My review of Crest Ford and my buying experience one month into ownership…read more
On November 14th, I purchased a certified pre-owned 2019 Ram 1500 with 55,168 miles, which was advertised as being covered by their Ford Blue Advantage 3 month/4,000 mile warranty. The truck was priced reasonably, and at first the buying process seemed straightforward. I genuinely felt like I was in good hands- unfortunately, that turned out not to be the case.
Here's why:
1)
They refused to negotiate on price at all, not even slightly, but I still decided to move forward. When submitting my credit application, I clearly told Lee Samaha over the phone not to run my credit more than once and only with a bank they were confident would give me a solid rate. Despite this, they ran my credit three separate times, resulting in three hard inquiries on my credit report. My request was COMPLETELY ignored. Had I known this would happen, I would've gone straight to my credit union and handled financing myself.
2)
The finance manager, Tim Rotarius, initially told me the interest rate the bank approved me for, and I agreed to it. However, when we were signing paperwork, he sneakingly increased the rate by 0.25%. At first I thought it was a mistake- until I saw the final documents reflected the higher rate. I immediately called him out and made him change it back. He tried to brush it off as an "accident," but I wasn't buying it.
We ALLLL know dealerships receive kickbacks for marking up interest rates, so it was obvious what was happening.
3)
19!!!!!!! days after purchase, on December 2nd, the truck left me stranded and had to be towed to a Ram dealership. I was without a vehicle for an entire week while they diagnosed the issue. The problem ended up being a bad starter.
Despite the starter being a covered component under the CPO warranty, the warranty company has given me the runaround. I had to pay $770 out of pocket, and now I'm being told reimbursement could take up to eight weeks. I hadn't even made my first car payment yet and was already forced to shell out $700 for repairs. Meanwhile, Crest wouldn't negotiate even a dollar off the purchase price- Petty, to say the least.
I purchase a newer pre-owned vehicle roughly every two years. Needless to say, I will never return to Crest Ford or any Crest Automotive Group dealership again.