I bought a car from DriveTime near the end of June, 2010. In August, I had to take it to a repair shop to have a wheel bearing replaced. This, luckily, was covered under warranty. Two months later, in October, I had to take it in AGAIN! The rotor on the wheel that had the bearing replaced was warped by the previous repair, but since it is a "maintenance" item, it is not covered, even though it cannot warp itself. Additionally, my car has started stalling, making it a hazard to drive. They say this is also a "maintenance" problem, so it is also not covered. The warranty office told the repair shop these are maintenance items because I have put 11, 000 miles on the car in three months. I thought the warranty was 3yr / 36, 000 miles, not 3yr / 36, 000 miles unless you drive a lot. I now have a car that I've owned right at four months that has a $1, 400 repair estimate, all of which I must cover myself. This so-called "Warranty" is apparently good for nothing.

I purchase a car from them 01/29/2010, this was the whose thing I could ever done. Had to return the car back 01/30/2010 due to hearing noise and the steering wheel shake when driving for a long period of time. The sales guy and manager given me a number to take the car to get fix~OMG~The number had a voice mail that stated leave a message and we will return the call. Well after several attempts I taken the car to Sears and paid $75 just to tell me they couldnt find anything. I've been dealing with Drivetime going on 8 months for Ron the Supervisor over warrenty to tell me that it not covered~OMG~WTH~I complain about this 2007 Malibu from day one. He pretty much explain to me today in a nice way that ONCE I DROVE THE CAR OFF THE LOT, IT BECAME MY PROBLEM!

If any CLASS ACTIONS cases coming up please hit me up at [email protected]~BOGUS~

We live in Phoenix Arizona. On May 20, 2006, we traded in a 1987 Chevrolet Celebrity as our sole form of "downpayment" at the DriveTime dealership at 2143 W Camelback Rd in Phoenix, towards a 2003 Kia Rio Cinco, a small station wagon. We went to DriveTime only having been turned down by all the other major dealers in and around Phoenix; we needed a car that had working A/C, and the Chevy also had a mysterious "leak" that we couldn't figure out. We had been paying for a child to be in private school 1500 miles away, and didn't have any cash to hand over as additional downpayment. As of yesterday, June 23, 2010, the lien on the title was released. We took a loan from relative to pay it off; we took a Cashier's Check for just over the current quoted balance the previous Thursday, to their corporate office, their headquarters in Mesa, AZ.
Clearly, the pieces of paper we signed back in 2006, should have told us that these people are loan sharks! The "sticker price" on our car, before we took it off the lot, was $11, 329.00. As of right now, at the original mileage of 47, 272, this vehicle is valued at $5730. At an interest rate of 29.90%, our total finance charge was calculated at $8442.45 for this loan. The last department store credit cards I had, had carried a maximum interest of approximately 14%, less than half that rate! But we needed to have a car with working A/C & less than 200, 000 miles on it, and we weren't qualified anywhere else, where the interest rate would have been more reasonable. So of course, we accepted the loan at their terms.
Just over 2 years into owning the car, when it had achieved just over the 65, 000 mile mark, the timing belt broke. This caused us to need to replace the engine entirely. Had it happened before the 60, 000 mile mark, it would've been covered by Kia's bumper-to-bumper warranty. And of course, it wasn't covered even remotely by DriveTime's "limited warranty". But when our mechanic looked at it & quoted us a price of about $1500, we called DriveTime to see if there was anything we could do through them, since they had their own repair people. We had about $600 to pay out for this repair, and our personal mechanic couldn't sit around & wait for the rest of it. DriveTime told us about their no-interest repair program, Repair Tracker. Their mechanic got the car & quoted us about $2000. We had to come up with half up front, so we emptied my husband's small 401k to pay the first $1000. My mechanic would've had the car done inside 1-2 weeks; DriveTime's "authorized repair facility" had my car for 6 weeks! And every time I called to ask for an update on my car, they either got caught in some "red tape" something with DriveTime when trying to get approval for a necessary part, or they had been busy with "paying customers' repairs"! And when I finally got my car back, DriveTime willingly took off several hundred dollars from our financing payments, due to repairs my own mechanic had to do. He basically "cleaned up" the mess left behind by DriveTime's repair facility. Among issues we paid our family mechanic for, the engine mounting bolts hadn't been tightened, and the same day we picked the car up, I drove it home, then to the family mechanic's shop. As it turned out, the fuel injectors in the new engine were shot; I went back over to the repair shop that had replaced the engine & asked if they still had the old engine & parts. They sent someone out to collect the original fuel injectors. 3 out of the 4 that were in the new engine (not brand new; rebuilt, with 30, 000 miles on it), were useless. Only 1 fuel injector out of 4 in a rebuilt engine, was working! And the mechanic who had posession of my car for 6 weeks didn't think to check if they were working! And when I asked him why my mechanic had been forced to tighten of all things, the mounting bolts, and replace 3 out of 4 fuel injectors, he said "I was only paid to put in the engine"! Apparently that doesn't include tightening down the mounting bolts or checking to make sure the thing works! And of course DriveTime was willing to pay all the repair charges associated with the work done by their "authorized repair facility"; several months later, he lost his repair contract with DriveTime. I submitted complaints on the facility to the Better Business Bureau of Central AZ, as well as submitting a Ripoff Report on the facility.
We will openly admit to having more than 1 or 2 late payments, but it was normally no more than a week late. Twice in 4 years, it was a month late. But even when we called them to explain the situation causing us to be late, they would call us anywhere from 1-7 times per day, until the account was made current! Recently, I paid 2 payments that had been late plus another payment that was being made over a week early. About a week to 2 weeks after I made this payment to get us ahead, we started receiving collection calls again. I went in to the local dealership to ask why, and they were calling us for about $25 in late fees! And their customer service agent when I made that $603 payment couldn't have told me about that $20 some dollars why? Nobody could tell me. When we called to find out the payoff amount (the total amount due to have the title released), I was told that only the office in Mesa could give us the title, and was told the amount. A few days later, I called to verify that when we handed over that Cashier's Check, the title or something that released the title from the lienholder, would be given to us when we delivered that check. The representative this time also told me to take the Cashier's Check to Mesa, that the home office did all the title work & they would give us what we needed. We drove close to 30 miles one way to deliver that payment, to find out that DriveTime didn't have physical posession of the title! They had to go through MVD to get the title released, then have it signed & notarized and send it off to us! Their "senior level account representatives" didn't know this? Clearly, communication between the different departments at DriveTime, and general customer service knowledge, are not priorities for DT Credit Corp! And they were wrong again, telling us we would receive "the clear title" in the mail! What we received was an MVD Lien Release, signed by the appropriate person(s) at DT Credit Corp, and notarized. We still have to take this release, accompanied by our registration, to our local MVD office and pay them $4 and THEN we'll be handed a "clear title" to this vehicle!
In short, we would love to find out if we qualify to join your efforts to put these people out of business. As a general summary, they are loan sharks with crappy customer service skills, whose collection attempts border on harassment, and they utilize substandard repair facilities that charge you through the asshole for work you can get done at better quality, in less time, at reputable repair facilities, for a lot less money. They prey on those with little or no downpayment and poor credit ratings, making us feel as though we have no choice but to accept their ridiculous interest rates & exorbitant payments on horribly overpriced vehicles because nobody else will give us credit. I put these people at the same level as payday loan providers, and our family agrees that DT Credit Corp needs to be put out of business, as DT, as Ugly Duckling, as whatever other names they might hide behind!

