house go and move into a much more affordable apartment. I had a car that I bought 2 1/2 years ago, but my parents actually signed the loan and I was only listed as owner of collateral on the loan docs, which means pretty much nothing! My parent's told us they were filing bankruptcy and that I had to surrender my car and that I had a week to do it. Nice, I know! So I immediately start looking for a car to replace the one I had almost paid off!
I contacted Navigator dealer group through an ad they had on Craigslist.com. It was an ad for a Ford Escape. I spoke with Clay who told me all their cars come with a warranty and all their cars go through a vigorous 100 point inspection and it it doesn't pass, it doesn't go on their lot! They also back all their cars with a full 3 year bumper to bumper warranty (LIAR! It turned out to be a 1 year LIMITED warranty after the papers were signed!). He said the Escape was a great little car and to come down and check it out that they were having a special "$100-$300 down delivers" (this was advertised on craigslist as well). Well I was wanting something a little bigger, but I know with our credit we can't be too picky, but Clay was nice enough to explain that they had several different lots and that he would look around for me. He said if he didn't have something we wanted he had a friend and a cousin who had buy here, pay here lots as well and that we would find me something that worked somewhere even if it wasn't from him... Nice Guy! HA!
I needed to wait for my husband to get home before going down to the dealership because it's not in the best neighborhood. Clay told me he could do a pre-approval over the phone before we got there so we weren't wasting our time if we weren't even going to get approved. He called me back, and we were approved! Once my husband and I got down to the dealership we were told that the Ford Escape was $1000 down, well we only had $500 and what happened to $100-$300?!?!? I proceed down the road to Oak Motors and started looking around there. While I'm there I get a text message from Clay that they just got in a Pontiac G6 and were going to be getting an 05 Impala the next day. I ask him to send me details on the G6 and he tells me it's super clean, low miles, 4 cyl so it's better on gas, black, cd player, everything! So I grab my hubby and we head on down there.
Once I'm down there my husband looks over the G6 and the paint is just scratched on every inch of this car! I take him over and show him the cute little Escape I had talked to Clay about before since he doesn't like the G6. While looking at the Escape Clay comes out and tells us that the 05 Impala they just got in is up front. He tells us it's clean, very low miles, and has every option available except for a sun roof. Well I keep trying to tell my husband about the Escape because I really don't want to have to go back to a car if I don't have to. Clay starts telling my husband about how crappy the Escape is. It's a horrible car with all kinds of issues and it shakes and shimmys all over the road once you hit 60mph.
This is where I start thinking, okay, well if all your cars are put through this "vigorous 100 pt. Inspection" how did this piece of junk end up on your lot???
We go over and look at the Impala. It does NOT have every option available, it has a cd player. That's about the only option it had unless you consider cigarette burns an upgrade. It does have low miles, only 46,600, so not bad there. The outside does have some dents and scratches, but nothing major like the G6 had. I absolutely hate Chevy Impala's so I make my husband test drive everything else on the lot just so I know that even though I hate the car, it is the best one we can function in on the lot. I'm the type of person that if I don't drive all the others and I just buy the one I hate, I'll always wonder "what if" about the other cars they had on the lot.
We go ahead with the Impala even though we were told we had to have a min. Of $750 down, not $100-$300, and we only had $500. They go back and forth and finally come in and say that the bank accepted it with $500 down so we're good.
I'm told that they have this great down payment program where I make 2 payments toward my down payment (every two weeks) and that after I make the last down payment-payment that I had 30 days before my first car payment is due so I have some time to kind of re-coup from coming up with so much down payment. We sign papers and as things are being explained to me I'm told that I make a payment in two weeks of $200 and another 2 weeks after that. Okay, no problem. Then he tells me my first car payment is due 2 weeks after my last down payment. I ask him what happened to 30-days and he says, well I thought it was like that, but I was wrong. Sorry. Whatever, I'm just so tired of all the lies and bs, I just want to go home.
We get home with the Impala and 3 days later the transmission starts jerking terribly. I'm told that I have a warranty, but I have to pay $35 for them to diagnosis the problem and if there isn't one, I'm out $35, if there is one they fix it. I get ready to drive the car down to hand them even more money and the transmission is no longer jerking. Well I just forget about it, figure it's a freak thing and move on. The car drives fine all day and all day the next day. Now the 5th day of owning the car it starts doing it again! I have my husband drive it to make sure I'm not just crazy since this has been a come and go issue and it does it for him to. He tells me to take it into the dealership in the morning. Well surprise, surprise it's not doing it the next day. I still have no idea what the deal is with this car, the issues come and go so much I can't ever show a mechanic what it's doing because it will only do it a day at a time!
