Bill Heard Chevrolet - GET BACK

My Fiance' and I went to Bill Heard Chevrolet to possibly purchase (1) truck. We had a 1997 Grand Am that was running hot, etc. as a trade-in. I already had (1) vehicle, which I liked very much. Bill Heard's finance person "Dustin" asked me about what kind of vehicle I had and who I had it financed through, and when I told him, he said "Let us get you out of that situation because they are like a buy here, pay here car lot and don't even report your good payment history to the credit bureaus." I told them I would possibly be interested in a new car if my payment wouldn't be any more than my current payment. They said if I purchased a Cobalt, the payment would be very close to the same. My current car payment was due in a couple of days and Dustin said that it would take a couple of weeks for all of their paperwork to be finalized and that I should just call Stewart Auto Finance and tell them that I was out of town for a couple of weeks and I would make the payment when I returned and then I could just take the car back to Stewart Auto Finance and drop it off in their lot. I called Stewart Auto Finance and did as Dustin had mentioned, but they told me that they could not wait and if they repossessed the car, there would be a $400.00 repo fee, among possible additional fees. I decided to just go ahead and drop the car in their lot. I received a call from a different person at Stewart Auto Finance the following day, and I just ended up saying that I had been laid off from my job and could not make the payment anymore. I'm not sure where that situation will end up yet.

So, we ended up buying a truck and a car, we thought, anyway. They let us walk out of there with the (2) vehicles. We'd had them about (2) months, when we received a call from someone they were trying to get financing through on the truck, who asked me what I had provided to Bill Heard for proof of income. I told him I'd provided bank statements. He then said, "I knew these tax returns were bogus." I NEVER provided any tax returns....Bill Heard had to have forged paperwork to them. I called Bill Heard and told them about the call. They told me not to worry about anything, and they would get back with me. Well, a couple of weeks later, we received a call from Bill Heard saying that they were unable to get financing for the truck and we had to bring it back. We were both devastated, because they NEVER led us to believe it could be this way. This caused us much humiliation, embarrassment, anguish, etc. I can't begin to tell you enough about that. Anyway, we took the truck back and got the Grand Am that I had traded in, which was a nightmare to get running, took about a week, and cost around $1,000.00 (that was with my brother doing the labor work). Otherwise, it would have cost me a fortune.

My point is, we wanted a truck and ended up with the Cobalt and lost the one I had that I now wish I had. AND, the Cobalt ended up having a payment that is $120.00 more than the one I had. If we'd have just purchased the truck and kept the one I already had, we'd have (2) decent vehicles.

I think their tactics are very WRONG, and something should be done about it.

Comment On This

First of all, I know it is a bad situation but car dealers do that all of the time. they let you drive off with vehicles that do not have secured financing yet. Now as far as auto finance goes, thank god you are out of that mess. I am dealing with them right now and they are worse. They sell you cars that are way overpriced, not in great condition and almost impossible to trade in due to their crooked financing. They use some rule of 78's interest computation, that is already illegal in roughly 16 states. Sorry to hear that, but be glad you can walk away from auto finance.