After speaking over the phone with two people from the Kia of Lewisville sales team for two days my Mother and I went to Kia to purchase a vehicle. My mother was to be a co signer on this loan for 6-8 months to allow me to build positive credit.This was suggested by Nichole in sales. On July 12, 2007 we met with Will Shropshire who was my sales person. We looked at cars and decided to check out other dealerships because the car I wanted the 2007 Optum was $19945.00 and to expensive. We started walking off the lot and my salesman (William) went to get his Sales Manager, Angelo. After a long discussion making sure we asked every question we needed answers to he agreed to sale the car for 16,945 after giving 3000 for my trade.
We also discussed rebates and free gas for a year (which KIA advertises and we never got). The whole time it was understood my Mother would only be a co-signer and be on the loan for 6-8 months before she could drop off. Mom and I completed the applications and they took a copy of my license while she filled out all the paper work. After about three and a half hours of that we had to wait at least 45 minutes to meet with financing.
Finally we were led into Nick Baki's office to complete the sale. We asked why my name was not listed because the car was for me and my Mother was just a co-signer. He told me I didn't have to sign that paper. (He also sold us a warranty for $2000)We asked how much the car would cost me when it was all said and done. He said $20,835.27. As Mom completed the two long yellow forms one was blank. She asked why the paper was blank; Nick said oh, we will fill that out later! Because he had already told us how much the vehicle would cost and showed all calculations on the other yellow sheet that she signed first we didn't even think about it and she signed it. (Of course she should not have signed a blank contract but again we didn't think about it and had been there for about 4 and half hours at that point)This turned out to be our biggest mistake.
When done he did not give us anything to leave with, copy of the contract etc. I asked for our copy of the contract. He said they would mail it to us. He told us the bank would be calling also and not to tell them car was for me. We asked why and he said that would make it easier to approve the loan. We later found out that it's actually because it's illegal to sale a car to someone for another person. It's called a straw purchase.
We received the contract and warranty information in the mail around July 20th (after the 3 days we had to return the car if we changed our mind, that we were not told about) and than everything became clear.The contract was than filled in of course. While the cost of the car was 20,835.27 the interest was $8,116.17 and the rate was 9.89%. Bring the total to 28,951.44. Needless to say we were floored. Neither of us would ever pay that much for a KIA which is why the contract was blank. The other yellow sheet did not have the intrest information listed.
And we would have changed our minds had we know the full cost.We called and went back to the dealership more than 10 times only to be treated like we were lying about the contract being blank. And we were told there was no way to put me on the loan without refinancing the whole thing. When my Mother questioned who we thought was Nicks manager Justin Stokes(which I did not know at the time it was him) about the bank calling and things Angelo said. He said he fired Angelo so he didn't care what he told us and sales people would say anything to get the sale.
They're all liars and he works for the finance company not Kia. We were lied to and disrespected over and over again. My Mom has excellent credit. Her score is in the high 700's. And Angelo the sales manager (who had been fired in less than a week after he sold us the car for similar practices) assured her a low interest rate no higher than 6 or 7%. So what reason would her interest be so high? This has been the most humiliating experience in my life. Yes we made a huge mistake by signing a blank contract.
But we did ask all the right questions and got nothing but lies. I've attempted to contact the General Manager John Viola 8 times; he never answered or returns my voice mails. Michael Murphy the Manager of Sales advised he would have the director of financing call me who never did. I called back and asked for the Director of financing and got Justin Stokes who assured me he was him. Days passed and many conversations with Kia took place. Justin scheduled a meeting with me and kept me waiting 30min while he finished his lunch. He only explained away all the lies with excesses and treated me like I was stupid. Proving to be just as rude and useless as everyone else I encountered at Kia of Lewisville.
Eventually he said he was not the Director of financing but the highest level finance manager. I inquired about the Director of financing his name and how to contact him. He would not give a number and said I could only go through him, than he proceeded to walk out of the office and not come back leaving me in there alone. Another sales person gave me the number to Kia of Plano advising that was the corporate office. When I called that office instead of being concerned about the issue they just wanted to know if Justin gave me the number to call them.
They took my information said he would research it and call me back. That was August 31st to this day no one has called. How much more humiliating can this get? At this point nothing as been resolved, I'm looking for an attorney and also reporting this travesty to the Attorney Generals office, Consumer Affairs and anyone else who will listen. I've discovered Kia of Lewisville has an unsatisfactory rating with the Texas BBB for these very reasons. And there are several attorneys in Lewisville with multiply clients that have cases against this dealership. I'm not going to let this go. They will rectify this situation or loose money and business as a result.
Hopefully you can get the word out so others can be warned and not make the same mistakes we did.
Read Next Complaint >>