Complaint Review: ARIA MOTOR SPORT

"Bad Credit? Don't Sweat It! Show us the Money And We'll Work It Honey!"

Aria Motor Sport was recommended to me by a man I was going to purchase insurance from on a car I was going to purchase from my neighbor, however, I didn't. I called Aria Motor Sport and spoke to a guy named Rennie Da Motta. I had been to several car lots, and not having the best of credit, I was turned down or offered deals that didn't make much sense. One of the financial people at a decent lot told me not to let anyone else run my credit because it would only make it appear worse. When I relayed this fact to Rennie, he said, "what does it matter if it's already bad?" He asked my how much money did I have to put down and I told him a thousand and he said he would call me right back. When he didn't, I thought that he couldn't help either.

However, he called me back almost two weeks later and told me he had a car. He told me to come in, bring in a utility bill, eight references, and when I repeated it, as I was writing it down, he said, "okay, six, I'm easy." And of course, to bring the $1000 dollars in cash. He told me if I liked it, I could drive it off the lot that day. I arrived with a friend, and there was another girl in the office, and she offered us something to drink.

Rennie took us to the car out back and it was a 94 Honda Civic LX. The front and back bumpers were scratched up, and Rennie quickly added that they would paint the bumpers, as this was a great deal and they rarely ever had Hondas come in on the lot because they were such good cars and had such high resale value, but this one was affordable.

I noticed there was no "BUYER'S GUIDE" visible anywhere and no price listed anywhere. Rennie said they had just gotten it in, to explain the absence of the required paperwork. (I found out later that they were in violation of the Federal Trade Commission's law and requirement to post a buyer's guide in plain view for the purchaser to know what they were getting.)

My friend and I took the car out for a ride and it drove okay. I thought it was a little rough, but overall, not bad.
When we returned, Rennie asked me what I thought and I told him I may be interested, and what was the cost. He said, "what do you care?" And I said, "as long as I get financed, I should be happy, right?" And he said, "Right." I asked him how much did Ben, the insurance guy get for referring me, and he got quiet then said, "we don't work that way." Well, my friend told me he thought the car was a good deal, so I said okay, and Rennie started typing up the contract. I asked again how much was the car, and he again skirted the issue. He kept talking small talk, keeping away from real questions regarding the car. He said their was no warranty on the car. He then brought out a "buyer's guide," and typed in "as is", "nothing promised,nothing owed." He added to the contract that they would paint the rear and front bumpers, and fill a "star" in the windshield, but they would not replace it. He asked me how much money I had for the down payment, and I told him a thousand, and he asked me if I could put down $1500, and I said, no I have a thousand. And he asked me when could I put down the $500, and I said, in two weeks. He said that was fine.

However, he wrote up the contract like I had given him $1500 down, and told me that when the finance company called me, say I had put down the total amount, that there was no "pick-up" payment. He said their could be problems if I said that I had not paid the full $1500, because they had quizzed another client who he had told to say the same thing, and they tricked him into admitting he had not, and there were problems. So he told me to just say I had put down the full amount.

Then he told me that I was actually paying $5700 for the car, but the finance company was charging about $1600 and some change to finance me on a two year contract. I asked him if their was a service contract offered on the car and he said no. After all was done and I signed the papers, he told me to call and let them know when I could bring the car back to be painted, and have the windshield! filled. He said they could do it any weekend. That was on the 30th of September, 2000.

I called them up a few days later to schedule a date and I could not get Rennie to call me back. He called me back to tell me that the finance company needed a copy of a utility bill, which I did not understand, because he already had one. And he said, "I know, I know, I have one, but,they're being weird." I asked him about the bumpers and he told me to check the paint number on the side of the car and send it to him, so the guy could match the paint correctly. I didn't send the bill because I was busy that day. the next day , the girl in the office called me and left a message saying that if I didn't send the bill by 5:00 p.m. I would probably not be financed. That raised a flag. I asked her if I didn't send it in time, would they return my down payment. She said they would, but it should be fine as long as I sent it before 5:00p.m.

