awright517
New Member
I purchased a car on 7/14 (brand new). Dealership would not let me take car as recalled part was discovered and needed replacement, they gave me a rental car to use while waiting for part to come in and replace. On 7/23 car was complete and I was supposed to recieve it when finance department at dealership called and said that they cancelled the contract. The reason they gave me was "because they could not make me happy". Hoping I'd fall for that lame excuse, but I didn't. In any event, I had received confirmation from finance company (GM Finance) on 7/19 that loan had been funded and funds dispersed to dealership. I went through my contract with a fine tooth comb and the only 2 reasons I found stating dealership had the right to cancel the contract was due to "lack of being able to finance purchaser" or "if misreprentation occured with credit", neither of which applied. I never did have the car so I returned the rental car to the dealership and they gave me my old trade in vehicle back. I was not happy, as far as I was concerned, the car was financed, the loan was in my name and I was financially responsible for it until the dealer decided to return the funds (I verified several times with GM Financial after this happened).
As you can well imagine I was not happy about what happened and I was not about to just shrug my shoulders and walk away. I wrote a letter to the GM of the dealership copying in the President of their parent company and also some higher up exec's at GM to not only let them know what happened, but to also let them know how I was treated, which was anything but professional. I got the attention of someone because the controller of the dealership called me last Sat. afternoon letting me know he'd received a copy of the letter from the parent company and was basically groveling and doing what he could to smooth the situation over. After letting him know that I wasn't stupid, that I knew that the reason they cancelled the deal was not because they couldn't make me happy, but because of something else and I would appreciate his honesty, he let me know that they basically were not happy with the trade value / allowance they gave for the vehicle I was trading in (at the time they made the deal) and didn't feel they would be able to get as much as they valued it at when it went to the auction. I explained that as unfortunate as that was for them, at that point it was not my problem. The i's had been dotted and the t's crossed and at that point they should have accepted the loss they were going to take and use it as a learning experience so it wouldn't happen again, but that me as the customer should not have had to be the brunt of their mistake. He completely agreed and apologized and offered to try and personally help me if I was interested in still trying to purchase a car. I let him know I'd have to think about it.
My questions is, can a dealership legally do this after a deal has been finance and they have received the funds for the deal from the finance company? I am located in Arizona and I've contacted the Attorney General's office who has been no help and only letting me know I could file a complaint, but they could not help me with the legality of the situation. Is this considered breach of contract and do I have any recourse?
As you can well imagine I was not happy about what happened and I was not about to just shrug my shoulders and walk away. I wrote a letter to the GM of the dealership copying in the President of their parent company and also some higher up exec's at GM to not only let them know what happened, but to also let them know how I was treated, which was anything but professional. I got the attention of someone because the controller of the dealership called me last Sat. afternoon letting me know he'd received a copy of the letter from the parent company and was basically groveling and doing what he could to smooth the situation over. After letting him know that I wasn't stupid, that I knew that the reason they cancelled the deal was not because they couldn't make me happy, but because of something else and I would appreciate his honesty, he let me know that they basically were not happy with the trade value / allowance they gave for the vehicle I was trading in (at the time they made the deal) and didn't feel they would be able to get as much as they valued it at when it went to the auction. I explained that as unfortunate as that was for them, at that point it was not my problem. The i's had been dotted and the t's crossed and at that point they should have accepted the loss they were going to take and use it as a learning experience so it wouldn't happen again, but that me as the customer should not have had to be the brunt of their mistake. He completely agreed and apologized and offered to try and personally help me if I was interested in still trying to purchase a car. I let him know I'd have to think about it.
My questions is, can a dealership legally do this after a deal has been finance and they have received the funds for the deal from the finance company? I am located in Arizona and I've contacted the Attorney General's office who has been no help and only letting me know I could file a complaint, but they could not help me with the legality of the situation. Is this considered breach of contract and do I have any recourse?
