Complaint Review: Crown Toyota

Crown Toyota Dealership in Ontario CA is guilty of exercising unfair and deceptive trade practices in the sale of their automobiles. I have become a victim of some of the oldest scams around used by car salesman. I see how stupid and naive I was to think that I could by a car from a dealership without getting taken advantage of.

Despite my initial ignorance about the danger of getting ripped off by car salesman, I will not let this dealer get away with scamming customers like me any longer. They need to follow fair lending and trade laws protecting consumers.

Besides trying to resolve the issues with the dealership initially, I filed a complaint with the BBB in hopes of being able to resolve things. The BBB was unsuccessful, therefore I must take my complaint to the next level. I am going to contact the following agencies regarding the fraudulent financing practices of Crown Toyota:

Toyota Motor Corp President and CEO
Yoshimi Inba
19001 S Western Ave,
Torrance, CA 90509 CA

CA State Attorney General
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General
Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
916-322-3360
Toll free in CA: 1-800-952-5225
TDD: 916-324-5564

California Department of Consumer Affairs
Kathleen Hamilton, Director
400 R Street
Suite 3000
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-445-4465
Toll free in CA: 1-800-952-5210
TDD/TTY: 916-322-1700
Web site: www.dca.ca.gov

State of CA Department of Motor Vehicles
Bureau of Investigations
Rancho Cucamonga 8629 Hellman Avenue 91730-4455
Riverside 6296 Rivercrest Drive, #A 92507-0738

Federal Trade Commission
Chairman Timothy J. Muris
600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20580
202 326-2000
1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357); TDD: 202-326-2502;

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Division of Consumer and Community Affairs
20th and C Streets, N.W., Stop 801
Washington, DC 20551
(202) 452-3693.


CC: (addresses listed above)
The Attorney General of CA, Bill Lockyer
The Federal Trade Commission FTC),
Chairman Timothy J. Muris
CEO/President of Toyota. Yoshimi Inba
California Department of Consumer Affairs
Kathleen Hamilton, Director
DMV Bureau of Investigations
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

RE: Gil Perry, General Manager
Crown Toyota
1201 Kettering Drive
Ontario, CA 91761
Phone: (909) 390-9700
Fax: (909) 390-9762
Toll Free: (888) 294-4531
Email: crowntoy@aol.com

On 11-5-01 I purchased a used car from Crown Toyota in Ontario CA. My boyfriend was with me because I knew that I would need a co-signer to qualify for a loan. I found a car that I liked we began talking about financing with the salesman (named Sam). After meeting with a total of three different salesmen, we finally met with Joe Vickers, the Finance Manger (FM). While we waited we were not given any paperwork to review or contracts to read. We did not receive any paperwork until we were literally walking out the door of the dealership. I immediately reviewed the paperwork when we got home. I was shocked to find major errors (or what I thought were errors) in the contract and brought them to the Finance Manager's attention immediately. I requested that changes be made in the second contract that the FM had us sign, on 11-11-01 (which raised the interest rate). I have repeatedly expressed my concerns regarding these errors ever since but nothing has been done about it. I've contacted the BBB but that failed to resolve the problems. To this day I have been given the run-around by Joe Vickers, the Finance Manager: and now Dave Murray the customer service representative for BBB. Both claim that my concerns are due to the lender, which is a cop out. The dealer needs to take responsibility for there unfair sales tactics. Here is a list of the misleading and fraudulent sales practices Crown Toyota used on me:

1. I was victim of a scheme known as "price packing" by Crown Toyota.
See DMV News Release at end of this letter

Mandatory Credit Life Insurance:

During the initial meeting with the Finance Manager (FM), I questioned the necessity of purchasing a life insurance policy on my boyfriend who was cosigning for me. I stated I didn't want to purchase credit life insurance on my boyfriend. My reasons were that it didn't make sense to have insurance on him that would pay off my car loan in case he dies. How absurd is that! But, Joe Vickers FM, told me that I didn't have a choice because it was mandatory and required by the finance company.. Not only was that a lie, but it turns out it is also against the law. Later when the FM had us sign a new contract because he couldn't find financing (so he claimed, I realize now that it was probably not true) I told him I was not buying the insurance. He included it in the loan application even though he knew I wasn't going to buy it. He even took a letter I wrote to him rescinding the purchase included in the first contract.

