I owned a car outright, but felt it was time for me to get something that handled on the snow better. Since my divorce, I didn't have perfect credit and had to resort to someplace like this in order to have a shot at getting it rebuilt. I gave them my trade-in and they gave me around 1,500 credit for it, I then also paid around 700 down in cash.
I bought an SUV, 99, for in the end around 10,000 plus interest...ending at around 15-16,000 when fully paid off. Not the best decision of my life, but was hoping this was a fresh start and was willing to pay for that outcome.
I had this car for around 3 weeks, even still had the paper plate on it, when I was driving down the street and it starting puffing out smoke and wouldn't take any gas. Yes, I had bought it "as is", but like most people I expect it to at least run for a few months before it breaks down. I ended up getting it towed (at my expense of course). My mechanic informed me that although he wasn't sure what was causing that specific problem, that the actual motor wouldn't be running very long. He said, "I wish you had brought it here before buying it"...Oh, how I agree with him on that one.
I ended up getting the car to them and letting them have it..there is no way I could afford to have to put a motor or anything else into that car. If I had, had the thousands of dollars to begin with, I would have just paid a few thousand outright for a car again and been done with it.
So..here I am stuck..I have no car, couldn't get out of town to work, lost my car I owned plus the money for the down payment and almost 100 per week in payments up to that point.
I now am stuck walking to work, and trying to figure out how I am going to buy another car. To add to it all, I get a letter they have sold that car for around 2,500 and say that I owe them over 8,000 they are out.
Let me figure that out...they got my trade-in (which they sold and are getting interest on), they got my down payment and payments, got over 2,000 at auction, and now say I OWE THEM over 8,000.
I got a temp job, and I walk to work. I also get my credit totally ruined and have to worry about a garnishment for the next ten years. Yes, that's fair.
Yes, I know when you buy at a place like this you take a chance. I also believe though that if you expect all of that from me, plus around 100 per week in payments (almost half of what I bring home a month), then at least give me something I can drive for longer than few weeks. That isn't an outrageous thing to expect, it's a reasonable thing to expect.