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Smart Shopper Buy Here, Pay Here
328 messages, Last post on Jul 19, 2009 at 7:42 PM
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I financed my first car when I was still 17. The lot owner figured why not, since I had already bought two cash cars from him and the note wouldn't end until I was 18. $300 down and $50 a week, total of $1300, for a 1975 Torino. I paid it off when I left for school, and he mailed me the title. No problem. Except the car burned to the ground before I got to school. Tires were to blame, I should have changed the front ones before taking a 900 mile trip at 75mph+ through Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado to get to Wyoming. Tough roads. I financed another car when I got to Wyoming. Parents took me up there and bought me a $300 1980 Caprice to get me by. Caprice overheated badly, still ran, but I couldn't rely on it to deliver pizza. So I put it and $300 down on a 1979 Chrysler LeBaron. Paid it off and traded it for a 1985 Olds Delta 88, cash deal, kept it for awhile. I financed my next car at a BHPH in Marion, Ohio. 1980 Buick Electra. $300 down, $50 a week, it got me around for a month until the starter locked up and caused a fire under the hood. Dealer took it back, no questions asked, and put me in a 1985 Dodge Charger hatchback. A month later my Dad co-signed a bank note on a nicer car (1993 Dynasty) and I gave the Charger back to the lot. No problem, they didn't care, they'd sell it to someone else. They were working on rewiring the Buick when I dropped the Charger off. Next BHPH lot I bought from was my wife's Lumina this past February. We're still paying on the car, had to make a couple minor repairs, but it's doing fine. We put $1300 down on it and financed around $3400 on a $3995 car at $75 a week. Pretty decent deal for a clean, reliable, well-kept 8-year old sedan with 118K on it and a dent in the left front fender. And finally, a couple hours later, two blocks over, I bought a 1997 model Lumina for $4995 and $700 down and $65 a week. I only got it so we'd have two good cars, but this one didn't turn out so good and wouldn't pass inspection. Because of the laws in Texas regarding emissions, the dealer either had to fix it to pass or buy it back. Instead, the dealer conveniently "lost" our last payment check, repossessed the car, and sold it to some other unlucky sucker. No problem. I don't have to worry about that car anymore, and because of their attitude and the quality of the cars on their lot, I'm not buying from that lot again. I even sent a friend to buy a truck from them at one point, and it turned out to be a real pile. They pulled the same trick, edited their computer to no longer show the last payment, repossessed the truck, and left him hanging. Reminds me...MAKE SURE you get a receipt every time you make a payment. Might help in small claims court. And if it wasn't over a measly $700 down payment and a few biweeklies, I'd be suing that dealer. Much cheaper to just let it go. I don't want to BHPH finance another car, but we may be stuck doing so when we get a minivan soon. Have kid #6 on the way. Oldest stays with her father, so we have to have 7 seatbelts and the Lumina isn't going to cut it. We're trying to work with the selling dealer to trade up, but they're only offering $600 versus the $1900 we owe, and that's wrong. Hoping to sell the Lumina outright to someone willing to wait while the lien is released from the title. I'm sure we can get $1900 for it at the very least, and start fresh on the minivan, whether it's from the same BHPH lot or not. Some BHPH lots are horrible. I know of one lot on the south side of town who has GREAT cash prices on their cars. One example would be a car we looked at back in February. Gray 1999 Chevy Lumina, 130K, cash price was $2799. Sounded great and if we could have financed that with half down and that price, we were all for it. But the finance price was $5799!!! They insisted on making an extra $3000 over an 18 month note instead of taking half now and 4 or 5 months at $300 a month. They would have had their money in much less time our way, and there is no reason to mark up a car to double the asking price to allow financing. And some BHPH lots are great, like the lot we bought my wife's Lumina from. No ridiculously priced sleds, no major mechanical gremlins, and they didn't even check her credit (it's BAD, and mine is even worse!!!). We've been able to pay by cash or check. I do wish they'd offer credit card payments so we could call in our payment like I did with my other BHPH Lumina that got repo'd.
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Replying to: qbrozen (Oct 12, 2006 5:39 am) It's evident that the financial means of most of the posters here, does not allow for a discussion of BHPH lots from a consumers point of view.
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Replying to: qbrozen (Oct 12, 2006 5:39 am)
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Replying to: bls2753 (Dec 15, 2006 1:38 am) |
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Replying to: bobst (Dec 15, 2006 7:12 am)
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Replying to: qbrozen (Dec 15, 2006 7:22 am)
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Replying to: bobst (Dec 15, 2006 6:26 pm) |
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Replying to: occupant1 (Nov 25, 2006 6:49 pm) Also - is the BHPH lot reporting your credit so that you can repair your credit? Hopefully you are making all your payments on time and if the dealer is making reports that will help repair your credit. |
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I've had pretty good luck with the few times I've done business with BH PH places. I'm not counting when I've walked in and bought an older car for cash. I dealt with one in Marietta, GA called Georgia Motors. They were a bit over-priced if you had to finace, but not insanely so. I called in advance once when I was having some money issues and got them to wait about a week and a half on a payment. They were very pleasant and very open on any issues the cars had. After all a $2000 dollar car WILL have problems. I know this, I'm a good mechanic, just tell me what to expect out of it and I'm okay with that. I'd cheerfully do business with them again if circumstances dictated and we hadn't moved to Louisville. As a basic rule of thumb: If the finance price is more than double what the car is worth...you may not wanna deal with that particular lot. There are a couple around here that are just horrible...
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Replying to: confused1096 (Mar 09, 2007 5:53 pm) Biggest thing a BHPH guy is looking for is a car that will out run the note, and they never let you get one paid for. When you come in to make your third to last $50 weekly payment they trade you into something else. I have learned one thing on this web site, allot of people look at things from only there point of view and not from others. What I mean is, Just because you can pay cash does not mean every one can. Just because you can afford to keep a $3000 emergency fund in the bank in case of repairs does not mean every one can. Just because you did not need GAP insurance does not mean every body doesn't Just because you qualify for a better rate then 19% does not mean every body does Etc, Etc, I am not saying any one person in particular, that just seems to be the general theme some times. |
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