Caught in Tricolor’s crossfire: A first-person account

Terralyn Montgomery considered her Tricolor Auto purchase a blessing. Montgomery had fallen on hard times — her son had been shot and, soon after, the car she relied on for her DoorDash job stopped running. She was in the market for a new car but wanted to find the right fit. She had been going back and forth with Tricolor salesman Carlos Luis Despaigne Campos about possible models to purchase, and after several weeks had finally settled on a 2019 Chevrolet Equinox. On April 24, Montgomery took a Lyft to the Tricolor dealership on Beechnut St. in Houston to finalize the purchase. On the way, she chatted with the driver about how much she needed a new vehicle. When they pulled up to the lot, the driver wished Montgomery well. “I pray that G-d gives you a car,” she said. [caption id="attachment_58355055" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] A Beechnut St. Tricolor location in Houston empty on Sept. 17, 2025. (Courtesy/Auto Finance News)[/caption] Montgomery took the Lyft driver’s words as an omen. With $1,700 down, Montgomery’s biweekly payment came to $225. “It seemed too good to be true,” Montgomery said. Her situation seemed to be turning around. Once the financing was arranged, Montgomery posed for a photo with her Tricolor salesman, proudly holding the keys to her new car in her right hand and a Tricolor folder of loan paperwork in her left. In the background was a mockup of a vehicle adorned with a giant red bow with “Tricolor Auto” printed on the ribbon. Montgomery was beaming. The car ‘just cut off’ But on Aug. 24, just after Montgomery and her son crossed over the Metrorail train line near the University of Houston, the car’s engine cut out. Montgomery’s first instinct was that Tricolor had activated the car’s kill switch, the lender-mandated starter-interrupt device. But that scenario seemed unlikely because she had been making her scheduled payments every two weeks. “I had no problems with the car,” she said. “I paid my bills on time, and it just cut off.” “I paid my bills on time, and [the car] just cut off.” -- Terralyn Montgomery, Tricolor customer Montgomery paid $300 to have the car towed to her house. She had diagnostics run on the car twice, yet no trouble codes were detected. Thinking that Tricolor needed to reboot the kill switch, Montgomery had the car towed to the Tricolor dealership on the Gulf Freeway, which had a repair shop. On Sept. 2, Montgomery received a text from Tricolor stating that the vehicle was “in line to get diagnosed.” Later that day, the service technician called to say that the car needed a new alternator. Montgomery was shocked. She had only owned the car for four months and two previous diagnostics had come up clean. She opted to have Tricolor repair the vehicle since it was under warranty. A text at 9:13 a.m. the following day said that the company was “obtaining an estimate on costs of parts to repair” the vehicle. A text at 2:52 p.m. said that the vehicle is “pending warranty approval for parts to be able to begin the repair process on the engine of your vehicle.” Montgomery was instructed to await the “next update” on when her vehicle would be ready for pickup. That update never came. [caption id="attachment_58355060" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] A car carrier hauling away cars from the Beechnut St. Tricolor dealership in Houston. (Courtesy/Auto Finance News)[/caption] Bankruptcy filed Days passed, and Montgomery was getting anxious. At 10:54 a.m. on Sept. 10, she texted Tricolor: “Any updates? No one never [sic] opened the gates at the Gulf [Freeway] location.” Radio silence. That same day, Tricolor filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in the Northern District of Texas. Montgomery called the company repeatedly, but no one ever answered. Her online account shows her next payment as Sept. 6, but Montgomery already made that payment, and the date has come and gone. The online portal has yet to update with her Sept. 20 due date, and there’s no option to make a payment . [caption id="attachment_58355056" align="alignleft" width="252"] The Southwest Freeway Tricolor Auto location on Sept. 17 with a chained gate.(Courtesy/Auto Finance News)[/caption] After noticing chained gates at Tricolor’s Southwest Freeway location on Sept. 16, Montgomery returned to the Beechnut dealership where she had purchased her car in hopes that her original salesman could help her retrieve it from Tricolor’s service department. But the gates at that location were also chained , and a car carrier loaded with vehicles — all with red Tricolor license plates — was getting set to drive away. Throughout the day, auto transporters carted away vehicles until the lot was empty. One auto hauler said that the bankruptcy trustee wanted all the vehicles consolidated at a single court-appointed location, though he declined to specify where. The Southwest Freeway location was cleared out, too. And by Sept. 17, the digital display below the Tricolor Auto sign advertised, “Car dealership for lease,” with a contact number. Montgomery is unsure if she will ever see her Chevy Equinox again. She plans to file a lemon law claim and a fraud complaint against Tricolor with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and to dispute her latest car payment with the bank. For now, she will use a rental car to get around. In the meantime, Montgomery awaits a new blessing. Auto Finance Summit, the premier industry event for auto lending and leasing, returns Oct. 15-17 at the Bellagio Las Vegas. Learn more about the 2025 event and register here .

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