I found some time to send it. I never received a call of verification as Rennie had said they would, and I could never reach Rennie to have the car painted. Lisa, the girl in the office, told me to just bring it in when I was not working, like on the weekends. Rennie had mentioned to me that the guy no longer worked on the weekends. When I ran that by Lisa, she got quiet and said, " I'll have to check with Rennie...I don't know who he's using now." Two weeks later, no response from Rennie and they car started to go out on me. I tried to repair it and invested another $790.00. Then I received a letter from a finance company telling me that they were terminating my loan as they were not able to finance me. I called Aria and spoke to another salesman there, as Rennie was not there and I told him about the letter, and he told me not to worry, that they had 25 other finance companies that they dealt with and they would try and get me financed through them. I told him I didn't want him to bother, that I was returning the car, and I was having problems with it, and he told me if I did, I would not get my down payment back.

He told me to call on Monday and speak to Rennie. Monday, Rennie was not there, so I returned the car. They claimed they had me "financed" through a company called "Westlake Financial" They were listed on the insurance binder. I really believe that they were the provider's of the binder. But somehow Aria Motor Sport had them "run" this car through as if they were the lienholder.

When I obtained insurance, Westlake would not drop the binder, which was $783.00 more on the contract. When I returned the car, a month to the date, October 30, 2000. Car payments were to be paid to Westlake Financial. I called them and let them know that I had returned the car to the lot because of the letters I had received, (Ihad received another letter turning me down for financing.) and I asked them how they could finance me on the strength of a utility bill, when the others had gone through credit bureaus to obtain their information and turned me down!

The woman I spoke to, Adrian, claimed that they received the same packet as the other finance companies, yet they decided to finance me...She said she would make a note of my returning the vehicle, and thanked me for calling.

About a week later, Aria sent me a "notice to dispose of vehicle." I had until the 15th of November to pay the amount of the car minus the finance charge, and they would reinstate the contract. Two days later, I received a notice to dispose of vehicle from Westlake Financial. I had already filed a Small Claims Action against Aria Motor Sport. The date to go was December 5th. They made no attempts to make anything right. Then I received a letter from Westlake saying I owed them no money. When I arrived in court, I was railroaded. Aria had some guy named "Mike" representing them as their "General Manager." He asked me why I had not tried to settle this with them before filing a complaint. I told him I had, but I could never get in touch with anyone, and the salesman I did speak to was very rude and abrasive. He said, he knew who that was, and he was that way. He asked me why didn't I talk to him, and I told him I did not know he even existed until this moment. He told me that I was going to lose, because I had signed a contract.

I told him that the contract was invalid, because I had received letters denying me financing on their behalf. He said that I was, and showed me a check he had received from Westlake for the car, which was half the amount they were charging me on the contract! he made some excuse as to the amount being so low. Then he showed me papers where they had gotten the car painted and repaired the mechanical problem.(which was the distributor, as the last mechanic had told me, but I had no more money to repair it, as I had been told it was something else by another mechanic, which I had repaired.) Then he went on to tell me that he had won five cases in this court and he would win this one too. He asked me what I was suing for, "emotional distress," he said. I told him no, I wanted my down payment and the money I put into the car, and I didn't want a repossession on my record. He said the repossession was not up to them, it was up to Westlake Financial.

On the advice of one of my witnesses, who had dealings with this particular court before, he told me to have my case heard before a judge and not a judge pro tem. I did, and the case was transferred to a commissioner. The guy Mike told me it didn't matter if I had the case transferred, I was still going to lose. The Baliff told us that we might not be heard in that court because they had so many cases. I told her it was alright if we got a continuance. When the commissioner called us up he asked if I wanted a continuance, and the guy Mike said no. I tried to tell him that I had not requested a continuance, but if that was the way it would be, I wanted a continuance. The commissioner gave me a strange look and told me not to worry, he would make sure we were heard that day. After sitting for a few hours, he told us to come back at 3:00 p.m., (it was 12:10 p.m.) and we would be heard then.

Do you know that upon their return, Mike from Aria Motor Sport presented a "document" in court, saying to me "Look what we received in the mail when we returned to the office. You will be getting yours too." It was a 'handwritten' repossession document to start proceedings against me from Westlake Financial. How convenient, I thought, that he should receive this in the mail after I told him that I did not wish to have a repossession placed on my record. No proof of mailing envelope, just a hurriedly written document. and the commissioner accepted it! This commissioner also created his own line of questioning, going away from my charges of fradulent, deceptive and unethical business practices, to "I returned-the-car-because-I-was-not-happy-with-it's-performance-I-had-signed-a-contract-and-maybe-I-didn't-understand-that-I-could-not-do-that." The commissioner was very condesending and he would not let me go away from his line of questioning to present my case. Whenever I would, he would say, "wait, you're getting ahead of me," and take me back to his line of questioning. I tried to point out the financing, and he told me it was not my concern about financing, that it was up to Aria Motor Sport to get me financed and they had ten days, according to the laws of rescission to do so.

