Buyer Beware

Casually, while sipping her soda, White confirms the worst fears of every used-car buyer. The National Independent Automobile Dealers Association brochure states it clearly: "One of the greatest challenges facing the used-car industry is overcoming an image of dishonesty. Often a customer will come on to the lot primed to do mental battle with the salesperson because he believes the salesperson is trying to hide something that is wrong with the car or will charge him too much for the vehicle."

That's exactly what happens, White says, adding that the sales process at Coconut Palm and South Florida Auto Sales is designed to overwhelm. "We speed them through," she explains. "We allow no more than fifteen minutes to read the contract and sign it, knowing full well that most of them aren't good readers. We tell them to sign here, here, and here. In the process we add on extra costs for insurance, which [Svadbik] isn't even licensed to sell." (Svadbik's attorney Steven Hyatt acknowledges that neither Svadbik nor his companies are licensed to sell insurance but says that Svadbik "works through a licensed agent." Customer Elisa Williams, who has bought one car from Svadbik and is paying on another, says she bought insurance for both vehicles directly from a Svadbik salesman, not through an agent.)

"By the time we're done," White continues, "a car that sold for a base of $2000 can almost double in price. And John is charging 30 percent interest on everything."

Former customer Gloria Fox breezed through her used-car purchase. "They were very, very receptive," she says of the Coconut Palm sales team. "They don't give you any hassles. They sell you a car within 30 minutes."

When Fox set out to buy a car two years ago, she was well aware her credit was only fair. Because she had defaulted on a mortgage years earlier, she knew that a new-car dealer would make her bring in a friend or a family member to cosign a loan. "I said, 'Let me just go someplace where I can handle it on my own,'" the South Miami-Dade resident recalls. "It will be my headache."

Indeed. Fox found a 1990 Chevrolet Corsica at Coconut Palm that looked as though it could dependably transport her to her job as a computer clerk for the U.S. Postal Service. A few hours after she rolled off the lot, though, the car stalled in traffic. She called the dealership to complain, and says she was given the run-around. "Did it have gas?" she was asked. When the problem persisted, she took it to a Svadbik mechanic, who found nothing wrong with it. According to Fox, he also asked if she was putting in enough gas.

In frustration at her inability to fix the problem, Fox returned the car to Svadbik in December 1997. "I figured I'd get a letter saying it sold for whatever amount of money and I'd have to end up paying the balance," she says. "I got that letter all right -- about a week after they had taken my other car."

At the same time she turned in her Corsica, Fox bought a new Plymouth Breeze from a dealership, paying with money given to her by her 85-year-old mother. On May 18, 1998, shortly before 1:00 a.m., a repo man sent by Svadbik took the Breeze from her driveway as she slept in her back bedroom. The repo man left Svadbik's work phone number. "At 9:00 the next morning," she recounts, "I started repeatedly calling the number. To this time, none of them people has ever called me back. Nobody."

Fox hired an attorney and sued Svadbik for the return of her Plymouth. The case hinged on a "guaranty agreement" Fox was alleged to have signed. If she had signed it, Svadbik would have been entitled to repossess the Plymouth to satisfy the Corsica debt. If she hadn't signed it, Svadbik could not take the car. Fox says she never signed it.

At a pretrial hearing, Svadbik provided county Judge Michael J. Samuels with a photocopy of the guaranty agreement, apparently signed by Fox. When Svadbik could not produce an original signed document, though, he agreed to immediately return the car to Fox. He later agreed to pay $1000 in damages.

"I'm sure they have done this to countless other people who didn't have the means to fight them," Fox says. "Hell, I didn't have the means. This is how these type of dealers prey on our type of people. We're good people who don't have the best credit, so we have to wiggle and squiggle our way by. And they know it and they take advantage of us. I'm telling you, they prey on us."