Our Incorrect VIN horror story with Drive Financial

by D. Vencil
(Leesburg, VA)

Visitor Review: My husband and I purchased an SUV from a dealership in Woodbridge, VA in early 2007. We thought everything was cool made our payments on time and all was well until we moved to Delaware in late 2007 and tried in early 2008 to get the tags changed over to Delaware. We were informed that the VIN on the vehicle we had was not the same as the VIN on the actual vehicle we were in possession of.

We first contacted Drive Financial Services for assistance in correcting this error and were informed that this was our problem and not theirs. They could do nothing for us but we still had to pay them for the vehicle we had since we had signed the contract with them. The dealer went under prior to our finding out about the VIN so we could not contact them. The VIN error although not our fault either has made it impossible for us to register the vehicle.

Needless to say we stopped making payments after Drive informed us they were not responsible for correcting the error of the VIN on the documentation. The vehicle we were supposedly sold showed up in early 2009 after being towed for being illegally parked. The towing company contacted us and Drive Financial about the vehicle.

Drive Financial picked the vehicle up and auctioned it off and is still trying to get us to pay for that vehicle although the vehicle we still have we are unable to register or title anywhere. The still say we owe them upwards of $8000. We have had to obtain an attorney to rectify this issue and have it removed from our credit report. Santander Consumer USA apparently has taken over the accounts for Drive but still share the same opinion of their responsibility in our situation.

We even moved back to Virginia in hopes of getting a title on the vehicle since it is titled here although we don't know who it is titled to. This entire situation has been a true horror story for us. Hopefully we can prevail after all this. I will update this if we are successful. We intend to continue with or without Drive Financial Services assistance.