I am a recent current customer of DriveTime (Van Nuys)- and I feel that there needs to be an investigation launched in their car purchasing and repair practices. They claim to have done inspections on the vehicles before they sale them however, my car was sold to me with less than 20% brake pads - and ruined front rotors (I didn't find out about the rotors until later). I did mention the breaks to them the night as well as expressing that even the break pedal goes to the floor when stopping.in turn, they wrote in my file that they would be responsible for fixing my breaks.
I was sent to one of their local mechanics (JS Auto) in the area - who argued with me regarding the breaks Telling me everything looked fine to him and because of my persistence he called DriveTime, and unhappily replaced the front and rear breaks and didn't say anything regarding the rotor. Later that week I noticed a grinding type noise and feeling in the front end, plus a loud squeaking sound coming from the front right tire. I immediately contacted the manager (Omead) and the dealership only to be brushed off once again.
On that weekend I had a near death experience when my car when off of the road with my kids inside and once I got out to look one of my wheels was leaning then I learned that the mechanic had forgotten 3 lug nuts on the right front tire, only two was holding. I was towed to the nearest Pep Boys and there I explained to the manager what happen and asked him to remove every hub cap so that all of the lug nuts could be checked, and we found that only one of the lug nuts was tightened on the left front tire the rest was loose. The manager at Pep Boys fixed the problem and wrote a statement for me. And the break pedal still went to the floor.
I was so upset, while I was waiting for my car to be repaired, I contacted the manager (Omead) He had the nerve to tell me that I was not their fault because I took my car to an outside vendor. I was furious! What outside vendor? I took my car to the shop that not only they told me to, but the one that was written on my finance papers as well. I decided to go over his head and contacted the district manager who happens to be much more professional and is attempting to take care of the problem However, my car has been in the shop more than I have had it. I've only made one payment and that payment was made the same week I went off of the road.
I would like for DriveTime to be investigated. Yesterday, the tow truck driver that picked up my car says that it's happening to at least 90% of their customers either before their first car payment or right after. Problems range from Transmission, brakes and or engine oil burning issues. He says the reason behind it is because they just simply get the best-looking cars from various auctions and resale them with Minimal Inspections. He also stated that all he does is pick up DriveTime customer cars for repair.
This is absolutely ridiculous and needs to be brought to the attention of every consumer. Preying on the quote, Lower-Income consumers and or Less than perfect credit consumers (this is how they refer to their customers on their site) is not right and illegal.
I guess this is why they try to make you sign the Arbitration Agreement because they already know what we are in store for.
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