DriveTime Auto Sales Formerly Ugly Duckling ripoff doesn't want your money after they make their profit, they just want to re-po the car Torrance California

I too have been had by them. I had a 1996 Dodge Neon, die out on me. I traded it into them for a 1992 honda civic. 2 days after purchase, the distributor went out, and began having overheating problems. They of course didn't offer any help at all, and basiclly threw me away, only calling to demand payment. This was back in about October of 2001 (maybe a few months prior). In Dec of 2001, I wrecked it, rearended a car at appx. 75 MPH, and the airbag didn't deploy. I contacted them ,they said it's not their fault. I too checked w/ Honda Corp. they said there no manufacter defect w/ the airbag system. The refused to cover the failure to deploy airbag(ugly duckling) so I refused to keep paying them. They eventually said the will repo the car, so I drove it down to their dealership and gave it back to them keys and title and all. The manager called a tow truck, and had it removed, and I was charge w/ an abandonded vehicle fee??? The are still after me today for ~9k dollars. I still refuse to pay, and will gladly jump in and help out.

After speaking with several reputable dealers, I've finally realized there may be no way to get out of this ridiculous contract. However, bad publicity can hurt even the most stallwart of crooks. There is a local Fox affilliate here in Los Angeles, KTTV - Fox 11. I know I can't post the web address here, so you'll have to look it up on your own. But if enough of us e-mail their news desk with requests for a piece on their investigative segment "Fox 11 Wants to Know", and tell them all about our experiences with Drivetime / Ugly Duckling, we might just get enough publicity to either A) invite SERIOUS Scrutiny into their practices, or B) at least embarrass them enough (preying on the poor is the absolute lowest thing you can do), to change some of their policies.

It's worth a try. Our contract say that we can't sue, but nobody ever said we couldn't tell our side of the story to the press. It is PERFECTLY legal, and they absolutely cannot say anything about it! :-)