Buy Here...Pay here

[jade73]

Just wondering if anyone has ever dealt with a buy here pay here car lot?

[JRScott]

I suppose I did years ago in Salt Lake City when I lived there, long before I had credit cards. I would suggest taking the car to a mechanic you trust before agreeing to buy it and have them look over it. Some of those places are not to reputable.

[justplaintired]

My daughter did. The car was fine, but they locked her steering wheel a couple times for being just a day or two late. So be careful and maybe check the BBB on the dealership. Some are probably ok. Good idea to check the car out with a mechanic.

[DeadManCrawling]

I used to do marketing for one of these places, and it was a harrowing experience. I handled all of their broadcast commercials for television and radio.

I am normally adverse to profanity but will include it in edited form here, to illustrate one perspective, and I understand the mods may need to edit it further than I have. Please understand I mean to not break any rules in so doing.

I had a meeting with one the owners to discuss the marketing campaign, their slogan was something like, We all ride, because WE care.

Me: So, what is the goal of this ad campaign?

Him: To sell as many damn cars as possible.

Me: Of course, understood, but what is the demographic you are hoping to reach and what is the message you wish to convey? Trust in your product? Outstanding customer support? Honesty? Integrity?

Him: I don't care how you word the f-ing thing, as long as it sells cars. We are here for one purpose, to make money off people that are too stupid to get a car in any other fashion. I want YOU to bring in any dumbass who is stupid enough to buy a car from me.

Me: Errrr. So, a general appeal to who? People on the lower end of the economic spectrum? It would be nice to build a brand and in turn some loyal customers.

Him: We don't do loyalty. We sell cars to people who otherwise can't get them. I don't know or care about the quality of the cars or the customer service. What I care about is if they have the money. If they drive our piece of S*it off the lot, and it totally collapses into a heap of rust as they hit the street, that is of no importance to me. But they GODD**AM well better be in with their payment on Tuesday.


This is a real conversation, and I remember it quite clearly. I found it so disgusting I didn't carry through with the job and never worked with them again.

I am not saying everyone is like this, and perhaps this fella should be saluted for his dead-earnest honesty if nothing else.

If you deal with someone in this field please protect yourself as best you can, either through an inspection of the car by a mechanic friend or anything you can do.

Again, my apologies if this came across too harsh or graphic, but you should know.

[justbroke]

I would attempt to stay away from the buy here pay here places by all means necessary. They are not in the customer service business. They are legal loan sharks who care nothing about you or the car. They only care about the payment.

[RainMoM]

When my husband and i first got married,, we really didn't have much credit at the time, just starting out an all, we bought a 1991 GM suv from a buy here pay here place.. I think our payments were like 52.00 a week..The car ran fine, I did have to fix the a/c as there was no warrenty on it.. As soon as tax time came around and from saving up, we bought a used car from a dealership, We callled up the buy here place and told them that we were moving to Canada, if they trusted us enough to pay ..will take the car with us, now all along we knew we didnt want the car anymore.. needless to say they were like, no just bring it back.. they gave us our contract back and I have never heard anything else from them.. oh yea, I drove my new to me used car to return my old car ..lol.. So not all places are bad, but do your homework and check em out before hand .. good luck !

[jade73]

I used to do marketing for one of these places, and it was a harrowing experience. I handled all of their broadcast commercials for television and radio.

I am normally adverse to profanity but will include it in edited form here, to illustrate one perspective, and I understand the mods may need to edit it further than I have. Please understand I mean to not break any rules in so doing.

I had a meeting with one the owners to discuss the marketing campaign, their slogan was something like, We all ride, because WE care.

Me: So, what is the goal of this ad campaign?

Him: To sell as many damn cars as possible.

Me: Of course, understood, but what is the demographic you are hoping to reach and what is the message you wish to convey? Trust in your product? Outstanding customer support? Honesty? Integrity?

Him: I don't care how you word the f-ing thing, as long as it sells cars. We are here for one purpose, to make money off people that are too stupid to get a car in any other fashion. I want YOU to bring in any dumbass who is stupid enough to buy a car from me.

Me: Errrr. So, a general appeal to who? People on the lower end of the economic spectrum? It would be nice to build a brand and in turn some loyal customers.

Him: We don't do loyalty. We sell cars to people who otherwise can't get them. I don't know or care about the quality of the cars or the customer service. What I care about is if they have the money. If they drive our piece of S*it off the lot, and it totally collapses into a heap of rust as they hit the street, that is of no importance to me. But they GODD**AM well better be in with their payment on Tuesday.


This is a real conversation, and I remember it quite clearly. I found it so disgusting I didn't carry through with the job and never worked with them again.

I am not saying everyone is like this, and perhaps this fella should be saluted for his dead-earnest honesty if nothing else.