Sincerely,
Holly K. Wooldridge & Stephen J. Wooldridge

Complaint starts with the company stating that they do an inspection of every vehicle that comes through their lot.
I purchased a $17, 000.00 GMC Envoy through Drivetime on 1/30/10. It all seamed to be in working order at that time. 1 day later I had to drive the vehicle at night. It was then that I noticed I could not see half of the buttons on the radio and some of the buttons on the AC/Heater control due to the illumination was missing.
I then contacted DriveTime Monday morning concerning this. They told me to bring it in and we could discuss it and see what we needed to do. I was then directed to call the warrenty department and see what I could do. They told me I needed to take it to a mechanic that was on their list. I then had to set up an appointment for that. I then went their and the mechanic informed me that the whole units would have to be replaced. They could not be repaired. He also said that each unit was approxamately $500.00.
I called and let the manager Mike know of these findings and explained that it was wrong to do this to a customer and just get over by selling a vehicle that wasnt even working right and then try and charge me $1, 000.00 to fix the problem. I then offered to be satisfied if DriveTime just fix the Air conditioning illumination and I would take care of the radio and meet them half way just to make it right.
I was then told I needed to take it to another part of drivetime that does their work on their cars for review. Note that this place is nowhere near where I live. I made an appointment and took it to them. I was there while he looked at it and then they informed me that they couldnt do anything about it and that it would have to be replaced.
I then talked to the manager Mike again to inform him that was a waste of my time to take it there. He then informed me that he was still going to try and see what he could do to make it right and get it worked out. Since then I have left 3 messages by phone to call me and I still have not recieved one phone call back.

Drivetime is a horrible company and I cannot stand dealing with their employees. I had to purchase a car from them because my credit was ruined during my divorce. I regret it daily. Two months ago, I was pulled over for driving with a suspended license and my vehicle was impounded. I had every intention of getting my vehicle out of impound, and while I was getting my license valid, drivetime came and took the vehicle out of impound. They called and let me know they had it and I had to jump through all these hoops to get it back. Even drive to a city 2 hours away, where it was being held. Turns out it was because they repossesed it. For no reason other than it was imponded. I was current on all my payments and everything else.

I got my vehicle returned, but under the condition that I sign a "Modification Agreement" to the contract. They did defer 3 payments for me, during the time I was working to get my vehicle back because it cost me nearly $3, 000. While I appreciate them working with me to get my vehicle back, I don't appreciate their tactics.

Currently, I am fighting with them, because one of the payments that they agreed to defer, according to the terms on their contract that I was required to sign, they made me make, and accused me of being late on. I am pretty sure they violated their own contract, and will be speaking with an attorney.

If you can avoid Drivetime - do so, at all costs. It is not worth the time, harassment, and shady activites on their part to purchase a vehicle from them.