Car dealer woes w/ St. John's aka Larry Miller Nissan in Littleton, CO!!!
On 1/12 I was involved in a car accident that totalled my '96 Rav4. In February, I went to St. John's Nissan and bought a 2005 Nissan XTerra S for an agreed upon price. During the sale, my wife and I stated at least a dozen times that we wanted to go through our own Credit Union, who we already had a pre-approved loan with. The salesman said that wouldn't be a problem, and that they were networked with our Credit Union to make that easy to do. Fast forward a month. Last Thursday, I receive a Loan Payment booklet from Security Service Federal Credit Union. I call our Credit Union, and they've never heard from St. John's regarding the car purchase. It also turns out St. John's ran my credit twice during the sale, which puts my credit level at lower than 740, which is what was required to get the set interest rate that I had been pre-approved for at our Credit Union, which was 5.5%. I called St. John's today and was told that they went with another company because of a lower interest rate, even though I told them countless times at the time of sale that I wanted to use our Credit Union. So I call Security Svc Federal CU, and the interest rate with them was also 5.5%, so Matt at St. John's Nissan/Larry Miller Nissan pretty much completely lied to me this morning. He also said I would be receiving a call from their financing dept to discuss options, which has not yet happened. If this was the only problem with this company, it would be bad enough, but when I bought the car they didn't include the white sheet with my paperwork, which I didn't realize until later when I discovered I didn't have an antenna or the remote keyfobs that were supposed to come with the car. So I had to drive to St. John's/Larry Miller Nissan twice to argue over accessories that should have been included with the car, not to mention anything else that I maybe should have gotten but don't know about because I didn't receive the white sheet with the car to verify. The icing on the cake is that I called our Credit Union to refi the loan back to them, only to be told that I would now have a 5.75% interest rate with them due to the screwup and 2 credit reports that St. John's/Larry Miller ran that lowered my overall credit rating. I have called St. John's/Larry Miller, and am supposed to be hearing back from their finance dept, but haven't heard back yet. So far, St. John's/Larry Miller has completely screwed up every facet of a car sale that they possibly can, and nothing short of buying back the car from me at this point will probably satisfy me from a customer service level. If you live in the Denver area and are looking for a Nissan, I would strongly recommend against this place.
Sorry to hear about all the problems. I have heard some horror stories from people. Luckly I didnt run into any real issues when I bought mine. The sales guy was good and we pretty much haggled a good deal to get what I wanted for the price I could afford.
__________________ 2005 Radiant Silver Crew Cab LE 4x4 Frontier Mods : (visual) Manik Brush/Grill guard, Manik tail light guards, weathertech window vents, Tweety and Scooby Doo window decals, Pathfinder window switch covers, (audio) new 6disk in dash cd changer, (performance) Extang Blackmax cover Car Domain : http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2183325 Website : http://www.moonsofneptune.com
From what I've been told around here, things have changed so that a car dealer pulling your credit shouldnt hurt your credit score.
I've never really understood why it should lower the score. Pulling a credit report vs. taking out more credit isnt the smae thing. Maybe you're shopping around aand want to know the best deal they can get you. I would have St. John contact the credit bureaus and talk to them about what has happened, or do it yourself. There has to be a way to correct it but if no one calls the credit bureaus, it wont get changed...
Could it just be that rates went up in the month you waited?
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-'05 Storm Gray SE CC 6-spd 4x4 w/skids, fogs and 2" F/R PRG lift
From what I've been told around here, things have changed so that a car dealer pulling your credit shouldnt hurt your credit score.
I've never really understood why it should lower the score. Pulling a credit report vs. taking out more credit isnt the smae thing. Maybe you're shopping around aand want to know the best deal they can get you. I would have St. John contact the credit bureaus and talk to them about what has happened, or do it yourself. There has to be a way to correct it but if no one calls the credit bureaus, it wont get changed...
Could it just be that rates went up in the month you waited?
No, rate for 740 or higher at my CU is still 5.5% according to their loan dept, which I can no longer qualify for. I guess things could have been worse, they could have stuck with with a higher rate than I was getting at my CU, at least I'm getting the same rate. Now I have the inconvenience of having to mail in a check once a month instead of having my CU pull the money directly out of my account. Yes, it's a small thing from that perspective, my problem is that I went out of my way to say that we were pre-approved with our CU many, many times during the sale to both the salesman as well as the financing guy, and our words went completely unnoticed. They did everything they could to milk us for a sale and pushed us out the door. Even if I could get them to get the CRA to pull the 2 inquiries they made, my CU has already run one and will have to run a 2nd in order to check again, so I'm basically screwed when it comes to having the loan at my CU instead of some CU I've never heard of in San Antonio, TX.
I submitted a complaint with Tom Martino at www.troubleshooter.com, and they just called me back, gonna be on tomorrow at 9am mountain time. Kinda freaked out, but it shoudl be interesting.
To be honest with you, I'd be bullpoop with the whole thing. In fact, the way I am, I'd have told them to stuff it and walked out the door. What they did is fraud. I would also file a complaint with the credit bureaus as a matter of principal. I'm quite sure the state attorney general would be interested to hear about it as well. Basically, I'd screw them over the same way they did you.
