Well, it’s almost a week since we thought we “bought” a new 2009 Malibu 2LT, and we’re in the process of looking for a replacement. It turns out Donnie’s cousin works for Manfredi in Staten Island, so we’re going to hit them up today and see what we can do. If he offers us at least what Curry was, we’re taking the vehicle; no questions asked. I just want the car in my garage and I want this whole thing to be over with dammit (although, no worries, I won’t be settling for something I don’t want; at this point it’s my car or no car).
As for Curry Chevrolet, thousands of people have seen the original story here because of Consumerist’s link love and a quick stint on Digg. The story has been retweeted on Twtitter and commented on and viewed on Facebook. In essence, I’ve done everything possible to ensure that everyone everywhere sees the story. Curry Chevrolet’s name, as far as I’m concerned, is mud right now. In fact, do a search on Google for Curry Chevrolet. Those negative stories are right there alongside their corporate page.
A few interesting tidbits before I leave this story behind.
1. I spoke to the Sales Manager on Wednesday for an extended period of time. Time and time again, she tried explaining away her actions as her just trying to get the car for us. I was misunderstanding her gesture of good will, apparently. On that day, I also bought a bridge. A nice one. In Brooklyn.
2. That same sales manager demonstrated yet again why I won’t do business with Curry. Now we hadn’t signed the financial agreement for the car at the time, but the numbers she was giving us was based on 72 months, not 60. We were told that they were doing that so that we could have lower payments. What she didn’t tell us (that we figured out) was that had we qualified for the 60 months zero percent financing (I still don’t know if we would’ve, honestly, but they hadn’t checked), we would be paying $6,000 less over the life of the loan. $6,000 less! By adding another year and a quarter to our payments, she cost us $6,000! No apology offered. Another miscommunication.
3. That same Sales Manager told us that the car we wanted was located at another dealership and we could have it for the same price. Aside from the sticker price having no adjustments made to it, why in the hell didn’t she just do that from the beginning instead of trying to “gold mist” us with colors we didn’t want on way more expensive models? Trying to clear out the non-moving inventory are we?
4. Aside from the final bill of sale, and the loan numbers on the agreement, the paperwork was done. As far as we knew, we owned that blue one we liked so much when we left that dealership on Sunday. Many people have pointed out that it didn’t look as if the deal was done because we had to go back Monday night to do the rest of the paperwork. All that was was the final numbers on the financing, but the agreement had the VIN, our tradein, and our deposit on it and was signed by both of us. The car was ours if they hadn’t already sold it.
5. To this day, I don’t believe that car was sold when we were there on Sunday. Every other car that was sold had a “SOLD” sign hanging on the rearview mirror. That one didn’t. You can’t tell me that car sold and no one marked it sold. They seemed very thorough with the other models we saw that were sold including 3 $80,000+ Corvettes.
6. My father correctly pointed out that they were doing nothing for us to apologize for the eff up. We weren’t getting the 0%, we weren’t shown the $2750 rebate, they didn’t take anything off the sticker. The most they offered was an additional $500 on my tradein (bringing it up to a whopping $1500) and then showed us cars that were almost $2000 more than the one we wanted to begin with. To top that off, we had to wait for our refund. Knowing we were coming in, my refund should’ve been done on Monday and we start from Square one. That didn’t happen, either. They knew they were going to sell me on some other vehicle as quickly as possible.
7. Lastly, the dealbreaker for me was the complete cavalierness with which they handled my insurance. When I added David to the “okay to contact” list on Sunday, it was in case something was wrong so he could contact them directly. Yes, GEICO still has to talk to me to make actual changes, but allowing him to talk to GEICO makes things go much smoother. New York has its fair share of forms they need filled out and proof for the bank and for the insurance company has to be exchanged 200 times before a car can be sold. With my work schedule and Beth’s, the fact that someone could do that for us was a Godsend. Many have argued that the reason that Curry was able to was able to talk to GEICO on Monday was because we were “dumb enough” to allow it. Well, that’s about 50% true. The fact that I walked out of that dealership at 8:05 Monday telling them I not only didn’t want to do business with them but that I’d be back the next day to get my refund meant they no longer had my authorization to call anyone in my name and they did it anyway. I would be able to forgive anything else that got messed up with them, and had they simply called me first, I might have even let them do it and probably would’ve picked the new car up the next day. The insurance stuff (letting the old car off the showroom floor without telling me so I could take it off my policy, and then adding a car to my policy on the night I left without authorization) is what put me over the edge in not wanting to deal with them any more.
So today I’ll make what will be the last attempt at buying this same car. I know what I want, I know what it’ll cost, and that’s that. I loved the car when I test drove it, and Chevy should consider themselves lucky I’m at least partially brand loyal. I’ve always liked Chevy as a company, and I’ve always liked their cars. Test driving the Malibu last weekend was so satisfying that I couldn’t walk out the dealership without buying it. That speaks volumes, if you ask me, about their products.
But Chevrolet’s biggest problem may not necessarily be the cars it makes or even the perception of those vehicles. It’s the frustration of dealing with shady shifty dealerships. The first Malibu, when we bought it, was the first new car I had ever purchased. We walked in, leased it, and walked out. When we went back to buy that lease, we had the worst experience to that point. This experience with Curry, just reinforced what GM ought to know already: the problem isn’t your cars, it’s the people you have selling them. I’m 0 for 2 as far as Chevrolet dealerships go.
Not a good record when you consider I’ve only been to two in the last eight years.
