My wife and I declared bankruptcy about six months ago. As part of the bankruptcy we were required to turn in our minivan. Since we live about 20 miles outside of Austin, we both needed a vehicle.
After turning in our vehicle we began the search for a replacement vehicle (used). It was no surprise that we couldn?t get financing from a credit union, bank, or even a dealer. Then we stumbled across a Subaru Outback at R & D Motors. Actually, we found it online but it does sound more dramatic saying stumbled vs. found online, doesn?t it?
I called and spoke to Jeremy who was real easy to talk to. Since I didn?t want to waste his time, I explained our situation to him. He told me that R & D Motors did its own financing, and that they didn?t just sell the loan to another company once the sale was complete. While he couldn?t guarantee anything, he did say they have financed cars for people in our situation. Before they could offer any financing he did want to meet with me. It was the way they did things. Of course, I realized part of the reason why he wanted to meet me was to help make a sale happen.
At a glance, R & D Motors is one of those car dealers your mother warned you about. You know the type ? on the corner, 15 or 20 cars on their lots with a little shack on the back portion of the lot. The image immortalized in numerous movies for these small dealerships is often a slick lying car salesman.
My guard was up, and I expected sleazy sales behavior to show up at some point, but it never happened. Everyone was straight-forward with no game playing. It?s a small team of about six people that work at R & D motors.
The price of the car was a couple hundred dollars under market price, 7 year old car, terrific condition, with just over 95,000 miles.
R & D allowed me to take the car to my mechanic for inspection, and we even negotiated a couple of minor repairs based on my mechanics inspection report (good car with no major issues was his verdict).
We needed the car ASAP and they agreed to do the negotiated minor repairs afterwards. I was a bit nervous about this arrangement, but I wasn?t going to stress over it. Guess what? They did the repairs after the sale as promised.
Great attitude and follow up. They have won us over. By their actions they proved to both my wife and myself that they really do care for their customers!
There has been only one negative in getting a car from R & D Motors. It?s the 18% interest we are paying on our car loan. Is the interest rate on our loan from R & D Motors high? Absolutely.
While I wish it was lower, I?m also a realist. We were fresh out of a bankruptcy with besmirched credit records. We didn?t have the money to pay cash, and standard car financing was closed to us. Our only other financing option was DriveTime. Do a Google search for them and you?ll understand why I really wanted to avoid DriveTime. Our financial situation is already turning around and we are anticipating paying off our R & D auto loan early.
In summary, my wife and I really needed a vehicle and R & D Motors came through for us. I?m happy to have done this review. I?m not much of a writer. It took me an hour to compose, and edit this review to make it semi-legible. If this review brings them a customer or two, good for them. They deserve the business.
Pros: Great Car Buying Experience
Cons: read the review (near the bottom)
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