Several years ago I was looking for a reliable used vehicle for around $5k. I went online and found a nice conversion van on Joseph Pontiac's website. I drove an hour and a half to check it out at the lot, and other than some minor repairs (that the dealership claimed they would take care of right away) it seemed to be in good condition. I decided to buy it and talked to a salesperson to find out what needed to be done. Because of my poor credit score, I knew I would have to put a fair amount of money down, so it really didn't surprise me when they wanted $2,000 down on a $5,500 vehicle. It was rather old, a '95 Astro, but had low miles and drove nice.
A few days later, I returned to the dealership with the down payment, ready to drive away within an hour or two. The salesman explained to me that they would set me up in a 3 month lease with payments of $375 a month. At the end of the 3 months I would be able to pay the van off in full for the remainder of the $5,500, which was appoximately $2,300 (they added $100 to my downpayment for some reason). After a few hours of dealing (mostly just sitting and waiting) with the salesman, I was given a book-load of papers to take to their financing department. The lady going over the lease-contract with me went as quickly as possible through each page, just pointing to every X and telling me to "sign here". It was late and I was just wanting to get out of there, so I signed after just skimming through the pages. And when I DID have a question, she was very rude and skipped ahead to the next page. Something really didn't feel right, but I really just wanted to get it done and leave this place!
After about 5 hours of waiting around, the salesman that I originally talked to came out and told me that the van was not ready, I'd have to come back tomorrow and pick it up. This was almost too much to take after all the waiting, but what could I do? So, not only did they waste my time, but also the person's time who gave me a ride to the dealership!
The next day I went back to the dealership and, after waiting for at least 2 more hours for them to finish fixing something, the van was finally ready.
Three months went by and I had made all 3 payments on time and was ready to go pay off the van and be done with this terrible dealership. This is when I found out that everything the salesman AND finance department had told me was all LIES! They had already made out the papers for my NEW lease that would last for the next 2 years! To make a long story short, I either had to sign into the new lease, or return the van and STILL owe money on it! After a bunch of heated conversations that went nowhere, I signed the papers and left feeling sick! I ended up paying over $11,000 for an Astro van that was 11 years old! And during this 2-year period, I had nothing but problems with the van that were supposed to be covered with some guarantee they said came with the lease. They helped with absolutely NOTHING on the repairs (except for a problem with the steering column, which they broke while trying to fix something else). And there are many other horror stories of my experience with this business, but I don't feel like wasting any more time regarding them.
I hope this helps keep ANYONE who reads it from falling victim to these scammers. They are by far the worst dealership I have ever dealt with and I can't believe they are still in business! The owner has multiple lawsuits against him, owes about $100,000 in taxes he didn't pay, and they continue to lie to their customers every single day!
Avoid Joseph Pontiac (or any of their other dealerships) at all costs!!! Because in the end, it WILL cost you a fortune!
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