Let's begin at the beginning. My husband bought his first car ever through J.D. Byrider in 2000. It was a 1998 Pontiac Sunbird convertible, and being a 20 year old with already questionable credit he was relieved and happy to even get such a "nice" car. Three years, and several hundred dollars in repairs later, we finally had to get rid of the car, without the coverage of the 18 month warranty, we just couldn't afford to have the engine replaced that third time!
So we call our "good friends" over at Byrider... Sure, they'd take a dead car as a trade in, no money down needed. So we go in. After filling out an hour's worth of paperwork, we find out that my husband's credit isn't good enough to get a new car without a co-signer! That's a little odd I thought... Didn't he get the last car without one? Oh, well. So we spend another hour or so filling out our life stories on paper hoping that we could just get a car and get the heck out of there. According to our "credit score" we didn't qualify for just any car on the lot, so they pull 3 cars from the "back lot" for us to choose from, saying these were all we could afford. After settling on one that wasn't in too bad of shape we spent another 2 hours signing our names before finally getting our keys and a boot out the door.
Low and behold, car number two spends the next 2 and a half years in and out of the shop, sometimes at their expense, most of the time at ours. Hours upon hours sitting in the waiting room, because we were a one car family. Finally, near the end of year three, the oldsmobile bites it for good, again, we just can't afford the repairs, or being without a car for a week. So, we trade it in again.
This time for a '02 Montana. It's a nice van, except for the alignment problems, but they'll take care of all that after signing, at no charge, because we're such good customers. The signing again takes almost a day, leaving at around 8pm, with us paying $14,000 dollars for a four year old van with almost 24% interest, because our credit is so bad. Oh, well. What can you do, J.D. Byrider is the only choice for someone in our situation right?
After about a month of taking the van in for the same alignment problem, another month of taking it in for starter problems, and two more trips to fix the driver side window, we finally got the van working properly.
Then the passenger window stopped working.in the middle of winter it was stuck down. The solution? They got the window back up, and disabled the motor so it wouldn't roll down anymore. Fixing the passenger window isn't under the warranty. So we don't use the passenger window anymore... Not a big deal.
Then last week the van got totaled. A driver turning left wasn't paying attention, and ran right into the driver side rear door of the van. The insurance company tells us what they're giving us, and it's enough to pay off the van, or pretty close. J.D. Byrider tells us that if it's not quite enough, that they'll "forgive" the difference as long as we buy another car through them, but I want to shop around. I submit our information to a local dealership without any real hope of them giving us credit. They call me back, and even at the worst our interest rate is HALF of what J.D. Byrider was giving us. So, we go look at cars. We find a 2006 Montana that we like, and the interest rate is even better! As a matter of fact, our credit is pretty good, on the higher end of the scoring system!
So, despite all the times they told us our credit was bad, it turns out it's not that bad after all.
Word to the wise. Know your credit score, and don't buy your car at J.D. Byrider.
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