A friend mentioned he had checked out a few cars at CarHop because they will finance anyone... bad credit, no credit, repos, they don't care, as long as you have a job. I thought OK how bad can it be? Maybe the cars are a tad overpriced like most used car lots and perhaps the interest rate is a little high but it's a way for people in bad situations to get a car with a 18k mile/18 month engine/transmission warranty. I should have known since they don't publish the price on their website it would suck.
They don't even do a hard inquiry on your credit until after you decide to get the vehicle so why not try to see what they'll give me? I didn't intend to buy, I was just curious and wanted to see how it worked and what vehicles they had. So yesterday I went and I told them I wanted a "larger SUV" and had $1000 to put down and this is what they "approved" me for... with a $200 payment EVERY TWO WEEKS and while they didn't give the exact numbers I estimated the interest rate to be about 20%!
Note mileage on all these vehicles was pretty high, I don't exactly remember, but all from 120k-160k if I recall correctly.
1. 2005 Chevy Tahoe for $10000
This Tahoe looked REALLY nice from the outside. But here are all the problems I noticed in just looking at it and driving it for 10 mins. And by the way they don't negotiate on the price AT ALL... for maybe $4000 I would have bought it because it actually ran and drove great and looked really nice inside and out, the fluids were all in good condition so it was clearly well maintained, the AC worked, etc.
-The steering was quite sloppy. Probably needs a steering box or something else in the front end. I mean, it is a Chevy after all (no disrespect, it's just a fact)
-The front tires were like new and matched but the rears were bald and different brands. I suspect the front end suspension/steering issues lead to premature uneven wear so they slapped on the new used tires from who knows where to mask that. It was a 4x4 so driving it like that and engaging 4x4 would have caused problems.
-One of the windows didn't go up and down.
-The blower motor resistor was bad since only some speeds of the blower fan worked.
-The driver side power mirror was dead.
-The center console lid fell off on me when I tried to open it.
When I brought this one back and mentioned all of those things I was like... OK it needs some work but it runs great and the AC works and it looks good so how flexible are you on the price? "We don't cover any of the things you mentioned under warranty so we don't care and the price is the price."
2. 2007 Mercury Mountaineer for $9000
I didn't even drive this one. The hood wouldn't stay open so I couldn't inspect it thoroughly but there were white coolant leak crusties all over the place under the hood and the tranny fluid smelled like the tranny was junk. Started it up and it ran rough and the ABS and traction control lights were on. What a fail.
3. 2007 GMC Envoy for $8000
-The coolant was very much bright green, NOT Dex-cool. So there is probably some underlying cooling system issue so they just topped up with whatever they had floating around.
-Engine oil on dipstick was like black tar.
-Battery was dead so they had to jump it. No big deal, [censored] happens.
-It ran awfully. Not the "GM relearn idle with dirty throttle body after a dead battery" type of rough running that I know about from owning an Envoy in the past, but like it had a terrible vacuum leak or something because idle kept surging from like 300 to 1000.
-I drove it around the block just for the heck of it but there was an exhaust leak so it smelled awful inside the cabin.
-Some major steering issue, it clunked and the steering was really sloppy (far worse than the Tahoe, and these have rack and pinion steering and are usually really tight and precise if you've driven a GMT360 you'll know what I mean)... and the steering wheel was about 45 degress off center and it pulled to the side really bad when you drove even at slow speeds.
-The brakes sounded like they were metal on metal
So basically 3/3 of these vehicles need at the very minimum a significant amount of maintenance and realistically probably major repairs and are pretty much UNSAFE TO DRIVE in this condition, especially considering that people often buy these types of SUVs for their FAMILY. I'm SO GLAD my friend didn't buy anything there.
Oh, and if you search online for "CarHop reviews" there are HUNDREDS of people that are paying $400/month for a broken car that sits in their driveway, or it spends more time in the shop than they spend driving it, and/or they've had the engines or transmissions replaced several times by CarHop approved shops under warranty (apparently CarHop installs high mileage used junkyard engines/transmissions) and they continue to have problems...
