Complaint Review: Auto credit of southern Illinois

This is our story:

My son Lance just turned 18 and got a good job at a healthcare center working with elderly people. (His first job) We unfortunatly are a disabled family and don't get much money each month, so this was a very good start for our son to become independent. 
   He had saved $1,500 over the last 14 years and was going to use it for college, however, this job he was able to get was part of a nursing career that he is trying to become. 
   Anyway, he put in an application and 2 days later was hired.  One of the requirements (he was unaware of at the time) was that he had a car of his own to transport elderly people to the store or where ever. 
   Well, so we all went around trying to find Lance a car at the last minute and because he had not started a job yet he could not get a loan so someone told us about Auto Credit in Carbondale, IL.

Well, we went there and they said "sure we can get Lance a dependable car" so we asked which ones ran the best in Lances budget and the car salesman Charles showed Lance a few cars to choose from and I do mean FEW. But Lance found one he liked and we took it for a ride a few miles and it seemed to work fine..... Boy were we wrong!
   We ended up getting a 2002 Chevy Malibu 4 door and the dealer was asking for $2,500 down and Lance said he didn't have that much then the dealer went down to $2,000, still too high.. Then he said how about $1,500 down and Lance said he could do that. So he was going over the paperwork and the dealer was adding this and that on and on and i looked at Lance and he said "I can do this I really want the car" so i said ok. I hope so. Then once again Charles assured us the car ran terrific no problems at all. So dummy me I believed him and let it go through. 
   Well Lance got the car on Friday and by Sunday the transmission and engine were both messing up. So we called them about it (oh I forgot to mention they told us that if we had any problems within 4 days that they would give us a loaner until it was fixed) and when we called them (within 3 days) they denied ever saying that they would give us a loaner!
   Then they said "oh but we will do you a favor, bring the car up" So Lance did and Charles said "well just between us I will give you a loaner until the car is done but you have to sign new papers". Then he had Lance pick from 4 other cars (all Ford Escorts) which were are at least $500-$1500 lower value then what he had in the first place, but Lance thought, 'well it's just a loaner so no biggie...'

So it runs for a week and the 1st payment is due (too soon after!) and the car breaks down when Lance has a patient in the car! So my husband and i pick them up and take them to where she had to go and back to her home. My husband and i went back to the car and fixed it and got Lance back on the road, well 5 more similar things happened since then to now (2 months time) and he ended up putting his checks into the car instead of back into the savings for college. Well, during all that time he was complaining about the car and asking if the Chevy Malibu was done. (By the way they didn't care)They finally said it was sold to someone else.. Needless to say Lance was very upset.

   Well during all that time his boss was getting complaints about Lances car and decided to let him go. 
   So he was unable to make the next payment and he is just waiting until they take the car back.. I was so mad I called the Manager about it and she did not even care.. All she offered was to fix the transmission part of the car, not even where it was leaking oil (2 times we "fixed" (patched) it was when the oil was empty) (within 2 months)  I asked her if she would AT LEAST refund my son's deposit and go ahead and keep the 2 payments made for thier trouble... She says no.....

So here we are letting everyone know so they do not make the same mistake as us and hopefully someone has some idea of what we can do about this or if someone has dealt with them.