The original post for this got removed, so posting again. And will continue to do so, to warn others never ever to come here. BE WARNED.
"STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS"
was accompanying a friend of mine while he searched for a used car. The whole thing started out well enough. He knew the model, price range, monthly payment, and conditions that were acceptable for him. This was all clearly expressed to the salesman (we'll call him "Bob") within the first 2 minutes of introducing himself to us. We finally landed on a vehicle that he liked and while the sticker price was not in his range, "Bob" assured us that we could get it much lower and shouldn't have any issues with keeping the payments in the acceptable range. "Bob" began to write out what he presumed he could manage in terms of conditions. My friend informed him that he was interested in any potential discounts or incentives (he is a military veteran) and that he would also be using a family member as a cosigner. "Bob" ball-parked him a figure and it was over $150 more a month than he had expressed he was comfortable with. He told him that was not even close to what he would be able to afford and that maybe we should look at something with a lower asking price/monthly payment. "Bob" insisted he could make it work and proceeded to go back to his mock terms and scribble and cross things out. He told us that this is all just speculation and that if his cosigner had great credit that he's certain they could arrange something in his price range. We stepped outside and spent a while talking and trying to decide what we wanted to do. After about 30 minutes, no doubt fearing we would leave the lot, "Bob" came rushing out. "I've got great news! We can do it, we can get those terms met." I specifically made "Bob" tell us, verbatim, that he could get his monthly payments under the max limit we had set..... and he lied right to our faces. Being the naive new car buyers that we are, we decided to start the paperwork so they could do the credit checks and give us an exact number. "Bob" assured us they would find the best loan terms possible and it would only require them to run the credit check once. This was true, at least for that night. We asked about any potential veterans discounts or incentives and "Bob" told us the extra "$500 or whatever" wouldn't matter as the deal he was creating would be better. We had been at the dealership for 2-3 hours at this point and "Bob" obviously had something more important to be doing as he started to try and accelerate everything. He began talking faster and any questions we asked were either met with reserved answers or dismissed entirely. At one point while my friend was talking to his cosigner on the phone, "Bob" told him to hang up and that we didn't need anything else from him. When my friend finally did end his conversation and set his phone down, I kid you not, "Bob" reached over the desk and pressed the End Call button on his phone. They ran their credit checks and "Bob" presented my friend with the "approved terms". The terms were just barely ($0.08 under) within his limit. After another hour or more of paperwork we were directed over to the finance department while "Bob" detailed and got the car ready. "Bob" told us to not feel pressured by them as they will try to sell us things and it will increase the monthly payment amount. Of course, "Bob" deliberately mislead us about what exactly the "Certified Used Warranty" that was indicated on the lot sticker entailed. Before we went to the finance department we asked "Bob" about the warranty and he told us he wasn't entirely sure what it covered and didn't want to give us false information. The finance guy advised us that since the car had more than 60k miles, it had no warranty and my friend would have to purchase one. Fantastic! After another 30-45 minutes of haggling with the finance guy my friend magically got a warranty for $20 extra a month. It was initially quoted as $100 extra a month. I wonder how much it's really worth. After 5 hours of being pressured, lied to, manipulated, mislead, and disrespected, it was finally over. Or so we thought. A few days later they called him to have him come back to the lot because they may have found better loan terms. Turns out all the loans they presented him had payments $100-$200 higher with much higher interest rates. They led us to believe he had already been approved for a loan through one of their banks. We were never told that was not the case and were deliberately misled and misinformed. Instead they ran their credit 18 times searching for a bank that would provide the loan. We were openly skeptical that my friend would be approved for a loan that would meet his budget but were assured and flat out lied to that it wouldn't be a problem. The car is currently parked, waiting for them to collect it and return his down payment.