I can't say this is a scam or that what they do is even illegal, but this is the auto option of last resort.
Every car is the same price regardless of its value. Interest is accrued by the day in a set fee and not by percentage of principle. All the cars are over-valued and the business model is a biweekly payment plan that stipulates that if you miss one due date, they can come and get your car.
Up front, the sales staff assures anyone that they can buy a car and that past credit isn't a problem. They will make it work, the sales staff says. And they will. Up front, it is all about getting you into a car you love.
It's the bait and switch but done to make sure you are so desperate to buy the ride that the terms are like an afterthought. If you can't buy a car on decent or poor credit, this place is happy to tie you into a long, expensive contract on an older, used vehicle.
We picked a car and took it for a test drive. The salesman told us that he liked that particular car more than most because he drove it to and from work for a few weeks before it hit the lot. What dealer does that?
We encountered a problem with the electronics that the salesman made sure to fix before we signed but was also sure to remind us that if it happened AFTER we bought it, the company wouldn't fix it again for free. Again...what dealer does that?
They will also promise to maintain your car with a special service plan but you have to make arrangements through them on their schedule.
The worst part is the finance interrogation. This is the most important part to consider because it is where we walked away.
You are "approved" pending your signature on the paperwork which is laid out for you in a long video with narration that not only requires you to digitally sign off on each screen but records your face as the details are being read to acknowledge that you were there, paying attention, and fully aware of the terms. As a finance agent sat on the other side of a desk watching, the camera on top of the monitor made sure I was looking directly at the presentation at all times and accepting my touchscreen initials or signature for nearly an hour with almost every slide reminding us that if we had any problems paying, they had no problems just taking the car and wrecking what was left of our lives with litigation. PAY ON TIME. PAY ON TIME. OR ELSE.
When it was all done, the finance agent simply printed out the paperwork and asked me to sign more acknowledgments of the acknowledgments.
The car we looked at was a high mileage sedan which I knew would need expensive work before the note was paid off. Based on how the company failed to make sure the car was ready for sale, I realized that they would fight us over any problem we had after we signed. With the length of the contract, the car would run out its resale value based on its mileage and condition.
So we went with a private seller who had more reasonable terms and didn't subject us to a recorded interrogation. read more