Complaint Review: Drive time and Bridgecrest - Nationwide

In August of 2015, my boyfriend and I decided to go to Drive-time at 8341 Indiana Ave in Riverside, CA hoping we could get a reliable car or truck for a decent down payment and on their “cancel anytime” lease. While speaking with our sales man about what were qualified for, he went over the terms of the lease which I must say is not as exciting as it sounds in the name, but we needed a car and we needed it at that moment. The dealership qualified us for a truck, which was in great condition physically and internally when we drove off the lot. They also specified that it would be counted towards our credit wether good or bad.

 

As time went on, everything seemed as it should. We were always on time with our insanely high payments ($466 a month without insurance) that we made every two weeks of $233. In February, the problems began not only with Drivetime, but with the customer relations office and the warranty company Avirex. Our truck started feeling as if it was riding rough. The check engine light never came on but when we brought it into Pepboys, they told us that Avirex wanted to just replace the whole engine but never said what was wrong. Even though it did make sense why, we obviously didn’t argue and for two months we sat without our vehicle. Why you ask? Let me explain…

 The first engine delivered to Pepboys was so disgustingly rusted they called us to look at it. They said it was sent from a junkyard. Take a look at the images below and keep in mind that our original engine looked brand new. The hoses were cut up all over, fluids were leaking into other parts of the engine where it didn’t belong, wires were ripped and not disconnected, and worst of all, and Pep Boys called us disapoionted asking us to come check it out.

When we saw this, for good reason we were upset. I called Avirex and told them everything. Their response to me was, “We won’t accept your pictures but we will accept them from Pepboys.” So after they sent images, we were told, “We don’t see any issues with the engine…”

 I live next door to a mechanic, so what did I do? I showed him everything myself. This second opinion let me know that the warranty company was screwing us over. At this point it has been in the shop for about a month. Once the men installed the new part and took it on its test drive, it blew a rod! But remember folks, there was nothing wrong to the warranty company, just need to remind you of that.

The mechanic ordered another engine through Avirex. What they received looked just like the first one and came from the same place even though we had complained about the first engine and the issues. 

 At this point I called customer relations for Drivetime, where I got the run around once again. Everytime I requested a manager I was told, “They will have to call you back,” and still to this day, never received any of those 37 call backs (yes I kept track). Once I realized we were not getting help, we decided to stop paying on the truck since we didn’t have it and all.

Once the truck hit the two month mark and we had payed $1000 in payments plus the deductible for our replacement, Bridgcrest (our finance company) decided to start calling everyday for their money yet they didn’t seem to care we still hadn’t had our truck back. So after a week of harassment from them, we told them to get pick up their engine-less truck from the mechanics shop. The next day it was magically finished!

As soon as we picked up the vehicle and drove off, there were problems instantly. It struggles to go up any kind of incline, almost as if it is going to shut off and yet it also feels as if the transmission is slipping. If that is the case, the code never came up for Pepboys and no warning lights were ever working for us.

Now that were have the truck back we cannot trust it enough to drive it. This made me want to try a real dealership, where we actually were approved for a brand new Forte. This brings up a whole new issue with Drivetime.

The Drivetime sales men specify their cars all have GPS so they and you can track the vehicle at any time. When your payment is late even by a few hours, the activate the GPS on their end so they can watch where your at during they whole time it is on. The day we went to Kia, it was beeping. The moment we left Kia with that Forte, the beep was off. The harassment stopped until a week ago and when we told them we didn’t feel comfortable driving an unsafe car an hour to drop it off they told us, “It is your problem.”

At this point, that was 2 months ago and finally yestarday (8/25/16) they had it repoed...along with my husbands tools in the bed of the truck. No heads up or anything even though we told them to come get it...yes I know there shouldnt have been anything in it but the bed was being used for storage on this particular day. How ironic right?

They are also trying to charge us for the two months we tried to get them to pick up the unsafe vehicle in which we are not paying. We paid for the two months our truck was in the shop not getting fixed-just getting worse SO why should we have to pay for the last two months that we AGAIN couldn't use the truck due to a faulty engine or transmission even. Who knows and I really dont care. 

IF ANYONE HAPPENS TO HAVE A LAWSUIT STARTED I WOULD LOVE INFO ON HOW TO EITHER START ONE MYSELF OR JOIN IN. THIS COMPANY CANNOT KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH TREATING THERE CUSTOMERS LIKE THEY DONT MATTER.