Extended Warranty:

I was charged $2,000 for an extended warranty contract, which I knew absolutely nothing about. While the FM was getting our paperwork ready, he told me that he would "throw in" an extended warranty on the car until 125,000 miles. He said that the manufacture's warranty was only good till 50,000 miles and the car had 33,000 miles already on it. He never asked me if I wanted to buy an extended warranty. I thought it was being offered in good faith for my business. At the end of the sale when the FM was completing the paperwork and he mentioned that the extended manufacture's warranty only increased my payment by $14 a month. I was never told anything about buying a service contract for $2,000, nor did he offer to show me the contract terms etc. before putting it into the sales contract. It stuns me that they will sell me a product that they've never showed me, how can I buy something I don't know anything about, why would anyone? This is clearly a scam they pull by intentionally failing to disclose any information about the service contract at all. He did not tell me I was buying a service contract, nor did he let me see the contract terms. I later found out that I bought a service contract for $2,000, with the following conditions:

The contract includes a $50 deductible for every component that needs to be repaired/replaced
Benefits payable under this plan are limited to a maximum of $2,000 over the life of the Service Contract. This is what I was charged for the policy. This was a total rip off and I was shocked.

Why would I want to buy a warranty for $2,000 that will only pay a maximum of $2,000, not to mention the $50 deductibles I would have to pay and the compounding interest incurred from the initial loan of $2000 which was financed.

Not disclosing anything about the service contract to me is fraud, respectable dealers would not try to sell me something without my knowledge.

2. Listed me as the Cosigner when I am the buyer .

It was clear that I was buying the car and my boyfriend was my cosigner. The FM did not write up the contract correctly with me as the primary buyer. Instead I later realized that he had me as the cosigner and my boyfriend as the primary buyer. This is absurd because I have the negative credit score and the whole purpose of him cosigning was so I could build my own credit. Otherwise he would have bought me a car on his credit without me to get a more reasonable interest rate. (we initially were told 12% and then a week or more later the FM called us in and had us sign a new contract at 15.95%, stating that the lender wouldn't take the loan as originally written). Because I am not listed as the primary buyer, all my mail goes to my boyfriend's house, as well as the DMV correspondence. In fact, not only does he get my mail but my mail is also addressed to him solely. This is wrong. It is my car, he only cosigned and if I default he is liable for the debt. This is similar to the "Straw Purchase", see links below.

3. Crown Toyota submitted loan docs knowing they were incorrect: FRAUD:

The Dealership submitted the loan application/contract knowing that it was incorrect. The FM did not delete the additional items from the contract as I requested. He included the service contract and life insurance charges and submitted to Southern California banks knowing that both had been declined. This is fraud. How much money did he get by doing it this way? The dealer did refund the money to the finance company eventually ($315.86 for insurance on 12/18/01, and $2000 for the extended warrant on 1/15/02). However, I was charged $70 in interest from the time the loan issued until the refund was sent.. If he got a commission then that company that paid him money was also scammed.

4. The Financing Fell Through Scam (Bait & Switch APR )

I bought the car on 11/01 at 12% interest. On 11/11/01 the FM called me and stated that he needed us to resign the paperwork. When we got there he said the lender wouldn't qualify me at 12% and so he had to lower the price of the car to make up the difference. The new contract was at 15.95%. He went on and on how the dealer lost money. Little did I know that this is one of the most common scams that exists. Don't let them do this to you.

The dealer needs to do the following :
A. To rewrite the financing contract for the actual price of the car. The other items mentioned above were never purchased and should not have been included in the loan application.
B. Rewrite the financing to reflect the truth, with myself as the primary buyer and my boyfriend as the cosigner. This was what we asked for and you did not even try to submit the application this way, violating truth in lending laws.