If you were very clear that you had financing arranged, that should have been it. I worked out the price for my truck on the phone, went in the next day to see what I could get in trade, ran the numbers real quick and told him to get me the truck (it was en route to another dealer at the time). Once he got the VIN I went to my CU, filled out the paperwork, picked up a check the next morning and went to get my truck.
I do have one other question for you though...if they got you financed through a bank (CU, same difference) other than the one you wanted, why didnt you stop them when you were filling out the paperwork? (yeah, I suppose it could be that different out there but here the bank's name is on the paperwork for the loan at least...)
I'll admit, I had a very good experience. Good enough that I went back to the same salesman 2 months later to buy my wife an Accord. That was done on the phone too but it was the day after I drove one.
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-'05 Storm Gray SE CC 6-spd 4x4 w/skids, fogs and 2" F/R PRG lift
I do have one other question for you though...if they got you financed through a bank (CU, same difference) other than the one you wanted, why didnt you stop them when you were filling out the paperwork? (yeah, I suppose it could be that different out there but here the bank's name is on the paperwork for the loan at least...)
Contract clearly says that the institution the contract would go to was my credit union, I have it out in my car. According to the dealer, they tried to send it through my CU but it didn't go through at the 5.5%. Basically, they never even talked to my CU, they just ran a credit report and submitted it to various lenders, and popped with the cheapest. Even after telling them over and over that I was pre-approved with Bellco, and confirming that fact the Friday before I went to pick up the car, they ignored it. Between the dealer and the CU my loan ended up with, I had my credit run 3 more times the week after I drove away with the car. I'm disgusted by the whole thing, because now I'm stuck with a loan from a CU that I didn't want for the next 5 years, and they spiked my credit with enough inquiries that I can't go back to my CU and refi at the 5.5% I initially was pre-approved for.
Well, I never got my call from Martino, but I did talk to a lawyer here in my office, who encouraged me to file a complaint with the State AG, so I did that. I guess for now I'm in a holding pattern until they respond to my complaint.
I'am intrested in how you got a loan from a bank without signing that banks loan agreement?
You do realize that the dealer gets a kickback from banks that they refer customers to (if they are part of there "network")
"St. John's ran my credit twice during the sale"
Why were they running credit reports, if you were already PREapproved by your CU? You should have told them that finance has been taken care of, and if they metioned it again, ask them if they did not hear you the first time and if they metion it again, that will be reason you will get up and leave.
"which I didn't realize until later when I discovered I didn't have an antenna or the remote keyfobs that were supposed to come with the car"
You did not notice the lack of keyfobs when they handed you the three keys?
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There are still lots of "old school" dealers out there that are dishonest and use unfair tactics and prey on people like yourself. No big loss, just chalk it up as education.
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On a side note, I bought my Pathfinder in Colorado. Wanted to buy it in Co Springs however, First dealer in the springs was on the "shady" side and the other did not budge on price. So I went to Peublo for a good price and good dealership.
Doesn't sound like your credit union is very user friendly either.
My credit union is fine, the financing guy from St. John said straight out that he never even tried to go straight to my CU, he just ran it through a lender network and pulled one, even though I had specifically told them many many times that I was pre-approved through my CU.
I'll definitely know better next time, and get a check from the CU to bring with me when I bought the car. Yes, it's a lesson learned, it's just too bad it's a lesson you learn and usually don't have to deal with again for 5-10 years.
What I was trying to say is that if your credit was fine with your credit a short time earlier and they see the knucklehead pulled a credit check, your credit union would know this and not penalize you. I been told that multiple credit checks in a short time period like this don't hurt your score now, because the credit agencies should "undrstand" that you are shopping for a car loan or a mortgage.
FICO scores seem to be designed to cause low scores.
I have got to say that I also don't think that a credit score is affected by multiple checks. Just dont make late payments on loans and you are golden.
Have you checked to see how much more $$ the dealership loan is over the the credit union loan? If the difference calculates to maybe a couple hundred bucks, over the life of the loan, than the dealer may want to cut you a check for that amount in order to make things right.
a $20,000 loan at 5.5%, over 4 years, will cost $22,326.24.
a $20,000 loan at 5.75%, over 4 years, will cost $22,435.68.
The cost difference between the two loans is about $109.44. This is the amount that I would expect the dealer to pay you. Give the manager there a call with this number and see what they can do for you.
It is true that you learned a lesson from this, and so did we all because you took the time to tell us about the deal. I ran some numbers through the calculator, and if you can throw some extra money, soon, at this auto loan (sell some junk that is laying around or work a few extra shifts---that kind of thing) then the cost of this auto loan will end up looking like you got a much better deal than even the 5.5%er that the C.U. was willing to offer.
With a 5.75% loan of $20,000; if you could scrape up $500 extra bucks by May, and send it in as an extra payment, then Make a similar extra payment of $500 bucks every Feb.1st (this might be about the time of the anniversary date of the loan), then your final payment would be 54 bucks and you would be off the hook 4 months early.
Not only that, but the amount of interest you would pay is the same as if you had a 5.0% loan.
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Car dealer woes w/ St. John's aka Larry Miller Nissan in Littleton, CO!!!
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