Dealer made a mistake........what would you do?
 

I just purchased my FRS last Monday. When I spoke with the salesman over the phone he asked me what I was bringing to the table. I told him I was trading in my car, I gave him $500 right then over the phone to hold the car for me, and told him if I had to I would put 4k down but didn't want to if I didn't have to. Two weeks go by and I go to the dealership. Start doing all the paperwork and the salesman goes back to the finance guy for a couple of minutes and then comes back and asks, "You're putting $4000 down, correct?" I told him I can if I have to but I would prefer not to. He says okay and goes back to the finance guy. Finance guy comes out and gets me, I sign papers, he hands me the keys and says enjoy your new car. Nothing was brought up about the $4000 again.

Fast forward to today, a little over a week later. I get a phone call from the finance guy saying he thought the salesman took the check from me for the $4000. Then he asked me to call him to set up when I could get that to him. I called him back and said that when I spoke to the salesman I said I could put the money down, but would prefer not to. After nothing else was said about it, I thought everything was financed with no more than the $500 I gave them to hold the car. It has been over a week. I have spent a good portion of the $4000. Long story short, what would you do? Who do you think is at fault?

Read your finance paper work. Everything is broken down.

Well.... Long story short, I would cash the car and not have to worry about dealing with the finance.

This, if it's in the paperwork then somebody dropped the ball but you're contractually obligated to cough up the dough. Call them up, explain you spent the money, redo the paperwork/financing and be very clear about the deal. Everybody walks away happy.

If it isn't in the paperwork tell them to pound sand.

It should be very easy to spot 4 grand looking at the amount you financed vs. out the door price.

So you signed papers to finance a good sum of money and didnt read the paperwork....

you spent a good portion of $4000 in a week?

You told them you had 4000 cash just chilling that you could spend? That might be the dumbest thing you could have said.


Read your contract, if they put it in there, then they have a right to come after you for it.

If they didn't, then take it and run

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not really. spending the money now as opposed to later would be cheaper than not (i think its safe to assume that this 4k wasnt invested at this point)

this is NOT good! should have read the paper work in detail,and
never sign ANYTHING unless you are in complete agreement with it.
if in doubt, request a copy,and run,don't walk to an attorney IF you don't
understand the terms. good luck with this! hope it turns out ok for you!.

they do that kinda stuff in "minn-ah-snow-tah?"

You're all right. I should have read the fine print. But I made a 23 hour drive round trip to get the car and I was trying to hurry and get out of there because i knew i had a long trip back. The salesman and finance guy knewbthis and they were trying to hurry as well. No excuse, but it is what it is. And yes I spent a good portion of the money in a week. I paid my property taxes, I gave some money to my brother so he could get an MRI. My girlfriend needed a new prescription for her glasses. It's not like I just went down and spent it on one night of fun and frivolity. I'm usually very fastidious when it comes to these things. I just dropped the ball this time and figured since they didn't ask for it, they financed it without it.

For those actually trying to give advice, thank you. For those who just wanted to chime in their useless banter, well it's a public forum so to each his own.

Dustin - I suspect the 4K is in your financing paperwork and it was an honest mistake of them not getting the check from you at time of signing (poor process control on their part, but it happens, especially if it was after closing late at night and the cashier was already done for the day).

Since you no longer have the 4K on hand, I would explain to them that you no longer have it since you had assumed it was all done with 500 down, and that you'd like to re-do the financing such that the additional 4K is added in to the amount being financed. This will, of course, raise your payments, but there's not much you can do about that at this point unless you suddenly come up with the 4K.

Word of advice for future financial transactions: never offer up a position with the caveat of "I can if I have to, but I'd rather not." Either you will or you won't, because if you say you can, you can bet your ass they'll take it as an affirmative.

So... What's in the paperwork then?

x2 plus this is a good example of why people say to READ ALL THE PAPERWORK before signing. It felt awkward but I made the finance guy sit there for 5-10 minutes while I looked over everything on my paperwork to make sure it was the right color/transmission/mileage and to a make sure the downpayment and options included were all correct.

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I love how these threads always start with "The Dealer did something wrong.".


This isn't a playground. It doesn't matter who is at "fault" here. This was a simple miscommunication that you played a part in. So the "fault" or "blame" rests on your shoulders as much as the Salesman/Finance guys.

If you want to keep your car I would reccomend sending them a check.

If you have already spent the 4k then you will need to go back into the dealer to have the right paperwork completed and signed less the 4k.

Your not gonna be able to walk away from this and say "It's your fault.".

If it is in the paperwork that you signed then you have to give it to them. They are not obligated to rewrite the loan. If they do not however then they will either take you to small claims court or reposses the car from you. I am sure they do not want to have to deal with all that so they might threaten you over and over but in the end they will rewrite the loan. As of this point they do not have the loan approved since they do not have the money so it is their car still and you are just driving it with intent to purchase.

EDIT: you can do everything through the mail also. I am sure they, like all dealerships, have done several out of area sales.

