Complaint Review: Sherman Dodge

We went to Sherman Dodge because we have very poor credit and they advertise heavily that they can help people with bad credit. We called ahead of time and were told there is a section of the store we needed to go to and ask for someone named "Skeet".

They have their regular sales force and then this little section in the back of the dealership where people with "bad credit" go. It felt really racist because all regular salesmen and most customers were white in main section of dealership and in the "poor credit section" (it actually had a silly name like UFinance or something like that), every sales person was black and every customer was black or hispanic (maybe it was just this day but it felt odd).

We were pre-approved and told that with our credit they could get us into a car for $500 down. We were shown the about 12-15 cars that were in our price range and we asked to see a Dodge Charger. We were brought a 2010 Charger SE (smallest engine - 2.7 liter) with 38,000 miles (it was only one year old). We inspected it and it had a hole in the trunk in the fake carpet material. We asked to see another and were brought another exact same model with the same mileage without the hole in the trunk. We said we weren't interested in the Charger with that engine because it was too small and that model got poor ratings.

We were shown several other cars with fairly high mileage and then noticed a 2010 Charger SXT with 38,000 miles and were told we couldn't qualify for that car. We said we would be willing to pay more per month and then all of a sudden it was OK after the salesman talked to his manager. We test drove it and liked it and came inside to talk details. We haggled for hours on the monthly payment (which you're never supposed to do but when your credit is bad you don't have a lot of negotiating power). We were told the best they could do for this car which was one year old with 40,000 miles (they said we couldn't have the one with 38,000 miles and found one with 40,000) was $19,995 or within a few dollars of that price.

After we started talking finance they said we would have to put down more and we said maybe we could put down $750. They said the best they could do was $547 a month for 72 months and my jaw dropped. We really needed a car and several other dealers said they couldn't touch us with our poor credit. I said we couldn't pay a penny more than $500 a month and they came back with the price of $499 a month for 72 months. That is $35,900 for a $20,000 car! We agreed because really needed a car.

When we got to the finance manager he had us sign something that stated that we actually put $1,000 down when actually we post-dated a check for $750. He said this was the only way we could get financed and that he was helping us out. We ended up at the dealership almost 6 hours! When we were all done and ready to leave they handed us the keys and there was only one key! They said they only received one when they bought the car at auction. Did they offer to pay for another one? No!

We finally drove home and loved the car. We were surprised to learn that a second key would cost us an hour visit to the service department to program and fabricate a key and that it would cost $260 for the key plus labor. Six months later a problem developed with the engine and my mechanic said it was one of the rocker arms in the engine and that it was costly in labor to replace this part.

Then we got a flat because three of the tires were the original tires and they had almost no tread. Unfortunately, we don't have extra money due to the high payment and we don't have credit cards because of poor credit. It seems like a car with 45,000 miles shouldn't have a rocker arm go bad. Also, it was our fault for accepting the car with tires with no tread but it seems messed up that a dealer who made so much money on a deal couldn't put some better tires on the car.

I don't know if this qualifies as a ripoff report but I definitely don't trust Sherman Dodge and felt like they were really sleazy.