Viking Dodge Switches Prices at Contract Ripoff Crystal Lake Illinois

My wife and I have purchased two vehicles from Viking Dodge. Our first experience was a 2002 Dodge Durango, which we purchased in April of 2004. We secured our own financing on this vehicle, and shopped several dealers with the financing in-pocket. This made the process very simple for us. My wife loved the Durango, and we settled on it after agreeing to a deal. This process went very smoothly, and we had very few complaints, except for one...after asking several times that they fill up the gas tank for us, and them assuring us that it was standard operating procedure on every sale, they failed to do so. The bottom line is we ended up not pressing the issue after the sale as it wasn't a real huge issue, but it was the only vehicle we'd ever purchased without a full tank of gas.

My wife then wanted to purchase a truck for me for my birthday last year. On April 30th, 2006 she purchased a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup for me. She took it to her mother's and parked it, and then presented it to me for my birthday on May 9th. One thing I wasn't really happy about was that it had a large scratch on the driver-side door. My wife asked if they would fix it. They refused, but the salesman told my wife it would only cost her about $50 to have it professionally repaired, so it wouldn't be a big deal. Of course it ended up costing closer to $300 to repair. I knew this would be the case, and I'm sure the salesman did as well. The problem was, my wife didn't. I'm sure the salesman knew this as well.

I drove the truck for approximately 3 weeks before noticing a slight grinding when I pressed the brakes on my way home from work one night. I decided since it was fresh off the lot, I would take it straight to Viking to see what the problem was.

They put it up on the rack and came back to me saying all 4 sets of rotars, drums, pads and calipers were completely trashed, and it would cost me $1200 for them to fix. After I stood back up, and asked them how they could possibly charge me for something after I had just driven the vehicle off the lot a month ago. After an hour of arguing and getting the run-around, I told them to give me a written estimate describing all the work, and I would have to decide what to do. I had my wife pick me up, and we stopped at Farm & Fleet on our way home.

I brought the estimate to the tire desk at Farm & Fleet, and asked them to prepare an estimate based on the work Viking claimed was required. Farm & Fleet came back and said that the work Viking was performing would cost $315 from them. Merely a quarter of what Viking wanted to charge me. I called Viking, told them about the competetive quote, and asked them to explain themselves. All they could come up with was that they were pricing genuine Mopar parts. I asked them to get the truck down off the rack, and I would be back to pick it up.

They called back later and offered to match the Farm & Fleet quote. I told them I wasn't interested in having the work done by them, since I didn't consider them reputable based on what had transpired. For the same price, wouldn't I feel better about having the work done by someone I trusted? Thanks but not thanks...get the truck off the rack, and I'll be back to pick it up. Finally, the GM called me and apologized for the problem, and offered to do the repairs for free. Now I've described this situation in 3 paragraphs, but in reality it took 3 days and countless phone calls to correct. The initial problem is they sold my wife a vehicle in disrepair. The secondary problem is that they attempted to gouge us to fix it.

Fast forward to this year...I'm again driving home from work. I stop to run and errand. When I get back into my truck, it won't turn over. My initial reaction is that the starter has gone bad. In reality, the shift tube in the steering column went bad, and the steering column needs to be replaced. My wife thought she was purchasing the same warranty we did with the first vehicle...a comprehensive plan. Turns out it's a power train only warranty, and guess what?...the steering column isn't covered. Another Dodge Dealer in Woodstock wants to charge me $1800 to repair. I have the work done by another mechanic for $400.

All these experiences start to get us wondering about Viking Dodge. My wife finds this site and starts to read up on some of the issues people were having with Viking. When she began reading about the price-switching she dug out the contract on the truck. Sure enough, we have one document that shows the sale price of the truck to be $10,995. When we look at the contract she signed at the time of sale, the sale price has changed to $12,994. To that, the price of the warranty, document fee, etc is added making the total financed over $16 K. My wife says she questioned the financed price and was told it reflected the interest on the loan...no it didn't. With the interest, the total value of the loan is almost $20 K. I understand the jump to $16 K ($1500 for warranty, doc fees, etc.) My question is why did the sale price jump from $10,995 to $12,994?

I'm wondering whether it even makes sense to bring the papers to Viking and ask for an explanation, or if I should just bypass all that and head off to a lawyer.

Stay tuned...I'll follow up with updates as I get them.

Jason

Jason
Woodstock, Illinois
U.S.A.