Complaint Review: Ugly Duckling Car Sales - Drive Time - Orlando Florida

Hi Barbara, I am also naive about cars but now I have learned that most places are out to screw everyone. Before buying any used car first you need to go to carmax and get a report on the car you want. Then go to the Kelley Blue Book and get the value of the car(which is what I should have done before going to Drive Time). You got screwed royally and I do know a way of disputing this on your credit report. lexingtonlaw. You shouldn't have to pay for something that gave you grief. Get an attorney if you have to.

I worked as a car salesman for a short time (I have a ROR on Charlies Dodge), reading you post tells me you were taken advantage of. "Low miles" is not 100,000! Thats what we call a wholesale item. Some used car lots buy the wholesale cars from Major Dealers that others trade in. Major car lots usually keep the good used vehicles. You wont see any 100,000 mile cars on most. Even an older vehicle with low miles can be a wholesale item. If your 1996 had 50,000 miles it still would have been sold off to a smaller used car lot. When you buy in the future look for something recent. I have a 2005 Lancer That was selling for 10,000. With my wholesale trade in I got it out the door for 8300.00. The car had less than 30,000 miles. These are the kinds of deals you want to find. I know the car listed for over 16000.00 new, so I was able to see the good deal by comparison. You can also ask for a carfax report before buying. Learn how to read inventory stickers. Many dealerships have all the info you need on a car right on the windshield. The little sticker will have a stock number, the year, make, and price, you just have to know how to read it. The stock number is usually followed by letters. This can tell you how the car was aquired. Our system went like this: A or M meant a trade in, P means purchase. The price can be found too. The series of numbers on the bottom of the sticker (usually) tells you the price if read right. Example: 3421567. Ignore the first two and last two numbers. The car costs 21500.00. This is the asking price, make sure you compare that to the price on hang tags in the windows. You can sometimes catch the seller with a sale price higher than the asking price. Ignore that gem if the dealership you are visiting doesnt use that system. All salesman are not dishonest. The managers and finance is where the game is really played. Too many people assume the salesman has something to do with the bad business when in reality its his boss who rips the consumer off. The salesman is trying to close as his financial life depends upon it. This leads to pressure tactics. Dont expect the salesman to tell you if youre getting a good deal, his job is just to close you and get you into financing. Asking if 100,000 is low would be a good example of a question not to ask, his job is now to tell its fine to have 100,000 miles. Dealer fees are usually not avoidable. To the best of my knowlege everyone pays them (even employees and sales managers pay it when purchasing for a discount). Some dealerships have higher dealer fees than others, shop around. Newspaper ads for example provide dealership fees in the fine print. The internet tells customers not to pay it as dealerships will agree not to charge it if pressed, this is false! The dealership will not drop that fee. The internet has alot of bad advise. The most common internet BS I ran into with customers was the belief that dealerships will drop the sales tax and the dealership fee if it means getting the sale. I had people down to zero profit on a vehicle with free parts thrown in only to have them refuse the sale because we wouldnt get rid of the state sales tax and dealer fee. The internet fills people heads with alot of stuff that just isnt very realistic. You would be surprised to know how many people play ball very well only to throw the game with bad internet advise. You can simply make a realistic offer for the salesman to go to the tower with. Make sure you are clear about wanting to do business that day if the numbers work, your offer wont be taken seriously if you are just price shopping. Try finding a good dealership with affordable used cars. Pull in and find one you like, the initial price is ok, the miles really are low, and its recent. Tell the salesman you want to research what the car costs new. If he can provide the info right there good, if he cant go research it on your own. Make sure to get the model, engine size, and options package info before you leave. If the car costs alot more new its a good deal. If the car costs close to the new price its a rip off. We had Used 2007 Dodge Charger SE models with upwards of 18000 miles for 21,900.00. This is not a good deal as walking over to the new ones and looking at the prices would tell you that less than 1000.00 more gets you a brand new one. If its a major dealership and the brand you are looking at is theirs be energetic enough to look at the new one too. Just make sure its the same thing, same options. A little note pad with a pen doesnt hurt. Watch out for the finance office! This is where most people lose because they dont pay attention. Dealerships will sometimes throw in extras you didnt know you were buying. Extended service contracts, paint protection contracts, etc... Stand your ground and purchase only what you agreed to, if they want to sell you additional things let them explain each one first then add it only if you want it. Never let them start with the extras on top of the price first. Just remember its your money and you have power if you know it and retain it.