Maybe I should have clarified from the beginning or reworded it better. I'm not looking to screw anyone out of $4000. It was late last night and I was tired when I was typing it. Foobar and Hix gave an example of advice I was looking for. What can be done to solve the problem. I wasn't looking for somebody to give me advice on how to not give them their money.

And granted opinions will vary but yes, I still say the dealer dropped the ball. I know whenever I sell something, I make sure all money is in hand before letting whatever it is I'm selling leave my possession. If I give the buyer the product and say, "Okay, enjoy.", then that means to me that everything is final. Not oops, I didn't get everything I was supposed to from them, let me call the a week later when they are 600 miles away and try to get what I missed. None the less, I am still willing to try and come up with a solution to resolve this, but just coming up with $4000 out if thin air isn't going to happen, I make enough to support myself and my family, but it isn't an easy task to come up with that much extra in a short amount of time.

Again, thanks to those who are giving sound advice.

Agree on all counts here.

Have you read it yet?

Without even seeing your paperwork, I'm willing to bet it says $4000 down on there.

:word: I just chimed in because you posted a thread that says "Dealer made a mistake."

If the thread had started with "I forgot to give the dealer my 4k down....what would you do?". I prolly wouldn't have felt the need to give my opinion because you would be admitting some fault of your own and taking responsibility for your own actions.
Instead you are putting the blame squarely on the dealer. Even though you said to them multiple times that you have 4k to put down, you didn't clarify the down payment in Finance, you didn't read the paperwork before leaving and you didn't make an effort to give them the 4k before you left.

I have customers bring back checks all the time for all kinds of different reasons and I/they don't make it into a blame game.

For example I had a repeat customer come in the other day when I was off to pick-up his car. The Salesman that handled the deal for me didn't know about some accessories that we had added to the car after it was delivered here and didn't include it in the deal.
I talked to my customer and explained the situation. He dropped a check off at my desk when he was here to rearrange some of the tag/title paperwork with Finance.

There was no blame game and he knew that we were owed the money for the parts on the car.

I'm really not sure if the dealer made a mistake or if you weren't specific enough.

The dealer wants to sell you the car at all costs. They should work with you. I would go in there with "I got big balls" mentality and let them know you can't. "They can have car back." Guarantee they will work with you. I had similar experience when I bought WRX and realized I couldn't afford it. (I was much younger)

U gave the sales guy 500? Big baller

Great contribution man. Go high five yourself, I'm sure you're a winner in your book. If you had read it correctly I said I gave him $500 to hold the car as per their request.

Beyer Subaru - I'm not saying I don't owe the money. That's all fine and dandy with me. But I'm not the one who typed up the paper saying that I had received a $4000 down payment when I didn't have money in hand and then gave away the car without making sure money was in hand. Again opinions will vary but in my opinion they dropped the ball.

But thank you for giving your opinion without sounding like a douche. I don't mind criticism but people like the ass hat above who's only purpose is to have shit come out of their mouth cause they like the taste is pointless and doesn't contribute to anything at all.

Reasonable response to a meaningful post.

However, I can't help pointing this right at you. What does your paperwork say?

Never mind. Lets just let this thread die. It's direction is going way off from its original purpose. Maybe I should have worded it differently from the beginning but I tried to make it clear that I was looking for suggestions on options to make to solve the problem. Yes it says $4000 down payment in the paperwork. I made that clear when I said I'm not the one who typed it up saying a down payment was made when none was received. But pointing out what has already been done does not help in trying to solve a problem. It focuses on the problem and not a solution.

To those that tried to give advice, I thank you again. To everyone else trying to speak just to serve some sense of self gratification, whatever gets your jollies off. Cheers :happy0180:

ITT: Posting on a message board about your car paperwork is actively trying to solve the problem.




Have you called the dealer yet and explained this to them? Or were you posting this hoping we would tell you "Lol you got away with it! Enjoy it!"


You volunteered that you had $4000 dollars you *could* spend. To a car salesman, this means that he is going to assume and/or at least make some bullshit up to tell you "Hey we can't do this deal without that money."

Not only that, but dealerships take post-dated checks for cars and downpayments ALL THE TIME. They *want* to sell you a car, regardless of whether or not that means you bring them a check a week later for a downpayment or not.

:word: Thanks for seeing my stance and I understand yours.

Being in the Car Sales Business I am already behind the eight ball of about 100 years of stigma. It doesn't matter how good, fair and honest I am, I will always be looked at as the bad guy.

So when I see "my dealer did X" it raises my hackles.

I would agree with your thread title if the paperwork didn't include the 4k down. Then they would have made a mistake and have to correct it.

If the paperwork shows a 4k down payment then I would say that the fault/blame should be shared equally between all parties involved in the transaction and should work together to correct it.

To solve the problem:
See if they can FedEx the new paperwork for you to sign.

So when I got my car I had to sign something that proved I gave them my downpayment and the finance person had to sign it as well, acknowledging that they had received it. Then they printed off my receipt for my personal records.

