Dealership Doesn't Like Deal, Takes Car Back

News Channel 5 ^ | 07/17/2006

[Responsibility2nd]

(Read Bill Heard's statement provided to NewsChannel 5.)

Oughta be good for at least 100 replies.

Soooo. Whaddya YOU think? Should the dealer have taken back the truck? Is this a criminal case? Civil case?

[bboop]

Criminal! They both signed the deal. If the dealer is doing this many times, they should be put out of business.

[Richard Kimball]

Criminal case. The dealership no longer owned the truck. They stole it.

[lumber1]

Once the deal was signed... the dealer loses. period.

[BipolarBob]

I made a mistake and didn't like the deal they offered me because it was TOOO much so I go up to the dealership and just take the vehicle I want. Fair is fair. If a bill of sale don't mean nuthin' why pay them anything.

[skaterboy]

the bad pub alone is gonna kill this clown as it should..sue the hell out of him..if he has signed papers and they took the truck.. is that not grand theft auto?

[VOA]

Ah, you hear about this sort of thing all the time with Toyota, Nissan and Mazda dealers!

(What my Buy America Even If It's Wrong friend would say; otherwise he's
a really great guy)

[cmsgop]

It's a Civil Case, I have a business, If I make a mistake like that I live with it. This Guy has a great case IMHO, All I can say for the Dealership it better not be a Jury Trial.

[capt. norm]

If it had been the other way around (customer on losing end) the dealership would have told him to go to hell.

They sure do squeal like a pig when the tables are turned on them.

If it's as big a dealership as they say, they've already lost at least $10,000 in bad publicity/public relations.

If they want to stay in business they had better play nice with the guy, otherwise they're doomed.

[Responsibility2nd]

I'm beginning to side with the dealer.

The sale was NOT completed. The buyer gave a posted dated check. The buyer actually had this truck out on spec pending the final closing.

[dighton]

On the face of it, rather damning:

Kathleen Calligan says the Better Business Bureau has received literally hundreds and hundreds of similar complaints about the Bill Heard dealership -- more complaints by far than any other auto dealer in all of Middle Tennessee.

Bill Heard + Better Business Bureau

[Responsibility2nd]

Once the deal was signed... the dealer loses. period.

Yeah, but after reading the attachments, I'm not so sure the deal was done. Especially with a post dated check added into the mix.

[Richard Kimball]

Biggest screwing I ever got was at a Toyota dealership. It was my fault, I was young and stupid, but I've never bought, or seriously considered buying another Toyota.

[capt. norm]

The buyer gave a posted dated check.

I can't find that in the article. Where did you come up with it?

[Enterprise]

There isn't much he can do but go to civil court since the DA is gutless.

On perhaps a different note, a couple of years ago a Fresno County Sheriff's Sergeant sued a local Ford dealer, and Ford Motor Company over a lemon car. The dealer settled for 100,000 dollars and the Sgt. got a judgment against the Ford Motor Company for 10 Million dollars. Ford appealed the verdict, and it is probably still pending. I would hope that the buyer and his attorney in this case can get records of past dealings and sales, and prove that this is a consistent pattern by the dealer. If so, it should prove successful against the dealer in a lawsuit. We'll see.

[lumber1]

if the dealer accepted it, too bad for him.

[HitmanLV]

A deal is a deal.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

"I'm a faithful follower of Brother John Birch
And I belong to the Antioch Baptist Church.
And I aint even got a garage, you can call home and ask my wife!"

Same Antioch??

[Turbopilot]

Seems to me he needs to sue the dealership in civil court to enforce his contract of sale and get the truck back. Assuming he wins that suit, which he should, the court will have established that he did, in fact, own the truck, at which point he should insist that the dealership employees and management who ordered the "repossession" be criminally charged with the truck's theft, and then go back to civil court and sue them for the intentional tort of trespass to chattel, with the various punitive damages such a suit can entail. It won't run the dealership out of business, but he'll be ablet to buy a new truck a few times over, and the thugs who tried to steal it back will think twice before they do it again.

As long as the deal wasn't grossly unreasonable (like selling him the car for $1), I don't see how the sale wouldn't be enforceable. I don't see how a trade-in plus $8,100 cash would seem blatantly unreasonable for a used Chevy.

[capt. norm]

I found it in Bill Heard's statement. A post-dated check that is accepted is, just that, accepted.

They are actually illegal in most states.

When I was in the check-cashing business, the law was, you accept a check (no matter what's written on it), too bad for you.