Complaint Review: CarHop - Joplin Missouri

I also had an unfortunate experience with purchasing a car at CarHop in Aurora, Illinois.  We initially thought they were a godsend, until we got a look at the car in the daylight.

We arrived at the dealership around 4:30 PM and was made to wait until 9:30 PM before all the paperwork was finished and they told us what car I could purchase.  We had a test drive and found several problems.  They assured us they would fix them and others were no big deal (the tire pressure, the ABS and the traction lights were on and the interior light kept falling down from the ceiling of the car).  They even gave us a carfax report.  I signed the contract and only then did I find out what they were charging me.  It was almost twice what the Blue Book suggested price for this type of car should be.  I was desperate, so I signed on the dotted line.

I was in dire need of a car.  Needed transportation to work and my credit was such that I needed a large down payment at the other dealerships.  I couldn't afford that, so I ended up at CarHop.

The next day when I saw the car in the daylight, I was appalled that they had the nerve to charge me what they did for a used 1999 Trans Am.  The body of the car looked fine, but the interior of the car was a total wreck.  Filthy is not even the word for it.  I did not even want to sit on the seats of this car I had just bought.  I wanted to cry.  There was at least an inch of dust on every hard surface.  The carpet was dirty and the seats were just as bad.  There were cigarette burns in the vinyl of the car door and a hole in the top of the compartment in the middle of the front seats.  The next day I had a flat tire.  I had it fixed.  They told me the tire burst because it was bald.  When I took it back to the dealer, all I got was the run around.  According to them they had no idea what I ran over while driving.  The whole point of my story is to please, buy your car in the daylight!!!

After talking to them about the crack in the radiator, they offered to pay for the parts and I had to pay for the labor at their authorized repair center.  I thanked them for their consideration and took it to another shop and they replaced the radiator.  The new parts and labor were less than what they CarHop was going to pay for parts.

I have learned my lesson and hope that if you get a car from CarHop, please take it to a shop and get it checked out before you sign the papers to buy their bad vehicles.  The machanic told me that I will be replacing the alternator (bearing going out) and the serpentine belt (multiple cracks on the belt) on this vehicle within a few months.   The other lesson is that you look at your vehicle in the day light and don't buy it at night.  It only brings out the shady car dealers to give you the shaft.