My CarHop Experience...

Joined
Apr 15, 2017
Messages
4,398
Location
Napa, CA.
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.
 
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Yeah, sounds like one of those typical "Buy here, pay here" kind of places. Overpriced, super high interest rate, and almost always zero tolerance for late payments.

I avoid these like the plague. They do what they do to pray on people with bad credit and no other options.
 
CarHop is pretty [censored] shady, they are a BHPH lot on a bigger scale and are a cog in the subprime car lending business. There was one in Richmond(20 minutes north of Oakland/SF) that was in the same spot as another BHPH that got shutdown by the feds for money laundering(West Coast Motors). That former dealer was selling luxury cars to drug dealers and gang members and making payments on their behalf with the cash they gave them.

DriveTime is in a similar vein - think Carmax for people with bad or no credit. I've been seeing Ubers drive in from Stockton/Modesto/Tracy into SF with DriveTime plate frames on them.
 
> -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.

All tire shops I know of refuse to put new tires on the front end, if you are buying them for one end only.
 
Any place where you pay every week or two is a place to be aware.

These places and the furniture rental places and payday loans just pray on the poor.

You buy a car you can barely afford and it has issues you cannot afford to fix.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
Any place where you pay every week or two is a place to be aware.

These places and the furniture rental places and payday loans just pray on the poor.

You buy a car you can barely afford and it has issues you cannot afford to fix.


Wow, that's crazy...

https://www.rentacenter.com/compute...esktop-computer-i34773869blk/p/100023926
6 Months Same as Cash Price: $1,045.25
Number of payments: 88 | Total price: $2,351.81

That computer is $650 at Costco!

And yes, I think that's the kicker here... you know what I'd understand charging $10K for a 2005 Chevy Tahoe if it was freshly serviced and fully inspected, good tires and brakes all the way around, everything worked, and it had a comprehensive warranty throughout the entire duration of the payment period. Then it would be a reasonable way to get people back on their feet and the fact it's overpriced would be outweighed by them having a reliable vehicle despite their poor credit or bad history. But the way CarHop does it now it's a total rip off and could ruin your life and credit vs helping you build it.
 
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Originally Posted by Donald
Any place where you pay every week or two is a place to be aware.

These places and the furniture rental places and payday loans just prey on the poor.

You buy a car you can barely afford and it has issues you cannot afford to fix.


Yeah, those places end up skewing the prices for retail up. That's why I can normally buy a car at a car dealer for between clean trade in and retail.

It's how the poor get poorer.
 
I was offered a terrible trade in for my Outback and decided to consign it...the dealership went gaga because it had a lot of miles and somebody had keyed it on one side (I think I know who and will get him someday) and I had just touched it up as best I could instead of taking to a body shop, but it ran well and an AWD wagon is always going to find a home in New England. I took it to a somewhat shady looking place not far from where I worked and they said it should sell for a lot more than the junkyard price the dealer had offered me.
While I was in their office, the sheriff showed up and said he had to talk to the owner or the manager. He got hustled into an office quickly and I turned back to the salesman I was dealing with...he tried to adopt a very innocent looking expression and claimed, "This has NEVER happened before!!"
I couldn't help smiling and he broke character and laughed, obviously that happened to them all the time...
 
This seems to be less about being poor and more about having bad credit and/or bad/hasty financial decisions. These choices lead you to becoming poor.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
Any place where you pay every week or two is a place to be aware.

These places and the furniture rental places and payday loans just pray on the poor.

You buy a car you can barely afford and it has issues you cannot afford to fix.


And even worse,tire rental places haha!
crackmeup2.gif
 
Originally Posted by madRiver
This seems to be less about being poor and more about having bad credit and/or bad/hasty financial decisions. These choices lead you to becoming poor.


That is true. While some people with bad credit simply had bad luck or were put into a bad situation for whatever reason, I'd definitely say it's usually poor decision making.

My friend has bad credit because he financed an Altima at CarMax, had it for a while, went back and traded it in on a Cherokee, and then a while later, went back and traded it in on a Fusion, each time rolling the negative equity into the next car loan. So the payment on the Fusion was like $600/mo. Then at well under 100K miles there were some minor problems with the car (I'm sure poor maintenance and driving aggressively like me might have contributed) and instead of fixing it or asking me for help fixing it and then just working extra to make the payment or doing Uber part time or even renting it out on Turo or really anything else just gave up and told them to come repo it...

