Comments on: Fraud Is Rampant In Auto Sales Industry, Consumer Group Warns

By: j.f.

j.f. — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 10:39:29 +0000

Boy do I have a whopper to tell. I bought a 1997 dodge neon from this dealership here in Honolulu Hawaii, JN Chevrolet. I was just looking for a cheap back and forth to work car since the gas here is so expensive. So my wife and I both being mechanics checked out the vehicle. We could tell right off it had been in a few accidents because it had bondo in several places, but it was cheap and good on gas so we said ok. We worked the dealership over about the price, were only going to be paying about 5000 after all taxes and interest. Pretty good deal right for something we would get rid of in two years when we leave the island. So we drove off in it that night. We were told by the Military Police as we were coming on post to go home that the tags and safety inspection had expired, which we hadn’t noticed when we checked the car. So the next day we went to have the safety check done. Just as the inspector started checking it, the drivers side door wouldn’t open, the lights started flickering, the breaklights went off and a few other things. Needless to say it didn’t pass. So we called the dealership they told us to bring it in. So we headed right over there. We talked to our salesman and get this he offered to get us an “under the table” saftey inspection done. Yeah the sales guy from the dealership offered us this, then told us that all the people he’d gotten them for had gotten caught. Now first of all why would I get something like that illegally especially being in the military and secondly why would I do it if everyone else had been caught? DUH!!!!! So naturally I went and told the manager what his employee had just offered us. The guy still works there to this day. So then the manager says well lets find you another car and we’ll just forget about the neon like if you never bought it. So we thought ok since we wouldn’t have to worry about any of this voluntary reposession crap. So we got a 99 cavalier. It was nice but the steering popped. The manager said they would fix it but we had to wait a couple weeks because their service department was backed up. So about a week later the popping got really bad and we stopped driving it and called the dealership. We had another car through all this that we had purchased elsewhere when we came here. So the dealer said bring it in. We did and found out that the car had been in a accident and the steering column (which is colapsable to protect the driver), wasn’t replaced as it should have been they just put the pin back in, so the dealer fixed it so as not to get sued. We found out the day before we were supposed to take the car to get fixed that my brother has passed away and we had to go home for the funeral, so we took the car in and picked it up the day we got back. The very next day we went for a drive and the car overheated so bad that we had to pull over and turn the heater on full blast for about an hour. We took it back to the dealer as soon as it was cooled because we were only a mile or so away. Instead of fixing it they offered to put us in yet another vehicle and they would just consider the other car a trade in since we had had the cavalier for over a month. We were very hesitant about this considering this was the second car we had to return to them because it had serious problems. But we looked around anyway. We found this really nice 2000 Dodge Dakota. We figured it’s a truck has only had one owner, and it’s newer than the two previous vehicles. We thought about it for a few hours and finally decided to go for it, you know that old saying “THIRD TIMES THE CHARM”. So we bought it in November ’04. It ran great there were no problems, we did a check for accidents there were none and we haven’t had any problems until about three weeks ago. The power steering and the rack and pinion on the truck went out WHILE I WAS DRIVING and MY WIFE AND THREE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER WERE IN THE TRUCK. The steering wheel locked and we were coming around a turn and it forced us off the road. Luckily it didn’t roll. Instead we hit a big lava rock on the passenger side. It made a big scratch on the side of the door and dented the rocker panel. Now when we bought the truck we bought the best warranty for it that covers everything (including damage caused by any kind of mechanical failure),and gap insurance for it. Well it was memorial day weekend when this happened so the warranty company wasn’t open. Well we called the dealership and they said there was nothing they could do until the warranty company told them it was ok. We thought ok this is Hawaii maybe it’s different here just like everything else. So then the following Tuesday we called the warranty place and can you believe it they didn’t even know who we are, they had no warranty information for our truck, nothing, they even checked by the vin number. I was shocked and pissed off beyond belief. We have copies of the warranty paperwork, we even have the contract for our truck where it shows that we are paying for the warranty and the gap insurance, but the company doesn’t have anything. The dealership never sent them the paperwork. We’ve had the truck for seven months which is way more than enough time to send the paperwork considering the warranty company has a branch here that is only four blocks from the dealership. Needless to say it’s beyond rediculous. So we called our military legal office about it. They told us to bring all the paperwork of course and also to bring copies of our credit report and since we had been turned down for credit we got a free copy. We printed our Experian report off the net and had a look. Wouldn’t you know the dealership screwed us there too. They reported a false address to the credit agency on my wife and myself, and not only that but they reported a different false address for each of us. Pretty crazy right? That’s not all. We still don’t have the registration for our truck, the dealership messed up the paperwork for that as well. I called the DMV about a month after we had the truck and they told me that they would check it. So about an hour later the lady calls me back and says there was something wrong between them and the dealership but they would get it fixed and we would have our registration in a week or two. Now six months later we still don’t have it. We have to keep getting temps from the dealership. And as for the warranty, they even put the wrong lienholder on the paperwork and the warranty and gap insurance are the only two documents that have the misinformation, go figure. So our lawyer called the dealership and they said they would fix the warranty and send it over to the warranty company and we could just bring our truck in and they would fix the problem but that they weren’t going to fix the body damage even though it’s clearly stated in the warranty contract that it is covered too since the cause of it was something covered by the warranty. They said they would look into it but to bring the truck down and they would get it fixed except for the body damage for now so we could atleast drive it. They also told us that we didn’t need a copy of the corrected warranty, YEAH RIGHT!!!! I told them damn right I need a copy not just for my records and as proof that I have a warranty but also so I can make sure you didn’t change the coverage we have. They flat out told us they weren’t going to give us a copy. So we decided we would go to some other dealerships and trade in the truck for a brand new vehicle so we wouldn’t have to worry about any of this anymore. Now even damaged the truck is worth 5300 trade in. Now that value is without the lava liner it has or the undercoating it has to protect from rust and the 700 dollar mud tires we had put on it two months ago. The other dealerships were just as bad as JN Chevrolet. JN had upped the price and tricked us with the documents. As I said we have a three year old and she can’t sit still so my wife and I were taking turns watching her outside the office when we were talking about the paperwork and siging it but we both asked our questions and everything so we both knew what was going on with it. So then the guy told us how much the warranty was and how much the gap was and all the taxes and all that. We were supposed to be paying a total of 16500 for the truck after all the interest and everything. So they printed the contract and my wife signed it while I was watching my daughter. Then I went in and the guy had printed a different contract with a higher price for the warranty and the gap and the taxes and price of the truck. Now I didn’t expect them to do that because my experience with dealerships back home had always been okay. So I went in there and he told me my wife hadn’t signed the contract yet and I didn’t get the chance to ask her so I looked it over and signed it. I thought that was the price we had agreed to. My wife handled most of the money talk because she’s the walking talking calculator. So I signed then he told me my wife needed to sign it and another paper so I told her that she needed to go back and sign something. So she went in and the guy told her that he had to print a new contract because I had spilt pop on it. She didn’t know I hadn’t so she glanced at it and signed assuming it was the same contract. They had raised everything and we ended up owing 19000 for the truck. We didn’t notice until we got our first statement from the bank about our payments. The payment amount was the same but we were going to be paying for longer than the dealership had told us. We also went to our attorney about that and he said there was nothing we could do since we didn’t have a copy of the original contract. I know it sounds strange that my wife wouldn’t ask me and I wouldn’t ask her about signing but we had been at that dealership since nine am and it was already almost ten pm. We were exhausted and had our new truck so we weren’t concerned with that. We should have been. But how were we to know the dealership would change the contract? As for trading the truck for a new vehicle no one wants to because they don’t want to give us fair trade in and on top of that we would have negative equity which where we are from is added onto the total price of the car, but all the dealerships we went to here said we had to put the negative amount as our down payment. Now the payoff on the truck is only 13000 but they only wanted to give us 3000 for our truck so they wanted us to have a 10000 dollar down payment. So we went back to the JN to try and resolve this and they had the nerve to say okay we’ll take the truck back as a trade in and put you in a new vehicle and they said they would add the negative equity onto the total price but like we would trust them, but we played along so we could get the warranty stuff fixed and drive a new vehicle. And OH MY GOODNESS, you would not believe it the car we wanted to drive was on the showroom floor so they had to move a couple of other cars and bring it out and the manager who was driving it hit the wall IN THE BRAND NEW TRIBUTE. He hit the wall in a 30000 dollar vehicle and expected someone to not only still want to buy it but to want to buy it without them lowering the price for the damage. We weren’t actually even considering buying it we just wanted to drive it but really this guy works at a dealership driving cars all the time and he hits the wall. But the nerve of them trying to sell us a yet another vehicle after all the shit they’ve done. They are just trying to keep us from sueing them for all that they have done. We reported them to the better business beurea. Now we are trying to pursue taking them to court but in the meantime we are trying to get rid of this truck and we may be forced to do a voluntary repo and we don’t want to do that because my husband already had identity stolen and we are still trying to get that cleared up and then to add a repo voluntary or not. Does anyone have any advice as to what we can do to get rid of this truck without repoing it?

By: bob curtis

bob curtis — Thu, 26 May 2005 17:42:27 +0000

i made a 500.00 payment to ford motor co on april 5 2005.they said this brought me current except for120.00 late fees.on may 2 2005 they called and said i was 3 months behind,how i do not know.any how i paid them 500.00 on may 5,(my pay day is evey 2 weeks)isaid i will send a payment in a couple of weeks and catch up.they called the very next day demanding payment,they have called me every day several times a day at work,at home at nite and even told my ten year old daughter that daddy better make a payment to ford or they were going to take his truck.may 24 in the middle of the night the repoed the truck and took it 150 miles from my house.i called them and they said if i paid 3 months late payment which i do not owe 1 month extra and towing and storage i could have it back.i said hell no what recourse if any do i have,any help would be apprecated i also know about add ons after hrs they jammed it to me with that one

By: chanda

chanda — Tue, 24 May 2005 12:00:56 +0000

My car was reposessed last night while I slept. Sounds ordinary right? well, no, my payment was due yesterday and I only have 2 more payments to pay it off completely. Also, when I bought the car the dealer (bud’s auto sales, Indianapolis Indiana) had agreed in front of several of my family members to have the non-working sun roof repaired very soon as a condition of me buying the car. It has been three years and the sunroof is still not repaired and the dealer wants to charge me for my $260 payment and a $500 reposession fee! what do I do? He pulled this scam on my last payment also!

Chanda

By: Ginger

Ginger — Fri, 13 May 2005 12:36:00 +0000

If someone can help me on the legal side of this. I am 21, I bought a truck from toyta, or at least I thought I did. We have had the truck for two weeks when the dealership calls and says we need another signer because your credit did not go through because of the fact i already have an auto loan in my name. So I said nope, you can come and get the truck and hung up. So my question is, they have all this paper work that I have signed stating I will take care of the truck, make sure all payments are paid on time and so on and so forth. Shouldn’t I ask for them to give those papers back to me, or shouldn’t I have them sign something stating I void all papers regurading the truck? Please someone email me back asap…This is supose to be going down today. Thanks

By: teresa

teresa — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 20:29:11 +0000

I bought a truck from Trucks Only location Mesa, AZ. I raded in my pathfinder for for this Dodge and drove it off the lot that night with the intent on buying that Dodge. The finances did not go through for reasons that I had changed Jobs. One and half months later they call tell me bring the truck back because you did not get financed. Since then I have tried to return the Dodge and get my trade-in(Pathfinder)back but there is only one problem THEY CAN NOT PRODUCE MY TRUCK, and the last time I was at Trucks Only they took the Dodge keys from me and said find a ride home: Yes I needed to call someone to come and get me if I was too get home. I was not leaveing without wheels I tolled them. They did give me the keys back,but since all of this they have not tried to contact me. I do not Know what my right,could someone Please help me?

By: barry blumenfeld

barry blumenfeld — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 22:41:58 +0000

i too was told by a dealer to voluntary repo….he said since my credit is great it will not affect me that much please advise

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 21:00:27 +0000

I have some information on Daewoo of Sacramento and how to deal car dealership fraud. Email me!

By: kmg

kmg — Sat, 23 Oct 2004 03:16:30 +0000

We are upside down in our current car loan by about $5,000. We recently looked at a new car trying to get out of this situation and the car dealership told us to give it back to the bank (voluntarily repo) and started trying to sell us the new car. I don’t want to do that to our credit report because we have made every payment on time and in full…does anyone have any suggestions?? I would appreciate it. kylanova28@hotmail.com

By: Henry Ebner

Henry Ebner — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 19:31:09 +0000

I bought a new car from Universal Nissan (Los Angeles). When I bought the car the sticker was not on the car. I was lied to at every turn and when I asked the total price for the car I was continually distracted by the sales staff. I ended up paying an additional $12,000 for the car, almost double what the car cost.

By: Christi Greiner

Christi Greiner — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 18:59:12 +0000

I am trying to find out about consumer rights when it comes to dealing with used car dealerships. I am in the middle of a horrible experience with Daewoo of Sacramento. From day one they have made fraudulent claims, long story short they now are forcing us to do a voluntary reposession even though we have made every payment on time and even early, they are trying to get out of doing what they are supposed to do by making us do a voluntary repossesion. Help! I need to find out more about my rights and what to do when those rights have been severly violated. Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you