We recently (first of Dec) bought a certified used car from a local dealership and within 3 days were having electrical issues with one of the air bag lights returning an error message and lighting up. Over the past 2 months we've had the car a total of maybe 30 days, with no more than 4 days consecutively as repeated dashboard light malfunctions, bad spark plugs, some other sensor in the engine, and sensors in the passenger seat going wacky.
The dealership has offered to let us try to find something instead of this car, but seem to be low balling us at this point to avoid themselves taking a hit. We've told them our bank prefers approving vehicles with x mileage, x year due to our credit scores - and they first offered us an older car with high mileage and frankly I got snappy with them over this. They have a 4 day return policy - but obviously we're well beyond that, but since we started with the issues 3 days in, I'm wondering if I retain some of those rights.
I've looked into Maine's lemon laws and they don't really apply to used cars in our situation - but we're getting really annoyed with them, really frustrated with what they feel is an equivalent vehicle. Has anyone been in a similar situation with advice on dealing with the dealer to make sure my wife gets into a reliable vehicle in the end? Should I be finding a lawyer at this point?
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As much as the BBB and Consumerist will make you feel better by letting you vent, there's really no recourse there. The BBB holds very little sway any more, if any.
Different industry, but a former company of mine managed to get an A+ rating, and a VP on their board. This is a company that routinely had reports of contractors threatening customers in their house.
Am I out of line pushing that we either way the car discounted an extra 400 or for that fee to disappear altogether? They also have a $375 stolen vehicle fee we didn't have before (because it's a Toyota dealership and the ones we're looking at now are Toyotas) - they claim that's required but again it's a fee that seems to be something they could waive doesn't it?
Call corporate before you go back to the dealer!
Obviously, in a normal situation we'd be able to negotiate that price down a bit to 11500 or something so I do feel a bit like we're overpaying for the new vehicle just based on our inability to really negotiate on even ground due to our prior loan on the first car. However, I do feel like dropping it down to 12k even by getting rid of their fees should be doable by them.
I'd take the suggestions of others and involve corporate. What they're offering is ridiculous.
Personally, I wouldn't trust them enough to buy a second vehicle from them.
Not true, my wife got sold a crappy extended mileage warranty from the dealership where she bought her car. It was supposed to include simple maintenance for an extra 50k miles or something. Well they sent her a coupon booklet with 7 free oil changes and 10%-20% off other maintenance type stuff. That wasn't what was sold to us by the salesman. She began calling the manager and after about 3 months of the runaround with no refund she went to the BBB. They had it settled within a month.
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Ultimately if they would give me my $10k back to take somewhere else I would, but I believe without lawyering up that will likely not happen so I'm trying to work with what they have.
Really, the whole point of buying a "certified used" car from a dealership- and paying a premium for it- is so that this kind of situation does not happen. You are well within your rights to expect them to make the situation right. It's up to you how much of a stink you're willing to raise (threatening to contact TV stations and newspapers worked for me in a similar situation with an auto-shop that damaged my car through negligence) and/or how much of a loss you're willing to take to make the situation go away.
This would also be hard if you signed a mandatory arbitration clause. Usually dealers have it in the buyer's order paperwork.
If your car is still under warranty you can go after them under Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, and if it is under the manufacturers warranty you can have the manufacturer fix it or lemon law it. Your state's individual lemon law may cover used cars anyways.
Bersheli: I approve of that method
It really isn't as easy as that, and when people brag "I got it for x below invoice," your response should be, "You'd be a complete moron not to get it below invoice."
Most dealers won't give you a price over the phone, and if they do, they'll give you the MSRP minus a couple hundred. They're largely afraid you're going to just keep shopping around until you find the lowest price, and they'll never hear from you again. And they're right. They probably won't. It's not a bad idea to do some telephone shopping beforehand to feel out a dealership (ignore the ones that are dickholes to you on the phone when you ask for a price, for example), but don't think it's as easy as just calling up a number of dealerships and having one quote you $5000 off the sticker. It doesn't work like that, and a salesmen has absolutely no incentive to do that.
Also, people like to wave around their savings after buying a car like that number is all thanks to their superior intelligence and hard willed tactics. Chances are, 80% of that discount is what anyone would have gotten, based on bonuses, cash back, etc. In fact, the guy in that video is buying "cash," so he's likely getting $3000 or so off the car anyway because he's doing that. He sees that $3000 savings as part of his super-duper shopping strategy, and the salesman is laughing because he just sold a car in 5 minutes for what the guy would have gotten anyway.
As to LiLo's problem, well he's fucked, from a practical sense. In this case raising hell and being a gigantic pain in their asses is probably the only way to get satisfaction. It sucks being a dick, but it can work, and they often trade on your not having the resolve to follow through.
The only time I got heated was when they offered me an older car with significantly worse book value and mileage - I told the manager I expected to never be offered something as bad as that again and that I thought it was a bit insulting. His defense was that it would have been a lower monthly payment, but I told him that if I wouldn't have bought it in December, I don't want it now. In the end we managed to only increase our loan by about $1.5k and the car we're getting is worth at least $2k more than what we originally bought and has a MUCH better warranty so we are happy.