While I can't say I'm much better (I have like 20K of credit card debt and nothing to show for it) at least I have a reliable if not very boring vehicle for a low payment of $185/month. Even with my credit score about 600 and only $1K down I was able to finance the Escape at just 5.99% APR... just goes to show how even with poor credit you can get a decent payment on a decent car. I'm working on budgeting and getting my spending under control and working extra to pay off the credit cards to bring the utilization down and then I will have EXCELLENT credit and be able to finance something nice like a Suburban or Tahoe or Silverado or Excursion or whatever it is I really want at that point. Even at minimum payments I'd have everything paid off in like... 4 years? But I plan to do it sooner than that so I can buy a real truck again - my Escape is pretty slow and boring.
 
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When I first read the title I thought you went to Sonic to eat,and you were going to tell about meeting a hot carhop or bad customer service from a carhop
laugh.gif
 
Originally Posted by dogememe
While I can't say I'm much better (I have like 20K of credit card debt and nothing to show for it) at least I have a reliable if not very boring vehicle for a low payment of $185/month. Even with my credit score about 600 and only $1K down I was able to finance the Escape at just 5.99% APR... just goes to show how even with poor credit you can get a decent payment on a decent car. I'm working on budgeting and getting my spending under control and working extra to pay off the credit cards to bring the utilization down and then I will have EXCELLENT credit and be able to finance something nice like a Suburban or Tahoe or Silverado or Excursion or whatever it is I really want at that point. Even at minimum payments I'd have everything paid off in like... 4 years? But I plan to do it sooner than that so I can buy a real truck again - my Escape is pretty slow and boring.


You just want to pay off enough of your debt so you can get into more debt?

Interest is a double edged sword. Works against you when you have debt, works for you when you have assets.

The stock market has been up over 300% in the last 10 years so 20k could be worth 60k today. On the other hand, to pay off 20k, it'd probably cost you 40k or more once you factor in the interest that you pay.
 
Originally Posted by madRiver
This seems to be less about being poor and more about having bad credit and/or bad/hasty financial decisions. These choices lead you to becoming poor.


Well said.

We had little to no money growing up in my family. My father owned and drove jalopies that most would not be caught dead in for fear that the neighbors would look down on them. Those vehicles got him to work and back, and the family to food and clothes shopping. I myself drove old jalopies long past the time when I could afford one of the cool rides to keep up with the Jones.
 
Originally Posted by nthach
CarHop is pretty [censored] shady, they are a BHPH lot on a bigger scale and are a cog in the subprime car lending business. There was one in Richmond(20 minutes north of Oakland/SF) that was in the same spot as another BHPH that got shutdown by the feds for money laundering(West Coast Motors). That former dealer was selling luxury cars to drug dealers and gang members and making payments on their behalf with the cash they gave them.

DriveTime is in a similar vein - think Carmax for people with bad or no credit. I've been seeing Ubers drive in from Stockton/Modesto/Tracy into SF with DriveTime plate frames on them.



Stockton. Man that is rough. Good luck Repoing a vehicle there.
 
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
When I first read the title I thought you went to Sonic to eat,and you were going to tell about meeting a hot carhop or bad customer service from a carhop
laugh.gif





That was my first thought that came to mind too. I have never heard of Car Hop dealers.


This place reminds me of the Cal Worthington dealer's that were on the West Coast a long time ago.

Go see Cal.
 
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Remember Cal Worthington and his dog spot?
The late night advertising slots he frequently bought were called "dog spots" by radio and tv stations, as they were very difficult to sell. "Here's Cal Worthington and his dog, spot" was an inside joke about the slot of time he aired his commercials.
Sadly, the joke's been papered over by another story about a dog named Storm when trying to Google for it today.
 
I remember those. They were the most annoying commercials at that time. I truly believe that if you brought your mother in law down there they would accept her as a down payment on a car.

The whole operation smelled of scam.
 
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