Dealers Are Criminals

I'm not talking about the ones selling drugs. I'm talking about the bad kind...

Car dealers.


My girlfriends lease was coming to an end this month and we decided that it would be best to buy the vehicle. The other option was to just give the car back and pay the penalties we've all heard horror stories about, such as tire wear, brakes, trim damage, scratches etc.

I thought that the dealer would be happy to sell the vehicle and go out of their way to accommodate the transaction. Well, my assumption couldn't have been further from reality.

My girlfriend called the dealer 2 weeks ahead of time to ask what is required on our part to complete the deal (such as price, ownership transfer etc.) . Well, she spoke to the receptionist who told her than noone in finance was available and transferred her to the managers voice-mail.

She did this 3 times over without a response. So without a response and the deadline closing she decided to call GMAC finance for the details which they were happy to provide. This was important because although there was a guaranteed buy-out price listed on her lease agreement, we forgot about sales taxes and a $51 penalty she was assigned at the start of the lease.

So now she has a price, but still no response from the dealership. She asked me to call because she was at work and very busy. She was also getting nervous because of the time ticking away.

Anyway, I go through the same problem with a receptionist and a finance managers voice-mail. I leave a message with my cell number. I get a response the next day while I'm at work. He quotes me the exact buyout price we were told by GMAC and I find out that we need a safety certificate for the car as well as an emissions test to satisfy provincial requirements for vehicle ownership transfer. I decide to have this done near our home at a private shop for less money. Which was fine.

We go to the bank and get the loan we needed for the exact price we were told by GMAC finance and the bank provides us with a draft for that amount.

I called the dealer to let them know we will be there in about an hour.

So after all this trouble, we get to the dealer and sit down with the finance manager. I show him the safety, the emissions test and all the paperwork as well as the bank draft.
He then asks, " And, how will you be paying for the rest of the transaction?"
To which we responded " What are you talking about?"
"Well, the fees for the paperwork involved in transfer of ownership etc." He replied.

We both paused and hesitated to answer because we knew we were about to get screwed.
We were told NOTHING of extra fees and transfer costs. If we were, we would've had the bank draft include the amount. I asked how much were we talking about and it was $353 !

WTF?!? Are you kidding me? (by the way, this is where we really lost it)

I don't want to drag this on too much , but I walked out to the car and grabbed the GMAC paperwork to get the phone number to call direct. When I did this, the manager offered my girlfriend $100 of the cost. She refused until I got back.

I gave her the number and she called GMAC on her cell to find out if all this was legit. They told her that if we had the safety and emissions tested, we could just mail them the bank draft directly with the paperwork and $10 to complete the purchase. THATS ALL.... $10

Needless to say we stood up and walked out right by the prick manager. I threw in a loud "Let's get the f%# out of here!" just to punctuate our departure.

We mailed the paperwork to GMAC and should receive the ownership in the mail by next week.

We feel like we won that day. She also got the managers boss' name and e-mailed him a complaint that her calls weren't returned and it took a man's voice (mine) to get a response from the dealer. My name isn't even on the lease and they were giving me financial details over the phone.

By the way, I would suggest you stay away from Jerome Taylor in Windsor. They know nothing of customer service.

G