If you deal with someone in this field please protect yourself as best you can, either through an inspection of the car by a mechanic friend or anything you can do.

Again, my apologies if this came across too harsh or graphic, but you should know.

Thats exactly what I thought but was just curious to know. I knew I'd get a good answer here

[RainMoM]

Jade.. that was only ONE person, you can't judge em all like that.. Now I'm not saying there the best option to do business with, but at lest do your homework on the place before you make up your mind !

[kenshirley]

You might say so. My Father started his car business in the 1950's selling reasonably priced cars to people who could not get them elsewhere due to poor credit.
His gimmick at the time was that the car had a 12 month warranty. For the first 30 days you could bring the car back or he would fix it. After that he would have his mechanic fix the car for his labor cost (cheap) and cost on the parts (about 40% off the prices you and I paid for them).
He had lots of customers and kept several mechanics employed. The warranty kept them busy on the old cars and cost my Father nothing.
His interest rates were fair and more reasonable than most at the time.
But yes if you did not pay on time when you agreed to and did not respond to the mail or phone calls he had the car picked up. Needless to say many he never ever located. Of those he picked up he gave the car back to most and they worked things out. Of those that did not pay my father never pursued a default judgement in court against the people. He just sold the car again.
And those that he did not recover? Just part of doing business.
As a result of the warranty and the way he treated people he had quite a business for many years. Many kids coming out of or in high school bought their first car from him. Later he became a new car dealer and had a Toyota Franchise starting in the 1960s.
Many of the outfits today are predators. If you miss a payment by even 24 hours they will call your loan due in total and take your car back and the only way you will get it again is to pay the loan off and many can't do that of course. That way the lot gets to sell the car again.
Some states, not all, passed laws to stop this type of business from playing games on the contracts like the do. But in many states when you sign a contract with the rules spelled out you are stuck with it.
All I can say is don't sign something that you cannot live up to and check out who these people are if you can. And the BBB in my opinion is a waste of time.
Remember too that if you sign a contract that you default on the courts will enforce the contract, like it or not.
If you want my advice, find an independent businessman. He has a reputation to protect in most cases. I would not do business with a corporation that wants to count the peanuts daily.
I thought with all my experience around the business I would try selling cars after retirement. Boy was I wrong. These dealerships today want to squeeze every dime they can out of you. I was involved with one deal that they spent 4 hours working with a customer with 3 salespersons and a floor manager to get an additional $350 out of the customer. The salespeople could have been working other customers but were required to stay with the customer!
I tried 3 dealerships and they were all the same. Being retired I just quit and took the education away with me. I refuse to treat people the way these outfits do today.
My Father told me that corporate greed would ruin this country someday. I think he was right or so things appear today.

[DeadManCrawling]

Indeed, my experience was with only one person, from one dealer. I do not intend to cast them all in the same light, and I suspect his customers knew the type of operation they were dealing with from very early on.

As in all things, our own good judgment is a better guide, but I wanted to share the seedier side of my experience, as a cautionary note.

[Minnymouth]

In our part of the country the "buy here - pay here guys" shut down in the winter months, then open back up in the spring...... they live off the payments thru the winter months.
Some of our "small private dealers" around here have been in business 20-30 years. They have excellent reputations and stand behind their vehicles. They offer a 30 day warranty on all parts and most cars are very reliable. If you have a problem within 30 days - they repair or replace it promptly.
Personally, I love being able to get a printout of the cars history thru "carfax". Tells me a lot about the vehicle, where its been and how many have owned it.
Many of the buy here - pay here are rebuilts or flood damaged vehicles or have salvaged titles.
SO BUYER BEWARE.......................

[woeisme]

We had no choice {since we are 2 years into a 5 year CH 13} but to go with a buy-here pay-here place to get a vehicle when one of ours conked out. (PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE! plan your CH 13 ahead of time and have a good car that will last going into it!!!). One of the places here in town is notorious for being a big rip-off joint, so we went with a different one where one of the salesmen is an old friend of my husbands. When we went there he told us that if we weren't picky about make/model, he'd find us something decent. After about a month he found a low-mileage minivan (54,000miles) for $7000 (after tax and interest) that he sold us. Hubby was wanting an SUV because of large size, but this works well for our family and gets as good gas mileage as our car. The place gave us a 3-month/3000mile warranty and we had a mechanic check it out and it was fine. (Former owner was a chain smoker from the smell tho!) I did the free CarFax and that looked good, didn't pay the extra to see the detailed history, maybe I should have... but too late now! Based on that experience, I would be willing to buy from this place again, although hope that the next time I need to go car shopping we have better credit! Last time we got a car it was from a dealer and they really worked us over, so you never know, some of them can be worse than the buy-here places!

[jade73]

Thanks Guys & Gals! I'll be extra careful !!