Complaint Review: Pitre Buick GMC - Albuquerque New Mexico

     My wife and I were in the market for a used small pick-up truck around $5,000. A Petri sales representative said he could help us and showed us three vehicles, later to find out they were all between $10,000 and $23,000. Several times asking if I liked what I've seen and gradually asking if I could spend a little more. Eventually I was looking at a jeep for $10,000 but he said it was no longer available and it was going to be sold to a whole saler for an un-known price.                                       

     The only thing available was a 2008 FJ Crusier by Toyota for $22,995. I was told it was 4X4, had good tires and it would get around 26miles to the gallon and was a $40-$50,000 vehicle when new. Another guy showed up on the sien telling Joey(salesmen) there was a small Dodge pick-up in the back for $4,000 which was just what we had in mind. Problem being, check engine light was on and no gas in it. Joey said to test drive the $23,000 FJ Cruiser to see if we liked it while he had someone check it out and put gas in. Joey went for a ride with both my wife and myself for about 20 minutes.

     Upon returning we found gas was put into the pick-up but no one had an answer for the check engine light being on.Following our test drive. At this point we were at the dealership for one hour. After repeated delayes lasting for a total of 3 1/2 hours we were comparing prices between the bottom line $23,000 FJ Crusier and the $4,995 pick-up. Part of the time was my wife going home for our insurance card. Before she went home I told her to check the book value on the FJ Crusier; turns out Pitre had the same FJ Crusier on their web page for $20,995. My wife also found out the $40- $50.000 vehicle turned out to be $31,000 for a brand new FJ Crusier at the Toyota dealership across town on Uncer Ave.

Now a new salesmen arrives on the sein because I lost my temper with Joey. He said he would take care of us and give the best deal. He had the loan officer fill in some blanks on a purchase agreement so we would have an idea of the cost of financing at 2.99% which we were told was the best rates we could get with my wife and my excellent credit rating. We decided to go home. As we were sitting in the car preparing to leave, Chuck came running out with another $1,000 reduction on the price. "So come on back in and we will show you what it looks like on paper." he said. 

     As we were waiting again with hunger pains at this point, their loan officer took the liberty of filling in nearly all the blanks on a purchase agreement. I said we needed more time to think and his responce was for us to "take the truck home for the week-end, check with our bank to see what our banks rates were and he said he didn't think they could come close to the 2.99% they offer. It was about 6PM then and we wanted to go home. He said for us to go in and sign some papers with the loan officer and he would explain and give us what the monthly payments would be.

     Upon entering the loan officers office, we found there were quite a few papers he had prepared for us to sign. for us to sign before we could take the vehicle. Insurance,drivers licences and a purchase agreement where the bank name was left out because we didn't know what we were going to do with it yet. The loan officer said for us too "just sign here and we will decide that on monday." Chuck was outside the office and handed me the keys when we got out. Chuck said for us to meet him on Monday about noon Finally we got out. It was shortly after 6:30 when we got home on "Saturday" night.

     Come monday my wife and I spoke and decided not to get the vehicle. So she went to work and I went to return the FJ Cruiser. When I met up with Chuck at Petri I told him our decision plus, Toyota offers 2.85% on their loan. He immediately said we signed a legally binding contract with them and we had to pay for it and if we wanted to contest it we needed to get an attorney. Needless to say, I became un-glued and acused them all of being deceiving lyars... Called my wife, told her the situation and she became so sick she had to take the rest of  the day off.

     I will say this. Several other dealerships told me they would have just torn up the papers and let us go back to check on what we originally came in for; a small pick-up. Never trust this dealership because they use devil contracts and my belief is it is a team effort.