Just thought I'd post this because it was a crazy experience and it would be really hilarious if it weren't for the fact that people are gonna buy these cars and drive their kids around in them.
They don't even do a hard inquiry on your credit until after you decide to get the vehicle so why not try to see what they'll give me? I didn't intend to buy, I was just curious and wanted to see how it worked and what vehicles they had. So yesterday I went and I told them I wanted a "larger SUV" and had $1000 to put down and this is what they "approved" me for... with a $200 payment EVERY TWO WEEKS and while they didn't give the exact numbers I estimated the interest rate to be about 20%!
Note mileage on all these vehicles was pretty high, I don't exactly remember, but all from 120k-160k if I recall correctly.
1. 2005 Chevy Tahoe for $10000
This Tahoe looked REALLY nice from the outside. But here are all the problems I noticed in just looking at it and driving it for 10 mins. And by the way they don't negotiate on the price AT ALL... for maybe $4000 I would have bought it because it actually ran and drove great and looked really nice inside and out, the fluids were all in good condition so it was clearly well maintained, the AC worked, etc.
-The steering was quite sloppy. Probably needs a steering box or something else in the front end. I mean, it is a Chevy after all (no disrespect, it's just a fact)
-The front tires were like new and matched but the rears were bald and different brands. I suspect the front end suspension/steering issues lead to premature uneven wear so they slapped on the new used tires from who knows where to mask that. It was a 4x4 so driving it like that and engaging 4x4 would have caused problems.
-One of the windows didn't go up and down.
-The blower motor resistor was bad since only some speeds of the blower fan worked.
-The driver side power mirror was dead.
-The center console lid fell off on me when I tried to open it.
When I brought this one back and mentioned all of those things I was like... OK it needs some work but it runs great and the AC works and it looks good so how flexible are you on the price? "We don't cover any of the things you mentioned under warranty so we don't care and the price is the price."
2. 2007 Mercury Mountaineer for $9000
I didn't even drive this one. The hood wouldn't stay open so I couldn't inspect it thoroughly but there were white coolant leak crusties all over the place under the hood and the tranny fluid smelled like the tranny was junk. Started it up and it ran rough and the ABS and traction control lights were on. What a fail.
3. 2007 GMC Envoy for $8000
-The coolant was very much bright green, NOT Dex-cool. So there is probably some underlying cooling system issue so they just topped up with whatever they had floating around.
-Engine oil on dipstick was like black tar.
-Battery was dead so they had to jump it. No big deal, [censored] happens.
-It ran awfully. Not the "GM relearn idle with dirty throttle body after a dead battery" type of rough running that I know about from owning an Envoy in the past, but like it had a terrible vacuum leak or something because idle kept surging from like 300 to 1000.
-I drove it around the block just for the heck of it but there was an exhaust leak so it smelled awful inside the cabin.
-Some major steering issue, it clunked and the steering was really sloppy (far worse than the Tahoe, and these have rack and pinion steering and are usually really tight and precise if you've driven a GMT360 you'll know what I mean)... and the steering wheel was about 45 degress off center and it pulled to the side really bad when you drove even at slow speeds.
-The brakes sounded like they were metal on metal
So basically 3/3 of these vehicles need at the very minimum a significant amount of maintenance and realistically probably major repairs and are pretty much UNSAFE TO DRIVE in this condition, especially considering that people often buy these types of SUVs for their FAMILY. I'm SO GLAD my friend didn't buy anything there.
Oh, and if you search online for "CarHop reviews" there are HUNDREDS of people that are paying $400/month for a broken car that sits in their driveway, or it spends more time in the shop than they spend driving it, and/or they've had the engines or transmissions replaced several times by CarHop approved shops under warranty (apparently CarHop installs high mileage used junkyard engines/transmissions) and they continue to have problems...
Just thought I'd post this because it was a crazy experience and it would be really hilarious if it weren't for the fact that people are gonna buy these cars and drive their kids around in them.
Last edited: