You want a detailed review, you got it.
Let me tell you a story about a beautiful E93 BMW M3 offered up by Auto Assets, it was the winter of 2018...
My first impression... Nice cars with No high pressure sale's pitch, just straight talk. My kind of place... Without a doubt Auto Assets went out of their way to gain me as a customer. Heck, they treated me better than my own bank.. as it would turn out, my bank decided to drop a last minute 360 pulling my financing on the day I was to take delivery of the car!
It went from me second guessing my bank's finance rates to me wondering if I could even find a new lender
Nathan (my sale's associate) was not having it. He went over my credit and work history several times. Even with a few days passing by and no luck with the dealership's in-house lenders, he did not give up on me.. in fact he actually seemed to be more confident that we would get the deal done..
Trust me folks, there was more than one occasion in which he could have said sorry man, I tired... please try us in the future... nope, dude was on a mission and already had an end game.
So.. (ok wait.. before I get to what he was about to say, I need to go full disclosure here and say that I am paraphrasing, I mean this happen 3 years ago, Nathan was/is epic, my own embellishments or not, this is how it went down according to ME the long winded story teller guy who's ADD medication may or may not be wearing off.
Alright, now then where were we? Oh yeah.
He says "I got an option.. now I can't promise you that these guys are going to give you a loan with a rate that is worth taking, heck they might not even offer you a loan... but I'll promise you this much... I'll be more than just (shocked) if they don't get you that money".
So I am thinking to myself, ok.. I get it now... He is going to make a few calls and pull a few strings... Maybe he has connections... Nope. That is not the case at all...
Dude just pulls out one of his business cards.. and I am thinking crap maybe this is him giving up... but then rather than just handing it to me he proceeds to flip it over and silds it across the disk with his pen. He tells me " write this down" I do... it turns out to be the initials of a credit union that I had never heard of. That is it.
No website, No phone number with specialized referral codes... I even asked him, "should I name drop you?" and he said, "They wouldn't have the slightest idea who you are talking about"
He then said as I was getting up to leave, (again I am paraphrasing here)
"Go grab yourself some lunch and google these guys, if you like what you see call'em up and when your done talking to them flip my business card over and ring me back later this evening with some good news."
I had honestly already given up in the back of my head, but Nathan's confidence and determination told me to give it one more try.
Here is the thing though I was not keen in picking up something that you readers likely already have... It was not Nathan's first Rodeo in such a dire situation.
To be fair, I could not see what was so obvious because Nathan treated me as if I was a repeat customer buying a 800K dollars Lamborghini to add to my collection. I didn't feel like a new customer looking at a 36k dollars M3, with finance issues, I felt like a close friend or family member that was not asking for a handout but obviously needed a push in the right direction.
He took the time and effort to try and get me the best local rates possible even when it became clear that they all were going to say no or demand a crazy interest rate. Nathan stuck to his guns and did his job rather than taking a shortcut right out the gate. He did what any good honest sales person would do, he put himself in my shoes and did his due diligence.
Don't get confused people.. It was not like I just walk into the building straight off the street demanding an M3 with no money down, zero credit and no job.
No, I actually came in flexing a reasonable down payment, proof of income making bank, a report that said hello disposable income, and a credit score that was not great but recovering steadily over several years... my issue was none of that though..
It was over some really old judgments dating back to the 2008 financial crisis that I had been actively paying for several years... The same banks that contributed to putting me into the position refuse to help me move past it...
In closing I'll say this, Auto Assets has amazing cars, a beautiful dealership, you name it.. But if you asked me what is their strongest asset, it's there People. It does not stop with just Nathan either, every single person I have interacted with there has been polite, professional, and on point. They are pros.
So you wondering, did he get the girl in the end? Yep, although I did have to settling for a 7% interest rate for that M Series Love. Sure as hell beats 15-20% though, right?!
Thank you Auto Assets,
Brett Ferris read more