Auto Line
Bait & Switch Sales / Delay in Returning Deposit / Hugely Inflated Prices and Fees

This is specifically for the Budget Lot. Me and my wife were lookingfor a cheap cash car to drive for just a couple of months. We werefirst lured by their Bait & Switch routine which includes nothaving a single vehicle on their lot that is on their web page and viceversa. The only exceptions are the cars that have been there way toolong! We just gave them info for what we were looking for and left. Asalesperson, Chris, calls us up and says they just got a ton of carsthat are in our range. We get there and there are 0 cars near ourrange. Then he says he can get us financing but it will take three daysto get an answer cause of the weekend. We test drove a 00 Cavalier thathad broken gauges and more lights lit up then a Christmas tree.

Also, just one of the tires was worn to almost nothing while the other 3 werealmost new. It looked like I was going 25mph the whole time. Theywanted $4500 for this car when its excellent bluebook condition isaround $2900. They couldn't guarantee that they could fix it in atimely matter so we decided on their 00 Neon. We just wanted to see ifwe would be approved for financing for just a couple of thousand sincethey would not budge on their inflated prices. They wanted $2500 downbefore they would even run the application and had us fill out a"worksheet" which is apparently where they hide their almost $700dealer fee in small print. When they put the numbers on paper, theyapparently lumped this fee into the TTT (tax, tag & title) headinghoping most people are too stupid to figure out an almost 15% markup. Since we used a debit card for the payment we were told they could cutus a check for that amount right away if the deal didn't work out toour satisfaction. They were closing so they had us signing everythingquickly with about 5-6 people standing around us distracting us bytelling stories about the cars previous owner.

It was at this time thatDonnie (takes apps but has no real authority obviously) created asignature line by hand on the bottom of the "worksheet" for my wife tosign thus making it look like we were told about the dealer fee, whenin fact they went out of their way to hide it. After doing someresearch and receiving their call for our approved application, I askedwhy they inflate their prices about 25% over bluebook value and wherethey get off charging a dealer fee that equates to 15% of the carvalue. A neon that should have been about $3000 was being sold to usfor about $5,500. Josh (i believe he is the manager) said if I don't buyit, the next person will and that if we had more money or bettercredit, then maybe we could work out a deal. I asked to cancel the dealand get our deposit back because we were obviously being ripped off. Hecalled back and said we could get the check that afternoon but the girlwho signs the checks ended up needing blood work or something so theypushed it back to the next day. Then they said it wasn't on their booksyet, so they pushed it back another day.

After 3 days of this they toldmy wife they would have it by 2pm. I went to the main lot to demand toknow why they kept pushing back the time when we could get a check. They called over to the budget lot and Donnie told them to have me comeover there to pick it up. I crossed the street and was greeted by asmartass who thinks pulling nothing out of his pocket and saying "if Ihad your check I'd give it too you" is the correct way to talk to acustomer and not expect me to get mad. The they acted like they hadbeen doing me some magnificent favor by taking advantage of my limitedfunds and poor credit to rape me in the wallet. BEWARE!!! This place isfull of half-wit wannabe car salesman who follow the age old tactics oftaking advantage of helpless, trusting people. I hear their regularused lot is fine, but avoid the budget lot at all costs. Stick toprivate sellers cause Auto Line does not even look at their cars before theyfirst try to sell them.

Company: Auto Line
Country: USA
State: Florida
City: Atlantic Beach
Address: 2059 Mayport Rd
Phone: 9042428007
Site: autolinepreowned.com

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