Complaint Review: Marie's Route 66 Auto

When my wife and I first found this dealer on a popular street known for it's small dealerships, we thought, why not look around.  We found a good car for a good price.  We test drove it and it was working decently good for the mileage. 

Within a day or so we started noticing a few problems.  The wheels would make a horrid screeching metal on metal sound when driving straight or left and there also was some white smoke coming from the engine compartment when we would come to a stop at a light or such. 

We took it back to the dealer and informed them and while Jeff kinda did a "oh well" attitude with me, I was pulling out (angry mind you) and Chris heard the noise and stopped me just before pulling out of the lot, and said he'd like to fix it.  So, we coordinated to bring the car in for repair.  They "took care of" the screeching noise by bending a brake heat shield back but said they couldn't find anything wrong in the engine regarding white smoke.  So, we went on our way and just dealt with the white smoke, which got worse with time.

As for the next couple months, the car continued to get worse, the engine, the suspension, the drivetrain, everything.  This being a Toyota, I thought they were known to last well into the 200k's but I doubt this car would make it.  I am a knowledgeable car guy and I did what maintenance I could including switching it to full synthetic oils, but this only helped a little bit.

Now, to the worst of the facts.  As any person can from time to time, we encountered a financial crisis and couldn't make scheduled payments, either in full sometimes or had to be late on others.  About a month ago I was able to pay the car back up to current.  Well, since this dealership does bi-monthly payments, that throws me off and I missed one middle month payment and then all of a sudden a repo man shows up late at night disturbing us and says he is here for the Toyota, from Marie's.  I was furious.  They didn't call or warn me, or anything.  No messages were even left on voicemails.  I had no warning that I was even late or that they wanted a payment.  I knew the guy was just doing his job so I cleared the car out and gave him the keys.

The next day my wife called the dealership to ask what it'd take to get the car back and they are outrageous. They want a $500 repo fee, $200 fee for something else, and $450 for backpayments including other stupid fee's.  And, to top this, they told my wife the only reason they came to repo was that they (from who knows what source) got word insurance was cut off.  I have had full coverage insurance with the dealer listed as the leinholder (they are a buy here pay here) since I bought it and have proof of that.  So, the error was on their part and they want US to pay for THEIR mistake.  AND they lied saying they tried calling, and they never once called my wife's cellphone which IS on the paperwork clear as day.  The car was in both my wife's and my name, and when my wife called, they were reluctant to talk to her and tried saying only I can talk to them.

This is a bad business and I recommend to anyone to stay away.  While they may have nice people at first and cars seem to be in good or great shape, they will probably fall apart after purchase and the people turn on you and make your life a living hell.  Stay away please, for your own good.  BAD business ethics.