Autolo - City of lies
Read this carefully, as it’ll provide a good insight into their playbook and fraudulent, deceptive, and other illegal practices this dealership has built their business model on.
They truly excel at one thing: lying directly to your face.
During the first call I asked what fees they charge; the salesman told me that he doesn’t know, but it’s about $1000. Seriously, $1000? And the sales rep doesn’t know their fees???
I negotiated about the price - I was told that he’ll have a stronger case for a discount when I get there. Of course, when I got there, the fees were suddenly even higher (~$1600), sketched with a Sharpie on a paper without any explanation or breakdown, and they were giving me a discount from the fees they just made up and selling me add-ons like “car mats” (which were already in the car) or detailing (which was already done) and promised a full tank.
When I asked if their shop could show me a sample of the engine oil, I was told that “they are busy.”
When I asked about putting the deposit on the car so that I could go home and leave it for the next day. The sales rep avoided answering it completely just to keep pressuring for immediate purchase.
To make the purchase process overwhelming, the sales rep presented me with several completely irrelevant documents for me to sign (like financing when there was no question of financing during the purchase whatsoever) and their crown scam - Apex Protect - some sort of GPS tracking service. I rejected this service immediately and even wrote that on the contract! I was reassured repeatedly that the service will be taken out and will never be activated. I forbade them to ever share any of my data with Apex Protect, requested any tracking module to be removed from the car right in front of me, and disabled. They promised to do it and immediately took the car away and prevented me from walking into the shop so that I couldn’t see what they were doing.
Two days later I got an email from Apex Protect announcing that the service I rejected numerous times in writing and verbally was activated!!!
I had to ask for the terms and service of the maintenance contract about 5 times; sales rep always tried to make some sort of excuse like “it’s very difficult until I buy it”… WHAT? I have to agree to some ToS before seeing them? He tried to hide the ToS because they’re selling fake warranties with very low limits for the car repairs and all the common reasons for failure in exclusions.
Of course, when I got the car, it had the same amount of fuel as before! When I reminded them their promise, they said they’re refilling it right away. In reality they added like 2 gallons, leaving half of the tank still empty.
Autolocity is also pulling different kind of your personal data and engages in unauthorized processing and sharing of them.
More than 2 weeks from the purchase, I didn’t receive the title. During the purchase I was told there is no loan/lien on the car; they own it, and now, according to them, the DMV is in the process of perfecting of the title (for weeks)? It takes about 2 days to get the title when you buy a used car at a normal dealership.
After the Apex Protect email, I contacted them and tried to resolve the situation. What I received was a prime example of gaslighting, more lies, and even attempts to make humiliating jokes! I'm sure this will continue in their response to this review.
Any sentence that comes out of their mouth is some sleazy sales tactic or lie. You can’t make a good deal with a liar. These are 100% fraud & scam professionals. Even if this insight would help you to understand their playbook and you somehow bought the car, you have a good chance that you’ll get a vehicle with a loan on it nobody told you about or with technical issues that were masterfully hidden in their body of lies. The positive reviews are probably fake or paid for.
If you have fallen for any of their deception, make sure to report it all! There are numerous state and federal authorities who are investigating this sort of practice.