We Got Ripped Off

I just wanted to warn others in my area about a scam artist posing as a car dealership. I can't post their name but I can tell you it sounds like Lavanders and they are located in Gainesville Georgia.

 Two years ago while I was pregnant with the Thunder Chicken my husband's Volvo bit the dust. We needed a new car and didn't have a huge down payment nor could we afford large monthly payments. We needed affordable payments and had only $1500 to put down on it.

A family member took us to this lot which says it's a buy here pay here but in reality they work with a lender that puts you into a high interest loan. But they also get referrals by offering you $100 finders fee for everyone you send there.

While we were there the guy took so long we ended up being there for 5 hours while the guy just wasted our time. After 3 hours I had to leave and go pick our older children up from school. I left my husband at the lot and he felt like he had no choice but to buy their car just to get home, even though I could have come back and got him. It was two weeks before the baby was scheduled to be born and I guess the pressure of needing a car right then was too much. These vultures latched onto his need for a car and put even more pressure on him to buy theirs by promising free services and offering extras that we never got.

When he test drove the car he noticed a slight shake to it that they said was because of a flat spot on the tire from sitting on the lot. They offered to replace it if it didn't drive out in a few weeks. It never did. When we took it back to them the "service guy" said he didn't feel it, even though the car would shake your guts out, but he switched the tire to a different spot to see if it "moved". Still they did nothing to fix the shake. If it ran today it would still shake the shit out of you even though we put new tires on it. SO that tells me it's not a "flat spot on the tire" making it shake.

Within two months of owning it the doors started breaking first the outside handle of the driver's door then the inside of it, next the back door handle broke on the passenger side. That back door now doesn't open at all. The trunk no longer unlocks with the key. The windshield wiper on the passenger side died within 4 months of having it. But those are all mechanical so what it's an ugly car but it gets point a to point b.

That's not the end of this lemon! 6 months after we bought the car the check engine light came on. We showed them this and the tell us they can't do anything about it that we have to call a dealer and have them check it because it's not covered under their "services". So we decided to take it to someone else. Driving an hour and a half for an oil change was getting annoying anyways. It's not free if you are having to waste your time and gas to get it done. We find out that the 3 oil changes they have done not once did they change the oil filter which had the original date it was place on by a mechanic in Pennsylvania as 2009. It was also the wrong filter for the car and the oil looked black and old. We also found out the car had been up north when we were told it had always been in the south. Anyone who has lived up north can tell you why this matters. The salts they use for the roads in the winter can be very damaging on the underside and engine of a car.  We soon found out when the brake line broke because it was completely corroded. We called them and told them about that. They said we could bring it in (with no brakes) and they would have their guy replace the brake line for a fee. Another service promised but not provided.

Without warning the transmission stopped changing gears. So we called them about sending the car back. They tell us that they will take it back and put it as a repo on our credit and start garnishing my husband's paycheck for the remaining that we owe. We have now paid $8,000 on this car and still owe $5,000 on a car that is listed in the KBB as only worth $3,000 if it was brand new with none of these problems. BUT they are willing to give us a trade in on the car for another one and kill what we owe on this one. But we'd only get the trade in value of what "their guy" appraised the car at. Even they don't want to give full value for their POS! Never mind the $8,000 we have paid out, no credit for that. Never mind we don't trust them to put us into another jeloppy. They want us to keep paying them with our souls! We have talked to others that bought cars from them and apparently this is their thing. They have sold salvaged cars without a license to do so, they have scammed money out of others on repairs that they didn't actually do.

Consumer Beware!

Love,
Mom