Did they do anything like that with you? Because if they signed something that said you gave them the down payment and you really didn't, seems like you may have won out.

But you still haven't said whether or not your original paperwork included the $4,000 or not. For all we know it could just be a communication error with the dealer and they think you owe them 4k.

Dustin, sorry to hear about the financial glitch. I've read some of the snarky responses, and your retorts as well. Frankly, I don't think you were really looking for advice, just wanting to vent about the fact that you spent the money after having stated that it was available as a downpayment.

The most important things about your post are the title line and the quote above. Regardless of whether you have or had the money, the dealership is not at fault. You signed a contract that showed the $4000 down payment. Yes, they probably should have had better controls in place to prevent missing the $4000 on the contract, but (not to be a jerk) you did in fact sign the contract. The dealership will likely just replace the existing contract with another that takes the $4000 out, assuming that you can afford the payments, and a bank agrees to issue financing with the updated numbers. If you are not approved, they do have the right to demand the car back. When I bought my FR-S, the dealership transposed two numbers on the contract (it was the listed as $xx,xxx.43 rather than $xx,xxx.34. No big whoop, but they had to redo the paperwork because the contract and the rest of the paperwork didn't match.

I would look at this as a very robust learning experience that you will unlikely forget next time you buy a car, house, or sign some other contract. Next time you'll have all of your bases covered and feel far better about it afterwords. :thumbsup:

never show money to a dealer,if you are unsure you want to pay it! having cash is almost counter productive,because the dealer actually gets a "kickback" from the financial institution,so it's in their interests to ''finance"
the vehicle.

I don't think there's a way to say this without me sounding like an ass, and it's not intended to be that way. Apologies in advance if it does.

If that's what's on the paperwork, and your signature is on the bottom along with the finance manager's, you're responsible for the money in some way, shape or form.

Given that they already thought you were putting $4,000 down, I would have been hyper aware that it was corrected and double checked the numbers. Lots of these horror stories come from people blindly signing what's in front of them.

It blows my mind sometimes when I see people just sign away to whatever gets put down in front of them. Hell, just last week I dealt with someone who thought they'd bought a "new" Camry with 61 miles on it, and was in service for an oil leak. When I called them to tell them the repair was covered under their certified used car warranty, they were confused (although happy about the free repair). When they brought all their paperwork in, right at the top of the finance contract it quite clearly said "used" typed out in the contract type fields and referenced that several times. The car was a dealership buy back and the car had already been titled before this customer purchased the vehicle. They assumed a 61 mile car couldn't be a used car.

My recommendation is to get back in touch with the dealer and see if they can resubmit the contract to the bank with the added principal (adding $3500 if I'm following correctly), or be open to some form of payment plan for the down payment.

all due respect.

1. the $4,000 is PRINTED on the form
2. you SIGNED the form
3. YOU'RE responsible.

Call the dealership shady/prick/scam all you want, but the John Hancock does not lie. I feel bad for your situation though. I pray your dealership will be nice enough to cut you some slack and rework this whole mess (i.e. you should go talk to them, not us).

When did you first become aware of the discrepancy in your contract?

Surely, it must have been long before EIGHT DAYS had passed, and the dealership finally called you.

You say you failed to read the contract when you signed it. So, when DID you read it?

But even before you read the contract, were you not surprised to learn that your monthly payment was around $100/mo. less than you had anticipated, given that you knew you had not paid an additional down payment of $4000?

Surely, you’d finally read over the details of this expensive purchase, if only to confirm that you had been properly credited for your trade-in, credited for your $500 deposit, and to learn when your monthly payment is due, and how much is due.

If you knew that the contract credited you for a $4000 down payment that you had NOT made, then why did you not call the dealership yourself to inform them of the discrepancy? Why did you wait eight days for them to call you?

Under the circumstances, I'd be surprised if the dealership is willing to accommodate you in any way. They are almost certain to think that you thought you'd successfully cheated them, waiting until they discovered their error, and hoping that they never did.

It is impossible to believe that a customer failed to read his contract terms for EIGHT DAYS following this expensive purchase. I'm sorry but your stance of injured innocence is neither plausible nor convincing, regardless of the fact that BOTH you and the dealer were at fault in this transaction.

The dealer appears to have suffered a misunderstanding compounded by carelessness. But, you... It's the eight days of silence from you that reflects badly on your character and motives. Whatever the truth may be, a reality check certainly does not reflect well upon you. Suspicions abound...

Maybe you have a plausible explanation for your conduct, one you have yet to reveal to us, or maybe the dealer will believe you never read your contract terms in those eight days following your purchase, and will cut you some slack. Who knows?

Trust me, it's VERY possible and extremely likely. This is the future of our country...and has been for quite some time now.

Why would a car with 61 miles on the clock not have the original manufacturer warranty in the first place? Was it voided or not transferable?

Based on the posters location it was probably flooded/damaged during hurricane Sandy last fall. Insurance companies paid off a lot of cars from the NE and they were issued salvage titles. This voided the original factory new car warranty.