I am very disappointed in how the dealership handled the entire sale. I feel that I was misled and I'm now being given the run around.. The current finance contract is misleading and does not accurately reflect the actual sales agreement.

In sum, Crown Toyota is guilty of practicing the following scams on their customers (assuming I am not the only one they have done this to):

1) Price Packing Scam
2) The Straw Purchase Scam (or a variation of this scam, making me cosigner)
3) The "Forced Warranty" Scam
4) The "Forced Credit Life Insurance" Scam
5) The Financing Fell Through Scam (Spot Delivery Scam)


The FM Joe was very good at denying everything, including insulting me by making statements like "I thought you were a smart person initially"All I can say is he underestimated me.

I won't let them get away with taking advantage of me. They must do the right thing or I will pursue this matter further, using the courts if I have too (criminal and civil). Formal complaints will be filed with the DMV, FTC, and the Atty. General of CA.

I plan on putting this document on the Internet. There are consumer complaint sites that deal with problems like this and I am going to utilize their service so that other people can know what to expect from Crown Toyota and avoid getting ripped of and conned like I did.

DMV PRESS RELEASES
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/newsrel/2001ten.htm

If the dealer does not rewrite the contract (refund the original loan money they received from WFS and start over with a new contract), I will pursue my complaint in a civil lawsuit. The following are example of similar cases that have prevailed.

DMV News Release DMV investigators were involved because the Department licenses vehicle dealerships. This is the second high-profile raid of a Southern California dealership in two years. In October 2000, the DMV charged Gunderson Chevrolet, the largest Chevrolet dealership in California at the time, with defrauding customers by a scheme known as "price packing," whereby the cost of theft protection programs or extended warranties were added to the total sales price without the customer's knowledge or voluntary consent.. This is what CROWN TOYOTA IS DOING.

The Washington State Attorney General's Office reported a problem with "packing" misrepresenting monthly payments to facilitate the sale of auto related products and credit insurance. The office filed three lawsuits against two credit insurance sales consulting companies, Associate Dealers Group of Washington and Resource Dealer Group of Illinois. The companies allegedly encouraged auto dealers to quote monthly car payments higher than what was actually needed to purchase the vehicle. The extra money in the quoted payment allowed dealers to slip the optional credit insurance or service contracts by the customer and into the sales contract.

The Miami-Dade (FL) Consumer Protection Division discovered new car dealer advertising which displayed a dealer fee in addition to a vehicle's advertised price, in violation of the law. The only items that may legally be added to the purchase price of a vehicle are sales tax, auto tag fees and title fees. Four companies settled charges brought by the county and paid fines exceeding $55,000.
The Santa Cruz District Attorney's Office, Consumer Affairs Department received twelve complaints from consumers about Santa Cruz Nissan, concerning their sale of new and used car sales. The dealer was advertising cars that had been sold, selling cars for more than the advertised price, falsified credit applications, and falsified documents submitted to lenders. The dealer specifically preyed on consumers with bad credit, or who had filed bankruptcies. The company eventually entered into a $200,000 settlement, including payments of $27,000 in restitution for the consumers
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STOP! ..before you think about using the Better Business Bureau (BBB)... click here to see how other consumers were victimized by the BBB's false or misleading information. Don't be fooled! When there are thousands of complaints and other investigations underway by authorities, the BBB has no choice but to finally give an UNsatisfactory rating to a BBB member business that is paying the BBB big membership fees every year. When a business is reported that is NOT a BBB member, BBB files WILL more likely show an UNsatisfactory rating, then reportedly shake down that company to become a member of the BBB. One positive thing about the BBB is, either way, if a business has an unsatisfactory rating with the BBB, you can be sure, the business is bad. But what about all those BBB member businesses that had complaints filed against them? Consumers never get to hear about them. What about the BBB advertising to the public? Is this a false and misleading perception they are giving about consumer confidence when dealing with a business? Click here to understand more of what consumers and business alike are saying about the BBB. You decide.