Barbara: As you know, the car business is loaded with con artists and con-games. Listen to the advertising on your radio... "convoys of cars have been diverted here" "a factory authorized 2 year test drive" ...Right, sure! When have you seen traffic tie ups on route 50 thanks to the "thousands of cars which have been diverted here due to bad weather up north!" Or why is the dealership trying to deceive you into a lease by calling it a "test drive". Remember Barbara, it not a lease, its a FLEECE! Now onto your problem. You and I will never eliminate the con games but you and I can be SMART consumers. First...you have to obligation to any car dealer. If they held you "hostage" then why didn't I see this on the TV news? They didn't "hold" you Barbara...YOU STAYED! You don't have to take that crap! If they treat you badly, then WALK OUT! Don't be a wimp! The con-artists of the business love chumps, wimps, doormats and the car crazy! Second...you freely admitted to knowing little about cars. As such, you are a sitting duck for the pond scum of the business! If you know little about cars, the best thing to do is learn about them. Act like you know something or better yet, bring somebody along who does know! Third...Barbara, as you read thru other reports on this website, you will see a very common, sad problem...people signing papers they don't read or don't understand. Why would you do that? Remember, you have NO OBLIGATION to any car dealership. You aren't talking to God and you aren't married to the guy. They took full advantage of you but worse yet, you let them. Am I being harsh on you? Probably. But I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear to make you feel good. This was certainly a bad experience and perhaps you can learn from it. A good place to start learning about the car buying process is this website where you can see examples of the many CRIMINAL DECEPTIONS and CRIMINAL FRAUDS perpetrated on the American public by the slime of the car business. So Barbara, in conclusion...learn about the business, avoid the various common frauds including the dealers that lie to you about the price and then add on a "dealer fee" which is nothing more than advertising a price they will not sell the car for, and avoid getting into a CAR FLEECE.

Barbara: As you know, the car business is loaded with con artists and con-games. Listen to the advertising on your radio... "convoys of cars have been diverted here" "a factory authorized 2 year test drive" ...Right, sure! When have you seen traffic tie ups on route 50 thanks to the "thousands of cars which have been diverted here due to bad weather up north!" Or why is the dealership trying to deceive you into a lease by calling it a "test drive". Remember Barbara, it not a lease, its a FLEECE! Now onto your problem. You and I will never eliminate the con games but you and I can be SMART consumers. First...you have to obligation to any car dealer. If they held you "hostage" then why didn't I see this on the TV news? They didn't "hold" you Barbara...YOU STAYED! You don't have to take that crap! If they treat you badly, then WALK OUT! Don't be a wimp! The con-artists of the business love chumps, wimps, doormats and the car crazy! Second...you freely admitted to knowing little about cars. As such, you are a sitting duck for the pond scum of the business! If you know little about cars, the best thing to do is learn about them. Act like you know something or better yet, bring somebody along who does know! Third...Barbara, as you read thru other reports on this website, you will see a very common, sad problem...people signing papers they don't read or don't understand. Why would you do that? Remember, you have NO OBLIGATION to any car dealership. You aren't talking to God and you aren't married to the guy. They took full advantage of you but worse yet, you let them. Am I being harsh on you? Probably. But I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear to make you feel good. This was certainly a bad experience and perhaps you can learn from it. A good place to start learning about the car buying process is this website where you can see examples of the many CRIMINAL DECEPTIONS and CRIMINAL FRAUDS perpetrated on the American public by the slime of the car business. So Barbara, in conclusion...learn about the business, avoid the various common frauds including the dealers that lie to you about the price and then add on a "dealer fee" which is nothing more than advertising a price they will not sell the car for, and avoid getting into a CAR FLEECE.

Barbara: As you know, the car business is loaded with con artists and con-games. Listen to the advertising on your radio... "convoys of cars have been diverted here" "a factory authorized 2 year test drive" ...Right, sure! When have you seen traffic tie ups on route 50 thanks to the "thousands of cars which have been diverted here due to bad weather up north!" Or why is the dealership trying to deceive you into a lease by calling it a "test drive". Remember Barbara, it not a lease, its a FLEECE! Now onto your problem. You and I will never eliminate the con games but you and I can be SMART consumers. First...you have to obligation to any car dealer. If they held you "hostage" then why didn't I see this on the TV news? They didn't "hold" you Barbara...YOU STAYED! You don't have to take that crap! If they treat you badly, then WALK OUT! Don't be a wimp! The con-artists of the business love chumps, wimps, doormats and the car crazy! Second...you freely admitted to knowing little about cars. As such, you are a sitting duck for the pond scum of the business! If you know little about cars, the best thing to do is learn about them. Act like you know something or better yet, bring somebody along who does know! Third...Barbara, as you read thru other reports on this website, you will see a very common, sad problem...people signing papers they don't read or don't understand. Why would you do that? Remember, you have NO OBLIGATION to any car dealership. You aren't talking to God and you aren't married to the guy. They took full advantage of you but worse yet, you let them. Am I being harsh on you? Probably. But I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear to make you feel good. This was certainly a bad experience and perhaps you can learn from it. A good place to start learning about the car buying process is this website where you can see examples of the many CRIMINAL DECEPTIONS and CRIMINAL FRAUDS perpetrated on the American public by the slime of the car business. So Barbara, in conclusion...learn about the business, avoid the various common frauds including the dealers that lie to you about the price and then add on a "dealer fee" which is nothing more than advertising a price they will not sell the car for, and avoid getting into a CAR FLEECE.