Saturn of lake Charles/ Santander consumer finances Did your car salesman lie to you because he knew he could take advantage of your age and sex?? La

5th of Dec, 2011 by User293587

I had just turned 18 years old when I decided to try and buy a car. I had been managing a restaurant for 3 years. So I went up to the saturn dealership to see what they could do for me. I brought $2000 with me and my mother of course because I didn't know too much about purchasing a vehicle. The salesman took all my info and found that I had no credit. Not bad credit, just no established credit. He took my $2000 down payment and put me in a Honda civic. He said that I was not getting the civic, just that I needed To drive it around for a few days until he found me something. 2 days passed and he called me to go back up to the dealership and to bring $2200 with me. So I went up to the dealership bringing everything they asked of me, but this time I didn't bring my mom. They then showed me a 2007 Saturn ion. The salesman said this was my only choice now. The sticker on the window said the car cost $10995. Note to self from now on take a picture with the car before you leave the lot. He knew that this was my first purchase and had no earthly idea what I was getting myself into, so he took full control and was using words I didn't understand. When he took me inside to start filling out paper work the price of the are had done gone up $4000. He told me he was just gonna have to write on the paper that it was $14995 because of the large down payment he was asking of me. So he lied to the finance company about the price of the car. Then the salesman proceeds to tell me that the only way I can keep this car is if he tells the finance company that the car had a sunroof and seat warmers, which it did not have. I didnt understand why it mattered.My interest rate was 25%. So the final cost of the car now would be $26,000. I thought this was how all car sales worked. I thought by the time I got my first bill that the Payments would start making the cost of the car go down. This was impossible because everytime I would send in a payment the final cost would go down a little, but not my full payment. It would mostly stay around the same price because of the interest rate. Santander would call my place of work every day. I felt very discouraged like there was no way it can be this hard to have a vehicle . I never seen anyone with so many problems with their vehicle and finance company. After so many stressful calls to the finance company to find out why they need to call me everyday. I waited about a year and my payments werent putting a dent in the final cost I gave up. After a year of making payments the car cost was at $1100. Thanks to that lovely interest rate and helpful individuals. I now know that you can't trust anyon as far as you can throw them. I just couldn't do it anymore. I was going to college for nursing in the mist of all this. They came to repo it 1 year after I bought it, and I wasn't going to fight for it. I had no choice but to quit going to school, and try to pick myself back up. I have asked santander to fax me the repo letter about 3 different times so that I can bring it up to the DMV to get my license back because of the flags , and they refused to give it to me saying that I owe them $7000 because they sold the car for $4000. How can anyone my age get a vehicle on their own? You would have to know people or your parents had to have lived a productive life with credit. If not...hang it up. Thanks

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