I know car buying is a negotiated market, but this is just absurd. I have a friend in dire financial straits who recently had to buy a car and this dealership bent her over big time.
I'm going to post a letter that I wrote for her to send to a local loudmouth, but we haven't heard back from him - I'm not surprised, since this dealer did nothing technically illegal, but am still disappointed. If nothing else, I'd love for a network to do a segment on how sleazy Kids Auto in Denver is to do this to someone. If anyone has any connections that could make that happen ...
In late May, 2007, I purchased a 1996 Mercury Cougar V8 XR7 at Kids Auto on
According to http://www.nada.com/, the "clean" (middle range) retail value of the car is $3125. According to http://www.kbb.com/, this car in "excellent" condition and with these features is has a suggested retail value of $4755. Using http://www.edmunds.com/ appraisal tool, the dealer retail is about $3500.
I paid a cash price of $8800, plus $816.00 for a 12 month warranty, plus tax. My final financed amount was $9909 at 20.5% interest for 43 months, equaling a payment of about $330.
I did not realize how much they had overcharged me for this car until after I had gotten home, but at the time did not feel that I had any option but to take whatever they would sell me.
I know the automobile market is a negotiated market and that I signed the contract, but also feel that this dealership took advantage of a single, desperate woman. They already knew my credit situation, so they knew my options were limited. They knew I had no transportation home and they had my old car -my previous car had a trade-in of only $100, but they could only credit me $40 because they charged me $60 to have it towed in (someone tried to steal it and broke off something in the ignition, it was totalled). It would have cost another $60 to tow somewhere else.
I am just now beginning to get my life back together. I finally have a steady job that I like, have worked through serious depression without the medication insurance provided before my divorce, and have gotten back into an apartment after a period of homelessness. These car payments are really more than I can afford, so I took out a payday loan with a 360% annual rate and am worried that I will not be able to pay that back. If I do not have a car, I will have a very difficult time keeping my job and my apartment. This would also impact my 15 year old son, who splits his time between me and his father.
I do have a friend who is a financial planner and she is now working with me to figure out how I can make these payments without falling any more behind on my rent and without taking out more payday loans. She does not believe I have any recourse against Kid Auto because the Colorado Attorney General does not investigate ethics or business practice issues, but suggested that I contact you because of your consumer advocate reputation.
I cannot stress how much you would impact my life right now if you could get them to rewrite the contract, even if it was just down to the highest estimated price (the http://www.kbb.com/ price of $4755). The 20.5% interest rate was not a surprise because of my credit, which is very bad after several years of personal issues for which I take full responsibility, but it seems like the price of the car should not have been that high.
Even if you are not able to persuade Kid Auto to adjust the price of my car, I hope you can use my story to warn your listeners about this dealership and also to tell them about how difficult it is to pull yourself out of poverty when there are businesses like this out there who know you are desperate and will take advantage of you.
