Complaint Review: Drivetime Ugly Duckling - San Antonio Texas

 My husband and I bought a car from drive time about a year ago. They threw in packages that we didn't ask for and hours later after purchasing the car it was hesitating. That's when the problems started. After a couple months we took it to an actual ford dealership and low and behold we found out there was an accident on the car. Why on the half page of car fax did it only mention there was one previous owner but didn't state an accident. We went and talked to the manager and he said that we initialed the car fax report but we didn't receive a copy of the car fax with "our" initials. The ford dealership also told us that you are supposed to sign the car fax report not initial. We have a 2 month old daughter and the car is having more problems than ever and we are extremely frustrated that a "dealership" doesn't value the customers.

Dude don't take up for people that takes advantage of people I busted my butt everyday of my life and ended up getting sick and I do my best to pay my 440.35 car payment when the car is not worth half that 

Ugly appears to be a good name for this company. A legal client ( in another matter) told me about foolishly trading in to Ugly a good paid for car for a more expensive 4wheel drive, taking on a loan from Ugly for the difference. With her income she obviously never had the ability to make the payments, a fact which Ugly disregarded. Eventually the 4wheel drive was repossessed and she ended up with no car at all plus Ugly still trying to collect more money from her. To me it was  an obvious case of bad faith predatory lending. Unfortunately, I heard of it years later, too late to do anything except complain to the AZ Attorney General which I advised her to do.

 "Rob" writes an impressive defense of Ugly without declaring what is his relation to the company.
 
The experiences of so many buyers filing these ripoff reports are fair warning. Stay away from this predatory company.
  

To begin with I have 15 years in the retail auto business. I worked for three different dealerships as a salesman, a Sales Manager, and a Finance Manager. Each of these dealerships sold new and used cars. Each of them also had a minimum quota for the sales force. Any salesperson that couldn't sell 8 cars each month was more than likely not going to last long. I've done a considerable amount of training of new people and if after a 90 day period their production wasn't at least 10 cars a month, it was goodbye. Your comments regarding your production being less than 8 cars a month tells me that your complaint that you were required to sell cars has more to do with your ability and not the dealerships policies. Your complaint regarding sub-par vehicles being sold, that could be said about every wholesale used car lot anywhere. Most dealers that do not represent a new franchise, buy their cars from auction, or they buy trade ins that the new car dealer won't sell. One thing you need to consider, they sell the cars, they don't make them. If it's a car that your local Chevy dealer won't sell, you can bet that it will be on some used only lots by the end of the week. They drive them around the lot to park them in the service lane, understand, it's a little hard to find things wrong with the car when you only drive it 500 yards. The down payment requirements you speak of, again, every dealer has their own policies regarding down payments, the philosophy being, the bigger the down payment, the better when it comes to obtaining financing. I guess the bottom line from my point of view, Drive Time sounds no different than any other used car wholesale/retail dealership anywhere USA. Your complaint's are typical of any salesman let go due to low production. It's my understanding that Drive Time is a rather large organization, and they do most if not all of the financing in house. I've known other buy here pay here dealers that operate much the same as Drive Time. They all try to get as large a down payment as they can, and they all sell cars for more than the retail value. They have to or they wouldn't be around long.

Regardless of what the other employee had to say about only 125 ppl on here filling complaints (which now its at 191 in a matter of days it has increased) The majority of ppl dont know this site is available and alot more are out there trying to fight them on there own, and with the prices per month Drive Time charges you on your car plus insurance most ppl cant afford computers or Enternet to find this site to file a claim, but if it was made public I can gaurantee you Thousands of ppl would step up to the plate, if they were made aware of this. Dont let that other employee turn things around. Keep it up we are all behind you. And we need your help. Thank You so much for your Honesty and it will pay off in the long run trust me..

I'm curious to know if DT knowingly and intentionally sells lemons, and if they use reputable companies to repair damage under warantee. I think I know the answer based on my own experience, but I'd like to hear from a former insider.

OK since you have worked for Drive Time, I want to know this. Do all of the locations there charge their customers double what the cars are worth? And also they tell you that you have 30 days to give them more of a down payment but they don't tell you about the APR rate. Why do they do this? To make money? Because I bought a car from the Atlanta, GA location and got royally screwed! Read my story it will tell you. And why in the world don't they have gap insurance?!

Thank you Dave from San Antonio! I am actually a person in San Antonio with bad credit in the market for a car. I was considering going there but thanks to you I will not. Just wanted you to know that your comments made a difference.

Thank you Dave from San Antonio! I am actually a person in San Antonio with bad credit in the market for a car. I was considering going there but thanks to you I will not. Just wanted you to know that your comments made a difference.

I bought a car from Drivetime and I finally decided to give up on the payments. I'm about a month late on my payments and all other car companies take the car away after three months. I have this woman calling me like crazy screaming at me on every message she leaves me. I just wanted to know how long it takes before they take away my car?

Although I no longer work for the company, I must say that they never set unacceptable goals for me and held me to a clear expectation. David is correct in the fact that they expect at least 8 cars from a sales associate each month. As you can see in his post that he knew that expectation and he understood that failing to meet that expectation could result in other actions. Is it wrong for them to expect an employee to make $1,600 in one month? I know that when I worked for them I haad to make more than that to pay my own bills. You can be upset about the expectation they held you too, but please don't expect to be taken serious when you claim that they forced you out. Did you know that Drivetime raises its downpayments during the upcoming tax season to almost double the regular rate during offpeak season? Any company that is dealing with risk does the same thing. In your 9 month stint of trying to understand the company you should have taken a look at the way those loans perform compared to other times of the year. People come into the dealership with more money than they make in a month of working and want to get the biggest, fastest, and most expensive car they can. They don't take into consideration the cost of that vehicle the other 11 months that they aren't getting that extra income. If they only had to pay every March when they get their tax return, it might be a different story. I hope that people on this site understand that they can ask you all of the questions in the world, but you have to understand one thing. Over 50,000 cars are sold by DriveTime per year. There are only 125 people on this site that are upset about it. A few of them are past employees (including myself). I think the small percentage you find on this website are people who gave up on their loans, their jobs, or just in general.

I know that the BBB isn't a great place, however, at least the record will be on file. My best suggestion is to contact the attorney general of Arizona. This has to be done!!!! If enough of us file complaints against this company the attorney general will be inclined to do reasearch on Drivetime. Good Luck

Adrienne, the BBB is absolutely useless and is a scam. It has absolutely NO POWER to do anything for you. It is a private business that charges membership fees. Would you scold a dues paying member and risk losing money? This is what the BBB is all about. It is a scam. It has no powers to protect the public or do anything at all for you. The consumer protection division of the attorney generals office is a good place to start. Also go to the dealers services side of the DMV and find out who bonds thier dealers license and file a claim. Small claims court is an option too. Good luck

To whom it may concern: I was a Drivtime Customer and was ripped off big time. I have contacted the BBB of Phoenix, which is where all there complaints come from. They did not respond, however, they forwarded that complaint to the Attorney General of Arizona. I would suggest and plead with you to contact the Attorney General of Arizona, so that they will look further into this company. One complaint doesn't do much, but if all of us on this site complain to them then maybe they will take a serious look into the practices of this organization (or lack of). Please take this into consideration and take a few minutes of your time to email them.