I went in to buy a used vehicle at Westbury Toyota in October. I knew the finance manager, Luis Valdez, personally and trusted that I would not be cheated. I selected 2006 Nissan XTerra priced at $12,750. I put $3000 down and we began the process. Luis told me the payments would be $334 a month for 5 years... WHAT??? He explained that with taxes, fees and financing the numbers add up. He told us to put $1000 more and he would see what he could do. He stepped out and came back saying that since the car did not have a warranty Toyota wanted 12% financing and that since they could not lower the price of the vehicle that they would "GIVE ME" a warranty and my interest would go down. We gave the $4000 and were told $270 per month. Two days later I decided to read over all the documents and found out that I was being charged $3000 for 2 warranties. A Service warranty and a Maintenance warranty. I went to Luis' office to make the claim. "Why didn't you tell me you were charging me for the warranties?" he answered, "I always sell them this way, if I explain the charges you will get more confused... I did you a favor by saving you 6.1% on your interest rate... If you remove the warranties your interest rate will be 12%".
So I felt I had no choice and left. My mother went to her local bank and obtained a loan to payoff the balance of the vehicle, minus the warranties. Ended up with $307 per month for 3 years. So she went to Luis' office to request the warranties be cancelled immediately. He gave her a piece of paper requesting the cancellation through Toyota Financing. I called them to verify it and expained what had happened. They explained that "If the car does not have a warranty, it does not effect your ability to obtain financing nor does it effect your interest rate". Also, they gave me the telephone number to Toyota Corp. And suggested that I file a complaint against Westbury Toyota and Luis Valdez. I called and they contacted the delaership. However, it would be up to the dealership, how to "handle the situation".
I called Luis a few days later to give him a piece of my mind and he was very angry with me... He said. "I expected more from you. I know you called Totoya to complain about me... You never worked for a bank, you don't know what it takes to finance a vehicle and I never said it would effect your interest rate, you lied and it's your word against mine"... He has no remorse. I've had to make atleast 10-15 phone calls to the Financing company to make sure everything was credited and paidoff. I paid interest on that money because it took over 7 weeks to obtain the credits. I have not been able to enjoy the car because it has brought be so much grief. I also filed a complaint with the District Attorneys office in Nassau County and they pawned it off to the State Attorney Generals office and the fraud charges were refused. These dealerships say and do whatever they want without even as much as a slap on the wrist... Beware!!!
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