Depending on your options and your credit history, there are plenty of options in Houston, Texas to buy a used car. Lots of the major car dealerships offer 2nd and 3rd chance financing depending on the down payment and how much you want to pay per month. but if your credit if far from perfect (as mine was), then most of the car dealership want several thousand dollars down and payment options are not that great either. Sometimes the best thing is to do as Dave Ramsey says and pay cash for a junk car and save up for a better car.
I didn’t do that and I have ended up paying “stupid tax” so I hope by sharing my story, you don’t make the same mistake.
I checked several dealerships in the city and ended up going to Standard Auto Sales in Northwest Houston off Hwy 290 between Jones Rd and West Rd and the following is only my opinion based on my experiences with this company. I called after driving by and seeing their sign advertising cars for $495 down which sounded too good to be true. after going by and speaking to one of their salesmen, I discovered that the majority of the cars are between 7-10 years old or older (I ended up with a 1998 Nissan Altima, which was one of the better vehicles on the lot.
I took the car to a separate mechanic to get it checked out and found a host of issues. I gave them the list and they attempted to fix them but there were still problems. I paid a down payment of $750 and they allowed me to split the TTL into two separate payment of $330 each and then my monthly payment is $325 a month for 29 months (yeah, i know). Well, after not getting my license plate in time after the temp tag expired, i called and inquired and no one knew where my tags and plates where, which led me to believe that they were not processed in time and they didn’t have them. so I was then told to bring my car in so they could “check it out”. “I thought you already fixed the issues” I asked. Well they just wanted to be sure, which I think was a stall tactic so they could get my plates.
they gave me a “loaner car” with bad brakes and that needed an alignment so I couldn’t drive it too far without risking an accident so I had to wait two days to get my car back. Once I get the car back, less than 48 hours later, my transmission starts to leak…and leak bad (remember they were supposed to be checking it out?). So I had to take it to the shop – NO WAY was I taking it back to them! Turns out there were some cooling hoses that needed to be replaced so i had the transmission serviced while i was at it. Of course, Standard Auto Sales took no responsibility for the problem because it wasn’t leaking when they had it….yeah, right.
By my own admission, I thought my payment was due on the 15th of the month, but it was due on the 30th, so at the date of this blog post, my payment was late. As part of the application process, they get SEVERAL phone numbers from you and now I know why. Some guy called and claims he called me four times which he did not because I only had one call on one cell phone and another call on the other and chances are that they called my work phone, but i was out of town taking care of family and didn’t take either phone so I saw the missed calls and got both voicemails. While listening to one voicemail, they called on the other cell and I answered. The guy who spoke to me (I don’t even remember his name and don’t care) was extremely rude and talked to me like I was some type of deadbeat. Yes I know I am late, but only 10 days late, not 4 months late. As he disrespected me, I got angry and disrespected him as well so it was not a good experience for either of us, but i was not going to be intimidated.
Long story short, if you need a vehicle, PLEASE do not do what I did. Save your money and get a cash car and take it to a good mechanic and keep it running until you can get something better. If you choose to go to a dealer and finance a car – DO NOT GO TO STANDARD AUTO SALES! Just because people have bad credit, it does not give anyone the right to treat them with disrespect as though they are second class citizens because most of us will get better with our finances and improve ourselves.
