My story has 3 bad parts and one good part.... but it's long, and so is the story.
FIRST BAD PART
My wife and I were looking for a newer SUV. We have a '99 Mercury Villager with 145,000 miles and it's ready to burst into flames. I decide to go to Groulx used cars because my mom bought a new car there every 2 years from 1984 to 1996 and including 3 used cars for my brother and I, and 2 other new cars for her ex-husband, a total of 11 cars. I figured it was safe to deal with them.
We got there 3 Thursdays ago. It was a -10 wind chill night around 6:30pm. We drove 2 SUVs and I told the guy I didn't see anything else in my price range. He pushed and pushed me until I would drive this '04 Tahoe. Fully loaded, leather and DVD, all the goodies including 114,000 miles. We brought our little one with us so I buckled her child seat in, and away we go.
I got 4 blocks past Dunbar, and the m-f-er runs out of gas. I tried to turn around and go to a gas station, but ended up stalled out blocking the entire right lane of a 2 way side street... facing the WRONG WAY. I call the sales guy and he tells me "Why didn't you tell me it was low? I can't come pick you up, I am all alone" (At this point the leather is not even warm yet!! AND remember -10 wind chill) I told him there was a gas station close and I would buy a can and get some gas. I bouth a $10 can (holy crap!) and put $3 in it so I could just drive the thing over there. The can was shaped so STUPID it could not tip enough to pour the fuel into the tank. I had to shove the tank into the hole to splash gas into it. When all was said and done, my wife and daughter sat in that truck for 30 minutes with no heat. They were frozen. I put $10 bucks in the tank, and drove straight back to the dealer. He then gave me a hard time about spending too much money and it took 20 minutes to get my money back. He couldn't get someone to break a $5 so he could give me exact change. Damn it was only a dollar... you think after what we went through he could spare a damn dollar. A$$H0LE!
I WILL NEVER EVER GO TO GROULX FOR ANYTHING AGAIN!
SECOND BAD PART
I went to the Dodge Superstore. That was another joke. I looked at an Expedition that I saw online. As I am, walking around the front end by the driver's door this guy POPS out from behind the truck... "Hi, can I help you with anything?" and then comes silence. Not another syllable utters from his little lips. WTF I am asking questions about price, mileage, ownership, options, and he just looks at me. SO, I left.
THIRD BAD PART
The following Thursday... I go to Momentum and meet a salesman that I will call Roger (Not his real name). I tell him that I want to drive both of the Expeditions that he has on the lot. But I have to leave to pick up my daughter. I give him my name and number and grab his card. I told him I would try to come back the following day to test drive with my wife. Friday comes and I am excited because they had a black Expedition that has a lot of extras and is really sharp. I call ahead so Roger can start the truck up, plate it, and have it ready to go ( I already warned about having fuel!) We pull up and I see the truck is still in the same spot. I go in and see Roger, and he says that he talked to the finance guy and he wasn't sure what they could do for me if anything. I asked "Wasn't this something you could have called me about before I drove 20 minutes to get here?" --- "Uhm... ooh, uh, welll.... uhm..." ---- So I ask... "Does this mean I can't drive them?" --- "NO, no, no, you can still drive them, let me go get a plate."
10 minutes later.....
"Okay, let's go put the plate on" I let him plate it and pull it out of the spot. MMM< sounded so good! It has custom exhaust and lots of chrome add-ons. He pulls it out into the parking lot, and I load my 2 daughters and wife into it. THEN HE CLIMBS HIS LITTLE *** INTO THE BACK SEAT. I am like WTF! He just sits back there. My wife looks at me like we just picked up a hitch-hiker with a knife in his hand. We start driving and we feel so uncomfortable that we don't even talk. Typically you would say what comes to your mind... I like this or that, don't like this or that. But for us it was crickets at midnight. My daughters also felt weird, and commented hilariously after the whole adventure was over.
We get back and decide not to drive the other Expey because it was not as clean as the black one, and there was a rust spot on it. I tell Roger that I really need him to work at this because my credit is not so good, and my van is about to drive itself into dust. He says he will call me Monday. Keep in mind that through all this Roger has the personality of someone that would be selling you grave blankets, not a car.
Monday comes and at 9:30 I am calling him asking what he has heard from the finance people. He tells me he will call me later with an update. No more calls Monday. Tuesday comes and I call him around 2pm and leave a non-profane message about how I feel he could care less whether I buy a car or not. I feel as if he doesn't think I will get approved, so he is not trying very hard. Wednesday he calls me back telling me Tuesday was his day off (what happened to Monday?) and that there aren't really any options for me, but they will keep trying.
GOOD PART
So, Friday I go to YARK in Toledo, they sent me a pre-approval letter that just so happened came Wednesday after I came home from work. My wife an I go there after a Dr appointment. We drive a Durango, and sit in a Jeep Commander (uh... no!) They were in our price range, but were not as comfy or nice as the Expey. So... we try to leave and again.. they push and push for me to drive this '07 Expey XL with 16k miles that has every option under the sun. Well it's like $35,000. (Almost double what I wanted to spend.) Before I drove it, told him I would give him $30k and a down payment of $3k. He said he would crunch the numbers while we drove it. Long story short, we got approved but the payment was almost 200 higher than what I could afford. So we left... I called the finance manager directly at Momentum and talked to her. Her name was Tiffany (real name) and told her about the bank that agreed to finance me. In less than 24 hours, she had a business agreement established with Momentum and had me approved. She also had me deal directly with the used car manager Pat Keen and everything was feeling much better! He dropped the price $1400 and before all was said and done, Tiffany called back the bank and personalized my story to them and got my rate dropped another 5%. (In the end with the $1400 lowered price, a total savings of $5400 in the life of the loan). I couldn't have been happier... well, unless Roger would have tried a quite a bit harder.
SO!!!
The short of this story is... I won't ever go to Groulx again, the Dodge Superstore was less than impressive, and Tiffany and Pat at Momentum hit a home run with me. (I did buy my '95 Grand Marquis at Momentum in 2001 also) Roger on the other hand... Still sent me a card in the mail after I picked up our Truck Wednesday. He said in the card "Let your friends know about me if they are looking for a used car." I said to myself... "Yeah, I will let them know about you alright!"
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Topic: Monroe County bussiness you will never go to again and why??? (Read 16590 times)