I tried to point out that Westlake Financial had sent me a letter dated 10 days to the date,(according to the laws of rescission) that they had been assigned my contract; a letter I had received two days after the ten days. The commissioner asked me if I had received a payment book and a letter of assignment with dates and such and I told him that I had not. He asked Mike if he had a copy of the letter of assignment from Westlake and he said the commissioner had it. All the commissioner had was my copy and Aria's copy of my contract, which he had asked for. he told Mike that all he had was a copy of the contract, and again, asked him for a copy of the letter of assignment from the finance company. Mike finally said that they did not have it. The commissioner could have acted upon this, as with the 10 days to obtain financing, but he did not. Then he told me that he could reinstate the contract because the car was still in Aria's possession. Then Mike told him he did not want to reinstate the contract because he had the car painted, and tried to say that I had "keyed" the car. Which was not true. As I had witnesses to testify to the condition of the car when I returned it. The commissioner asked where was the car, and they said they had it, and he said, "I have the power to reinstate the contract." Then Mike said, it's too late. And the commissioner asked to see the paperwork. He asked me again if I wanted him to reinstate the contract and I said yes. Then the commissioner said, yeah, the time has passed, it's too late. Then he told me that he didn't see where Aria Motor Sport had done anything wrong and awarded the judgment against me and told them they could proceed with the repossession.

When the baliff returned my paperwork, my contract was missing! The commissioner had shuffled the paperwork as such that they got my contract too! When I tried to ask permission to speak, the commissioner told me he didn't want to hear anything else from me, he had awarded judgment to the defendants and that was that! The guy Mike said "good luck" to me as he was leaving, and I said "good luck to you too." And the commissioner attacked me again, saying that I was not being nice and he would not allow me to beat up on them, because he did not allow them to beat up on me, and I tried to tell him that I was just wishing him good luck back as he had to me and he told me not to say a word, that I was just being sacastic and don't try to deny it! I couldn't believe what was happening! Afterward, I went back to the court to obtain transcripts, because I wanted to try and get an attorney to fight the case as I had originally planned, and the people tried to discourage me from doing so! And when I tried to get them to get my contract back from Aria Motor Sport, they dragged their feet and made excuses until I said I was going to get an attorney, and then the commissioner had an absentee hearing, demanding that Aria return to me a true and genuine copy of my contract, on January 18, 2001.

To date, they have not. After I returned the car, I received an insurance binder, insuring the car from a company at the same address as Westlake Financial. However, this company had no listing in the directories, and they were the next "suite" down the hall from Westlake. When I called them to ask why I was getting a policy on a car I had turned back in to the dealership, the girl said, "I connect you to someone who can tell you," and she connected me to a recording! I called her back and told her I thought they were running a scam and I was going to contact the insurance commissioner on them. She said okay and I hung up. That was back in the first week of November, 2000. About one week ago, I received a letter from Westlake Financial informing me that my insurance was due to expire on the 30th of this month and that I needed to make sure I had coverage or I would be in default on my contract and my car could be repossessed; and I would be responsible for any damage to the vehicle, and I would be responsible for the entire balance of my account in the even the car is stolen or is a total loss! Strange, wouldn't you say? Because back in court, on the 5th of December, according to Mike from Aria, he had received a document from Westlake Financial, stating that they were starting repossession proceedings on me that day! Can you tell me why I would get a letter on March 1, 2001, regarding my responsibility on keeping up insurance and the consequences which could result, if I didn't?!

Do you think I was ripped off? I'd like to know your thoughts. Thank you so much for your time. I know this is a long report. I have since checked with the better business bureau, and they had complaints on file for Aria Motor Sport.

I also have the DMV investigating them. Footnote: Rennie gave me and my friend his cards and told us if we recommended people to him, he would pay us $25.00 for each person we sent to them.
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