Buying a car in rip-off hell.

Since getting home buying a car has been hell. Used cars are up some 40% in the past 2 years.  4 years ago I bought a Nissan Rogue SUV 2 years old for 17k with 20k miles at 1.5 % interest over 5 years.  It was new as far as I was concerned, and my payment was $296 a month. It was a hell of a deal, and I bought it from Enterprise rental car sales. Easy peasy no haggling. I walked in drove it and bought it and walked out in an hour. End of story. I drove it for 5 years and never had an issue.

Now I’m in used car hell with prices for 4- and 5-year-old cars astronomically high and already driven half to death.

The same car that’s 4 years old now is now $21,000 and has 60K- 70K  miles on it with a 6% interest rate. So now it’s nearly $500 a month over 5 years. Holy shit batman is all I have to say.  

The thought of spending over 20K for a 4–5-year-old car is outrageous to me. Especially a nearly 5-year-old car.  It’s not like I’m looking at high-end cars like BMW, Lexis, etc. that friends and family buy. No, I’m looking at plain ole cars like a Hyundai Tucson and of course the original Nissan Rogues I drove before. Nothing fancy, only the base models with no heated seats or leather or anything.

So I made the grave error of negotiating on a cherry apple red Nissen Rogue with a nice interior at a  dreaded dealership on the late afternoon of  July 4th. I hate dealerships as they jack up the prices and pressure you with up to four people when you buy the car, they surround you and push numbers at you and make it out like they can get you a low monthly car payment but the catch is the # of years financing.  So you end up paying $5-7k more than the car is worth if you can’t pay cash upfront.

I was with a friend and right off the bat I had 2^nd thoughts and didn’t want the Red Rogue as we sat in front of the finance guy who conveniently added $4000 for the warranty and gap insurance as it “only added $15 a month on the payments. First sucker add-on.

My gut was screaming “Leave now or forever hold your voice.” I didn’t leave and now I’ve been fighting to take this car back ever since.

The sad thing was I had another car on hold somewhere else with no history and should have walked away from this one and waited to get the other one that was at the Hertz car sale place in 3 days.

Turned out this car had a history of fender bender in its past. Not that that would be a huge problem, but I had a near anxiety attack over it and wanted to back out. But everyone I talked to said “All used cars can have a history don’t worry.” Well next time if my gut says walk, I’m walking. So-called “minor damage” means nothing. This car I think had major damage and somebody covered it up.

Long story short I took it home two days later and 6 hours after I took it home the front bumper was coming off the vehicle. I wanted out of this car and rook it back where they made me wait 2 hours then said no fix until the next Monday and they gave me no loaner. $100 in uber rides later I was stuck waiting on the fix. Then I took the car and the next day the alarms were going off and the locks didn’t work on the vehicle. I took it back again and told them to honor their 3 days return and take it back, but they refused.

I was forced to take another car or suck it up.

Then after 5 days of repairs, I took it back and 5 days later while driving I heard a noise; the undercarriage fell off the car. Holy shit. This time I feared for my life. I started wearing a rosary praying to God the car wouldn’t kill me. And I’m not a religious person.

At that point, I had it and called the Nissen corporate office as a friend who used to work there. I complained and they contacted the dealership on my behalf suddenly the jerk-off dealership called me back but said “Someone would be in touch.” who might that be? The GM or gernerla manager they said. Interesting it took a call from corporate. After all, they own the franchise license of this dealership. Corporate is daddy.

But despite the call from Daddy Corporate, I got no response from the “big manager “ of the dealership for two days. So I took the car back with a friend in person (my 3rd week of owning this car) and gave it back. The GM was a dick to put it lightly. Acting like I was the problem, not the car.

Despite the general manager arguing with us, when I mentioned daddy corporate and my friend threw in the statement: “Isn’t it fraud to sell a certified car and then the bumper falls off, the locks stop and the undercarriage falls off?

He then backed off and said he’d buy the car back and Ide have a check in a few days. I handed over the keys.

Here I am six days later, and the car is not paid off. I’m in a rental and pissed off.  I emailed, called, and left messages, the General manager is ignoring me, yet they have the car in their possession. WTF.

So I called the daddy corporate office again and they will be contacting him on my behalf.

I’m in hell. Car hell, used car hell, and spending $40 a day on a rental. Fuc me.

I need a car and can’t buy another one until I know this one shows paid off. Plus he owes me the $4000 downpayment. Will I actually get it???

So here I am wanting to drink another bottle of wine despite my low-carb diet.

I hate dealerships.

I’m tired

I’m cranky

I want my siesta.

And thanks to no vacation time I can’t travel either.

Somewhere in Texas

In used car hell.