Today, 1 week and 4 days after buying the car, my husband gets a text message from Clay. It says "It's Clay at the dealership. I need the phone to your landlord asap. Sorry to bug you but my boss is threatening me and said he needs that or the car." Well alrighty then, no one ever asked for it or we would have been happy to give it to them, no need to threaten! Then before we can answer the text message we get a call from a friend of ours that we put down as a reference. He asks if everything is okay with our new car cause Clay has called him 4 times in the last 20 minutes. He was at work so didn't answer the first three calls, but answered the 4th time thinking it was something important. My husband is talking to our friend telling him about the text message we just got and now, my phone starts going off. Clay is calling my phone. I answer and tell him I'm fine with giving him my landlords number, but I want to speak to a manager because all the lying that was done already and now the threatening I'm rather irritated. He says "well, all I need is the number" and I said that's fine, I'll give it to your manager when he calls. He starts to repeat, all I need is the number. At this point I just hang up and wait on the manager to call me.
Now the texting starts...
Clay—"please understand that this is nothing I control. They just need the phone number for verification purposes"
Me— "have your manager call me"
Clay—"I've always shown sympathy towards ur situation and been respectful. I'd never intentionally ignore something like this"
Me—"Okay, just have your manager call me"
Clay—"He is going to call u. I'm just saying he'll still have to have the number."
Me—"and that's fine. I'm more than willing to give it to him"
Clay—"I am. I just want u to understand I've done everything to help and I hope u don't hold anything personally against me it just seems like ur pissed at me."
At this point I can't keep texting the same thing over and over again so I quit texting and just wait for the managers phone call. Clay continues texting me...
"So ur upset with me personally?"
"I just let him know to call u. So he should be soon. U know I'm sorry about this."
First of all, can we say seriously close to stalker status! Second, I'm not this guys friend, I only spoke to him about cars he had on his lot, and I haven't spoken to him since we drove the Impala off the lot! Why he cares if I'm upset with him personally I don't know, but I think it's very inappropriate and scary to say the least!
The manager finally calls. He is rather short and snaps at me that all he needs in my landlords phone number now. And I ask him, why is it no one has said anything to me in almost 2 weeks? No one said anything when I called and made a payment on Friday! He says well I know you should have gotten a phone call the next day about this, actually we never should have let you leave the lot until we had the number. I explain to him I understand all that, but the way to go about fixing their mistake isn't to send my husband a threatening text message, the number or the car. With all the other lying they did and now this, it really isn't looking good for their dealership. And he tells me that he apologizes that we weren't asked for the number sooner and he doesn't know what to say about the text messages, but the bottom line is I got a good car when no one else would give me one so he doesn't know what to tell me. I was just floored! Are you seriously being rude and nasty to me because your salesman screwed up the paperwork?!?!? Since texting is apparently their prefered method of communication and it's like pulling teeth to get someone to call you, I sent a text to Clay and told him "just let your manager know that after what was just said and done that he should be looking for my report on your dealership on usacomplaints.com and with the better business bureau" and he sends back "I really have no idea what happened or what's going on."
Bottom line, this dealership will approve you for a car, but seems to think that because you're in a bad credit situation that you should just shut up and be grateful for whatever they give you and that you got anything at all. Apparently having a bad credit score also gives them right to treat you like dirt.
I understand that beggars can't be choosers, but I don't think that just because you have bad credit means you deserve to be treated like crap, lied to, and taken advantage of! My husband and I get up and go to work every day just like they, and the rest of America, do so why do they think they are better than us? I had perfect credit, until we let our house go in November. We are filing bankruptcy, but that doesn't help our current vehicle situation.
They got a total of a $900 down payment, and after our 21% interest and $175 bi-weekly payments for the next 4 years, a grand total of $19,100 for a 2005 Chevy Impala with an illusive transmission issue! Oh, and if our payment is 3 days late, they have a GPS device in the car that will disable it and give them the exact whereabouts of the vehicle to come repo it, AFTER 3 DAYS!!
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