I went to Drive Time to buy a vehicle on April 25 since I needed a car. I didn't have a way to get to the dealership so Russell Gremillion who is the Sales Associate offered to drive down to my house and pick me up since I had no other way of getting there. The reason why I trusted him is because I had tried to get a vehicle from Don Jackson Mitsubishi in Union City, GA and was approved for a loan.
But Ronnie Hamilton, who is the Sales Associate there sent me to Drive Time and he knows Russell well. They sold me a 2002 Ford Focus ZTS and they overcharged me $6,359.00 more than the car was worth and with an interest rate of 21.5% the total sales price was $21,364.93.
Being that my credit is poor and I really needed transportation to get back and forth to work, I figured I would pay it off in a few years. So I drove the vehicle home since I felt obligated because I was picked up and brought there.
Then on July 21 I got into an accident and totaled the vehicle. I was insured with First Acceptance and after they had told me my car was totaled, they only paid what the car was worth minus the $500.00 deductible. That was when I found out that Drive Time does not offer Gap Insurance and that they screwed me.
Now at this point I have no other choice but to go back to Drive Time and have them put me into another vehicle. If I go somewhere else to buy a car the remainder of the loan will be tacked on to a new car loan. My roommate talked to Russell Gremillion and he said that he was going to write off the rest of the loan and then put me into another car.
But I will get overcharged a second time and put into the same exact car that I had. The 2002 Ford Focus ZTS is only worth $7,940.00 in the Kelley Blue Book and Drive Time charged me $14,299.00 which is almost double. I want to know if they can get away with doing that. Because I really know for a fact that they took advantage of me.
My concern is that they may fall back on their word and try to tack the $7,000 on to the new loan making my car payments $700/month. I do not trust Drive Time and feel that I shouldn't have to be obligated to go back to a place that took advantage of me. What they charged me for that car I could have bought two cars for that price because even a brand new Focus isn't worth that much in the Kelley Blue Book.
I know that part of this is my fault because I never researched on the car and signed the contract being that I was stuck there and had no way of getting home. But even if Drive Time could get away with overcharging their customers double what the cars are worth, they need to get real and get gap insurance.
Also another thing they told me after I bought the car is that I had 30 days to come up with more funds to reduce the interest rate and lower my bi-weekly payments. But they never told me about the APR rate.
My roommate figured out that $700 more down would have only brought my payments down $7.00. If I had let them trick me like that, I would have put myself even more in debt than I already was.
This is why I feel very uncomfortable to have to go back to Drive Time. I feel that if they took advantage of me, then I should have the right to go somewhere else and buy a used car without getting ripped off the way I did.
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