Keyes Acrua Rip offfed BIG TIME and letting everyone know to BEWARE OF KEYES DEALERSHIPS Van Nuys California

This is another case of buyers not being able to trust a dealership to be fair and that you must read the contract completely.

I went to Keyes Acura as my boyfriend was a new salesman there, never working in auto sales before. He showed me all the cars and I looked at the 2009 RDX. I became interested in the car so we went to his Sales Manager, Ray, and asked what he could do for me. Ray said that I would get the friends and family discount, and I thought this would be great. Before I go further I'll state that my credit was and is over 800, I made $85,000 a year and I wanted a new car, not needed a new car. I had also purchased and paid off two cars within the last five years financed through Honda Finance.

After completing initial paperwork I was escorted to the General Manager, who asked me what I wanted as my monthly payment. I said no more than $500 as that was my current payment for the BMW I was paying off. I was given the monthly price of $580 and told it would have to be a 5-year lease as I didn't want to put anything down. I agreed.

Fast foward to me FINALLY reading the contract. The purchase capital cost of this car is $38,805.62 and my total payments are $35,762.06 with a residual of $13,215.00. How can this be? Not only is there no discount for the price of the car, I am BUYING the purchase price of the car on a lease and will still owe $13k at the end!!!

I suppose we learn things the hard way. I learned NEVER to trust a car salesman (my boyfriend was new there and had no idea of how things worked but trusted the Sales Manager to actually give me a good deal). I finally learned through my now experienced boyfriend how to read the contract, which no one teaches you. Lastly, I learned that my lease was financed through Bank of the West instead of Honda, and that meant someone made a crapload of money off me ($6,000 alone) that I am now obligated to pay over the course of five years since if I try to terminate the lease and buy something I will be upside down and owe even more money. If the dealerships keep conducting business this way they will not exist as customers will not do business with them. I hope this experience is noted by anyone who is considering visiting Keyes Acura and avoids them altogether. At the very least, use internet sales and make sure to negotiate the purchase price, not the monthly payment, LEAVE the dealership and do your homework before signing anything.

I'm writing Howard Keyes and expanding upon this email, and will notify my congressional leaders of the corruption and lack of regulation in this industry. They don't need bailouts because they dug themselves into the hole they are in.

Karenb
south pasadena, California
U.S.A.