First and foremost I want to say that we came to DriveSmart based on the reviews, and yes, even paid attention to the bad ones for a better perspective. With that we decided to seek out DriveSmart when we were ready.
I applied via their website for Financing (on a Wednesday), since I don't look great on paper financially - I wanted to see what they could do. Within an hour I got a call/text from Brian letting me know that he received my information and wanted to get some additional info from me. When I was able to contact Brian, we went over what I was looking for (monthly payment amount, size/capacity of vehicle etc.). Also, that my credit has seen better days and I'm not even sure they could get me financed. He let me know that they specialize in helping people rebuild their credit, with that said, they would see what they could do. An hour later, I got a text letting me know I was approved. We scheduled to meet that weekend and he sent me info on which vehicles they had on the lot that would work for our needs - for financing and what we were looking for in a vehicle. Just wanted to point out that we live far from DriveSmart, Brian and I worked most of the details out prior to our visit because he understood that no one should have to waste their time. Out of the 5 vehicles he showed me, we were interested in 2 BUT before we could get there only 1 out of the ones we wanted was available.
So we went to DriveSmart that Sunday. Brian was busy with another customer BUT had the key for the vehicle we settled on and let us take it for a drive while he finished with the other customer. It was nice to be able to do that as we could take our time, open and shut things... you know the usual when checking out a car. Since we had all the paperwork ready to go, we were there and out in 2 hours (I've never been at any car sales that went this quickly).
This is where we ran into some problem. While doing some errands that same night, the check engine light came on. Right away I texted Brian and let him know, he asked for us to check some things out. Since we settled on a 2004 Lexus RX330, he wanted us to make sure the gas cap was sealed (since we did fill up) and that we used premium gas. Well, we know it wasn't the gas cap but we checked again anyways. And we haven't used anything but premium gas for the last 10 yrs, so we knew that wasn't it. Since my husband does work on our cars, we had a code reader on hand. Found that it was one of the two catalytic convertors ($$$$$ OMG). I have to say, this was disconcerting. This is where Taylor, the owner of DriveSmart, got involved. Even though we know with a used vehicle there can be concerns, but not expecting anything to happen right after we get the vehicle. Well, Taylor (and Brian) has changed our outlook on car salesman...maybe not in the whole but them for sure. He had someone come pick up our car and he gave us one to use until the issue was fixed. Also, brought our car back to us.
They went above and beyond what I would typically expect from a used car dealership. We are very grateful for what they have done for our family, because we really needed another vehicle. We will be back to see them, if ever we need to in the future. read more