Complaint Review: Cal Worthington Carlsbad - Carlsbad California

I will start this off to say I have bad credit. It is something I have had to deal with since being laid off 2 years ago when I was Sales Manager. I went from $50,000 a year to $12,000 and was virtually unemployed for 2 years. Ok, enough of my sob story.

I contacted Cal Worthington Dodge in Carlsbad after what the nifty ad on TV with Cal himself saying they will finance anyone they want to as they have the resources to carry the paper in house.

I spoke to what I assumed was a nice enough gentleman (I've been around the block with car salesmen, so I know the real deal)Ron Muccino who said he was the Sales Manager. I told him my story and he said to fill out a credit app and fax it back to him. I did, and waited for his call. He called back and told me what I already knew, my credit had seriously gone south but he felt he could help me. He asked what I could put down and I told him $2000. He said based on that he could go no higher than $8000 total but that he had several cars on the lot that fit that price range. He said he had run the credit through his finance department and they could take care of me. I made an appointment to drive to Carlsbad (I live in El Cajon, about 40 miles away)today.

Now mind you I called him and asked what he had on the lot that he could finance me and he would not give me any specifics over the phone. He rattled off a few makes of cars and said they had plenty. I also asked him what he figured my monthly payment would be and he simply said it would be low.

Today I got all my paperwork together and the money and talked my roommate into driving me up. We arrived at the dealership and met Ron. He introduced me to Brian and said he would show me the cars he had. They had a total of about six cars on the lot in my price range. Two of them had an excess of 100,000 miles on them and one was a "Advertised Special" which he could not sell me because it was a "loss leader available only to people with great credit". Ok, so that left me with a Chevrolet Cavilier, a Ford Escort, and a Kia Rio. After much thought I settled on the $5,995 Kia Rio as it had the lowest miles in the group at 49,000 and was well under the $8,000 price tag. Now I must add that Brian was a VERY pushy salesperson and was trying to demoralize me throughout the entire experience.

I went into the office, filled out the full credit app for $6995 as they added a thousand dollars to the price for "special credit" and then they sent me to the finance department. I sat down and patiently waited for the finance person to get off the phone. He introduced himself to me, looked at my application for 2 seconds and said he would need an additional $2000 down for a total of $4000 to do this deal. I drove 40 miles to see two cars, waste about 3 hours and then I'm told they need double the original agreed downpayment on a Kia Rio.

I'm not sure how many people out there looking for "special credit" just happen to have double their intended down payment laying around but I sure do not! I explained this to him and he said I'm sorry, that is the only way he will do it. I got up and left the dealership, completely dazed with what had just happend.

Anyway, this is my story. Buyers beware!

Jim

San Diego, California
U.S.A.