Our nightmare began in August. We were expecting our 4th child and I had many medical problems that prevented me form working at times. I was on medical leave from my company and went to Ugly Duckling to purchase a minivan for our family.
We went to meet with a sales person and told them our credit was not great but we both had long term positions and really needed a dependable family vehicle. I stressed to the sales person that I would be the primary driver and the children would be with me 90% of the time so I did nt want a peice of junk. We looked at at a 1996 Plymouth Voyager with about 74k miles on it. We drove the vehicle and it "seemed" to be just what we were looking for. The sales person told us that we could bring the car back to him if there were any problems with it under 90 days.
Well maybe he meant 90 seconds because the next week we went back beacuse the brakes were making this terrible sound. We were told that they would look at it but we would have to take care of the cost ourselves. After my husband talked with a manager there, we were told to bring the car back to another machanic off site and he would check them. Well he did not find anything.
We eventully took the car to Pep Boys and paid $176.00 for brake repair. Approximately 3 weeks after we purchased the car, right after we dropped off our 1st payment, we (my spouse, my pregnant self, and 2 of our children) were driving on Windy Hill Road in Marietta when the car just stopped. The engine just quit. Thank GOD we were not hit.
We called "the Duck" and told them to send a tow truck to get the van and get us back to our home. Oh did I mention it was about 80 something degrees and I was about 8 1/2 months pregnant. They told us it was our responsibilty to get the car to them, because it was Saturday, no one could look at it until Monday. We paid for the tow truck, paid for a cab to a nearby friend and our frien took us home. I then paid for a rental for the weekend, and was very upset. They fixed the car on Monday or so I thought but about a week afterwards it happened again.
The day my husband took me and our new son home the car stopped, the day I was taking him to the doctor it stopped and then I stopped dealing with it. Whenever I dropped off a payment I wrote on it "Life sucks with a car that does not work" They harassed me at my job, threatened me but nothing they could say was more threatening than driving that vehicle. I took them their vehicle back and I knew it woudl not improve my credit but it probably saved my life.
There is a bright side, I went to JOHN BLEAKLEY FORD, in Douglasville, Georgia. And met with a wonderful man named Charles Nance. I told him my story and told him my credit was not great and told him that I needed a DEPENDABLE vehicle for my most cherished possessions adn I am proud to say that I purchased a 2002 Dodge Durango SLT, it was a program car and had only 17k miles on it.
Don't think that you have to depend on the duck because you don't think you can get a new vehicle.
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