Re: Fair Price for an SRT-6 Coupe - Beware Lithia in Texas
Let me explain a two month saga regarding the Dealership Butthead Awards for which I nominate "Lithia Chrysler Jeep of Bryan Texas".
It starts during the last week of May 2006. In this thread, Josh (Coony737) said that there is a dealership called Trademark AutoGroup in Bryan Texas. Well, it used to be Bossier, then TradeMark, and now it's part of the Lithia group. Suffice it to say that they don't honor their promised prices, or they somehow are just inept enough to not follow through with out-of-state sales. I first dealt with TradeMark and they seemed to have it together... offered to sell a new, untitled Aero Blue SRT-6 coupe with 249 miles for $26,200... Of course, I would need to ship it to Calif... No problem. That was 2 days before the dealership changed hands (and although I smelled bankruptcy and not wanting them to boogie with my cash, I opted to wait a few days for Lithia to take over). So, the sales guy (the only one I really partially trusted) Herman Grice, said "Sure, I'll take care of closing the sale once we change our accounting system and I get my training from the new owner, Lithia. I have emails from him and his manager (Joey Ganem) about the $26,200 sales price. So, Lithia takes over the first week of June... and FIRES all the TradeMark guys. Now I start all over again.... Get a whole new crew of people negotiating the SRT6... finally come to $26,500 since they can't sell it at the same price as Trademark... I put $1,000 on my VISA card, June 8, 2006... Charge to my card shows up within 4 hours. Finance manager Jeff Wagnon did the deal. Sales Manager Eddie Shugart assures me everything will be handled... They promised to overnight the sales paperwork... No special financing needed or desired... Home equity credit line cash on the barrel to be used. I wait, then I wait some more. I email, "What's up?". They reply, "We will get that paperwork right to you..." I continue waiting... Hmmm... something is wrong here... Better get this thing checked out and get pictures, and have the car examined by a third party before shipping with DAS (Dependable Auto Shippers)... "Sure, we'll help you with that and get you some local car mechanics..."...Jeff gets promoted to Sales Manager and Eddie is now General Manager... Apparently they are drinking buddies with the owner... I continue waiting for paperwork, pictures, mechanics references... Get nothing... Weeks go by... OK, I smell fish...It's now July 18th... I fax a rather scathing letter to them about how they just blew an out-of-state sale... They sell cars, the process should be pretty much defined whether I'm in College Station Texas or Hyannisport Connecticut... I ask for a credit back to my VISA card... I wait again... I call several more times... 10 days later, after 4 more phone calls, I demand to talk to the business office to get my deposit back... They say they didn't have my charge card number to give me the credit as requested on 7/18... I said, "My phone number, address, etc was in EVERY email and fax I sent"... I have lips, I can read the number from my little plastic card, if someone were to CALL me... That's how I got into the mess in the first place...ahem... dipsh-ts.
Today, 7/28/06 I stood on the phone and read them my number again to finally get the deposit back, 2 full months after I first picked up the phone to call about the vehicle... Never, EVER do business with Lithia Chrysler of Bryan Texas unless you can walk into the showroom... They had 2 Aero Blue SRT-6's in stock... One went away during this ordeal, and now it's BACK in their inventory along with the one I put a deposit on... If you deal with these jerks, stick to your guns... $26K and change, out the door... Have it inspected beforehand, drive off after it checks out OK. Don't wait for any follow up on their part.
Bottom line is that they had no intention of selling the car to me at that given price, even from the beginning. Be careful. If you can't drive to their dealership within a reasonable timeframe... do not under any circumstances give them money (deposit or otherwise) until they FAX you the paperwork with the numbers, and you review it, right then and there.
Nuff said... Good day...
Last edited by cudaman; Jul 28, 2006 at 09:51 PM.