Almost two years ago my son referred to Bay Auto by an army associate who told him that he had just gotten a deal on a car there. His collegue also said that he would be given $300 cash for referrals and that he would split it with my son if he bought a car. Never having purchased a car before my son was led down a rosey path. The car he purchased was ticketed at full Kelly book value for a car in Excellent condition, even though the car had dings and nicks in the body. He got one key and remote and no owners manual. That's not so bad but then when the loan came along he paid no money down and the entire cost of the car, dealer prep, tax, tags, and first month's insurance were all tacked on to his loan at a whapping 17.75%. While the salesperson talked at length about GAP insurance and the value of it, and my son agreed to it, it was not included in the sale of the car. His monthly payment, over $400 per month on a mediocre used car. In the end he was offered the same $300 rebate for referrals.

Three months after he bought the car he started having brake problems. He took the car to a manufacturers dealer who said the rotors were so badly scored that even though it appeard new pads had been put on not long ago they had been molded and seared onto the rotors. I called Bay Auto on my son's behalf and they agreed to fix the brakes at a facillity of their choice - nearly 250 miles away from where the car was at the time of the discovery. My son did risk the drive but on arriving he was told it would be two more days before the facility could fix the car and they did not offer loaner cars.

Now it may seem that it might be that my son was just nieve and was a one time "gotcha" by the dealership. I know first hand that at least two other people have been taken on the same ride. One of them totalled his car and was in debt to the tune of nearly $6K after insurance paid off because the GAP insurance was inexplicably not written at the time of purchase. If I know two, you can be sure there a many others that I don't know about.

While my son was overseas, nearly a year later, I contacted his leinholder to see if they would reduce the interest rate while he was away. Of course they refused because my son was in the army when he bought the car, but interestingly they asked me if his car was insured since they never had an insurance company registered with the loan. Apparently the loan company is in this deal as they never recorded an insurance company on the loan and I had to nearly twist their arm to record the insurance company of record.

Recently, he has been looking for a different car to reduce his car payments but the payoff on his current car is so high even getting a cheap car would only reduce his payments by $10-15 a month. Additionally, the three car dealers he has visited have told him that they have heard the tale of Bay Auto over and over, and they believe kick backs go to the level of staff sargeants to get recruits to buy cars from Bay.

Please stay away from this dealer!!!!!!!