Well I am going to tell you a nice detail of what has happened to us so far. Sorry ahead of time if it is really long.
In December of one of my husbands friends asked him if he would co-sing a note for a 2004 Chevy Cavalier at Deter Motor Co. We talked it over, and I did not want him to, but they have been buddies for a long time and his friend has helped us out in the past so my husband felt he needed to.
On December 22, my husband, Ricky, and his friend, Glen, arrived at Deters to sign the papers on the new car. At that time the finance lady, Lindsay DeVore, told them that GMAC would not approve the loan with Glen on it and it had to be in Ricky's name only. They said they would do that, but wanted to know if the car could still be insured and registered in Glen's name. Lindsay said yes. So, Ricky said they would go ahead with the deal.
Glen put down a $500.00 down payment. $150.00 in cash and $350.00 my husband wrote the check for and Glen would pay back later. The purchase price of the vehicle was $10,700.00. With the down payment and the $1000.00 rebate that brought the price to $9200.00. After taxes and license fees, the amount financed would be $9907.00
Everything went fine for a couple of weeks. We received the plates in the mail (that was included in the loan) and all was great.
After about 2 1/2 weeks of Glen driving the car around someone from Deters called us and told us that financing had not gone through. We asked why? Lindsay said that GMAC would not approve the loan unless Ricky was going to have possession of the car. They said they would look for alternate financing. Everything fine? Heck no! Scott Deter himself called us and said that they needed the car back and they could not get financing.
I thought this was very funny considering we have been financed for a 2004 Ford Mustang and a 2004 Ford F-150.
We said fine we will just bring the car back and you give us our down payment back. We have done that before a few years ago when financing did not go through on a Ford Expedition. Scott Deter said it is not that simple anymore. We asked why? He said that the car had been titled and plated already so he could not just take it back and sell it new. He would take it back, but it would have to be sold as used. He also stated that since it would be sold as used that whatever they sold it for Ricky would have to pay the difference from the new price.
Now I thought how is that fair? I thought that it was no fault of ours that the car had been plated. That Deters had prematurely plated the car before financing was "officially" approved.
Well, Scott Deter said not my problem bring the car back. Now me being spiteful, said to my husband that the car is in our your name and there is no lien, why should we take it back. Later on we decided we did not even want the car and Glen was so frustrated at this point, he did not want it either. Glen thought we were pulling a fast one on him trying to rip him off, so he was mad at us.
We called Scott back and said you can have your car just give us our down payment. He said no, I want my car and I am keeping the down payment to make up part of the difference that he was going to lose now.
Well, my husband instantly called the bank and asked if the check had gone through yet. They said no so he put a stop payment on it, but Glen was still out $150.00. Wouldn't you know it, Deters deposited the check that day. Well it got back to our bank a few days later and someone there marked it wrong and sent it back non-sufficient funds. Then Scott Deter called us and said we passed a bad check. We said no we did not we put a stop payment on it, and that we would call the bank. Well our back called Deters and said it was marked wrong. He told our banker oh well you marked it NSF and I am filing charges. Our banker called us and said if anything comes of this that they would sign a statement for us.
Well, finally on January 23, we decided to take the car back to Deters. Scott met us there. Since the car was still in Ricky's name we had Deters sign a statement saying as long as they had possession of the car they were responsible for any and all damages or anything that could possibly happen to the car since we were taking our insurance off. It also said that it would stay in their garage until the matter was resolved. It was parked that day with 1467 miles on it.
A few days later we received a letter from Deters saying we owe $11,257.00 on the car. That was the purchase price plus the taxes and titling fee included minus only the $150.00 down payment. The letter said we had until February 3, to get our own financing.
We went a spoke with an attorney and people at GMAC and they both told us the same thing. That Deters does not have a leg to stand on because the should not have plated the car when they did. So we just brushed it off.
A month later Scott Deter shows up at our home and said we needed to sign a form giving him permission to sell the car, but again we would have to pay the difference. We said no way are we signing anything for him, he does not have a case at all. He said well if you want to play that way that he would get a judgment for the car against us and put a lien on our house. We asked him to leave the property immediately. He did. We did not heart anything thing from him for four months.
My sister, whom i do not speak with, but maybe once a year went car shopping in June. She apparently went to Deters and saw a car she liked. I was at my mother's house when she showed up to show my mom the car she was going to buy. I was in shock when I realized that it was the same car the we had almost bought months before. That was still in my husband's name as far as we new. I told her no way was she taking the car back to Deters for they had violated the contract they signed with us that it was to be garaged until the matter was resolved.
Well, they broke it, so now I was mad. I immediately called my husband and he came in from the farm to see what was going on. He called up to the courthouse and they said yes indeed the car was still in my husband's name and that there was a lien against it from Deters.
We then called Deters and asked what the heck was going on. Why are you letting people test drive the car. He stated he had full authority to because he owned the car. We said no you don't. He tried to tell us he did, by filing papers with the court to take possession from us. We again called the courthouse and they said no such papers had been filed and again stated that my husband was the owner of the car.
Next thing we know we got a call from our police department saying if we did not return the car the would arrest us for auto theft. I thought what the heck. How can we steal our own car according to DMV records. Well rather than argue with the police, because they are all corrupt (you'd understand if you lived here, big investigation in the state of Iowa into our nice little police department and county attorney, but that is another matter), we took the car to Deters and said we will se you court.
We went straight to our attorney and he advised us to wait for Deters to file and then we will throw the book at them.
Well, since then we have not heard from Deters and it is now late August. I am at my wits end on what to do on this matter. If anyone has any advice please help me out. This is driving me crazy.
On a side note, sorry it is so long already, I have one more thing to say. When we took the car back in January, shortly thereafter my husband realized his wallet was missing. When we realized it we reported the credit cards missing to the respective companies and replaced all his identification. Well during the few days some charges were made on one of our cards to ebay.com.
In June when we took the car the car back a second time Scott Deter gave us my husband's missing wallet and stated that we had left it in the car in January, and that it had been in his office ever since. We called the credit card company and told them this since we were still disputing the charges with them. Well they did their own investigation and agreed with us and finally reversed the charges, and now they are investigating which employee of Deters used our card and plan on filing charges. Gee, I wonder who did it. I have come to find out that the charges were for listing fees for a car on ebaymotors.com made and the auction seller was Deter Motors. I have also been told by some people that Deters is really hurting right now. You do the math!
Again, sorry for the book, but if anyone can help me, please do. Anything, any advice at all would be helpful at this point.
I have also come to find out that Deters is in fact listing our car for sale under their pre-owned vehicles. I is also on the website www.determotor.com. Click on pre-owned and it is listing number 423401. I love the comments they have "We sold it new, and was traded back in. Its a 5-speed! Great economy and balance of factory warranty!" What a bold face lie!!!
Thank you anyone and everyone who reads this in advance!!
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