Posted on 08/31/2024 5:06:19 PM PDT by xxqqzz
A federal judge just upheld a $350,000 punitive damages judgment against a General Motors dealership in Michigan in a spot delivery and wrongful repossession case. The U.S. district judge rejected the argument from Suburban Chevrolet Cadillac of Ann Arbor that the award was excessive. Here’s how this all came to be.
In July of 2020, a bad time for everyone, Tina McPherson made a $2,000 down payment on a 2017 Dodge Durango and applied for financing from two lenders, according to Automotive News. The following day, she completed the paperwork and took delivery of the SUV. Everything was OK for about a week, and then things went south. She received an adverse action notice from one of the two lenders. The suit alleges Suburban Chevrolet Cadillac submitted an application with different terms to a third lender without her permission. Not good.
McPherson wasn’t going to take this lying down, so she refused to sign the new financing documents or return the title. That’s when the dealer hired a towing company to take back the Durango, and the finance manager told her the dealership was keeping $900 of the down payment to cover expenses, AutoNews reports.
At trial, a Michigan jury found Suburban Chevrolet Cadillac was in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act and several state laws, as well as conversion and improper repossession. The store fought to ave the $350,000 in punitive damages reduced, but Judge David Lawson refused to do so in an opinion in late July, according to Automotive News.
(Excerpt) Read more at jalopnik.com ...
They would say the buyer was declined for credit and try to negotiate worse terms for the buyer after the buyer had the car. Then they would repossess if they buyer did not agree.
Bad link.
A classic bait and switch scheme. They shouldn’t have let her drive the car off the lot until the financing had been approved and finalized. She drove off in the vehicle thinking she had contracted for a certain set of terms. The dealer changed the terms of the contract after letting her take possession of the car.
That’s a no-no.
Should have given someone at the dealership 30 days in county.
Car dealerships do this crap all the time. They have you sign a deal and then they renege on the deal, claiming that they need you to sign another one because they “accidentally” sold a trimming or service that added to the price.
F’n Aye Beautiful!!! She hit the jackpot after the hell they dragged her through! This was not an aberation and a one time incident, this was SOP for the dealership, that’s why the jury hit them back HARD!
The Bastards never learn.
Did the buyer read the 10+ pages (example) of tiny type?
It’s always lovely to see dealers having to pay up for the shitty stuff they try and pull on buyers. It doesn’t always happen, but we’ve recently covered a dealer who talked a Ford Maverick buyer into paying nearly $1,000 a month for the truck, a dealership that sold a car out from under a woman who brought it in for repairs and a dealer that was sued for taking back a man’s new car just two weeks after he bought it. It’s rough out there.
My Dad’s advice when I was 12 or 13...never borrow to buy a car.
I never have. My first was a ‘31 Model A I got for free, then a ‘50 Ford w/a flathead V8, I bought for $9.
I now have 5 collector cars, a Porsche, a Silverado HD, and a Toyota 4Runner. Never a car payment. Thanks for the great advice, Dad! financing will keep you poor, guaranteed!
You must have been on Earth for a long time! I got some good deals back in the 1960's and 1970's. Bought cars at police auctions for $12. Traded parts worth $15 to $50 for good cars. A neighbor offered me two 1951 Chevys in perfect shape with low mileage, for $100 because he was old and could no longer drive. I said no, because I had no space for more cars as a teenager. I traded some wheels that cost me $15, to a friend that tipped me off to a woman giving away a '57 Chevy coupe, had no engine and she wanted it gone. I got lots of good cars for cheap (under $100), paid cash, and likewise sold them cheap. Kicking myself for selling the '57 coupe with 327ci engine and racing gear for $300 back then, oh well.
As adults, my wife and I always paid cash for new cars, because we didn't want to pay interest towards loans. We get 20 years or more out of them before selling them. Currently down to 4 vehicles, 3 of them older than 24 years. Always get offers to sell, but not ready yet.
What the dealer did is common practice. An application signed and is submitted to the lender. Even though you may take delivery you do not have a loan agreement until it’s approved 2 or 3 days later. If that loan app is declined and this woman refused to resubmit another application she should have been repossessed.
The dealer changed the terms of the contract after letting her take possession of the car.
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Actually standard verbiage in these contracts make the sale subject to loan approval. She didn’t get loan approval and she refused to cooperate. She should have been repossessed
I had snagged that car out from someone who didn't qualify without a cosigner earlier in the day. Car buying was so ugly right after COVID that I'm surprised the dealer didn't have potential buyers have gladiator fights for the chance to buy.
We’ve almost always bought used cars (two 2014 model years in the garage right now). We’ve made large down payments, kept the loan term short as we could afford, and gotten better rates at the Credit Union than from the dealership. We’ve kept the car salesmen at the dealership to 11:30 pm on the last day of their fiscal month. They are trying to beat their sales goal and are motivated. Then we keep our cars for 10 - 12 years. We are both retired and are wondering if we’ll need to buy another car.
I might misunderstand, but here’s what it looks like to me: Tina applied to 2 financing companies, selected the offer from one, finished the paperwork, and owned the car. So far, so good, a normal process. But then the dealership submitted a third financing request to a third company, but giving materially different information about Tina. Maybe they thought they could get a bigger kickback from this third company? Anyway, the company that Tina originally contracted with learned of the new application with different information and cancelled their agreement with her. To them, I suppose, it looked like Tina lied on her application, which is valid grounds for cancellation. So, now that the finance company rescinded her offer, the dealership wouldn’t get their money, so they tried to repossess the car. Because of a problem they caused.
Now that is way too obvious. Kind of like saying, "Don't eat yellow snow".
5 years ago I was buying a CPO Nissan at a dealership. A sweet part of the deal was Nissan factory financing at 1.9%.
The F&I guy said no, that rate had expired and I had to accept a 4.9% rate from another lender. I said look, here it is on Nissan’s office website. 1.9. Still available.
He said he would not submit for that. I said OK, I will. The website had the option to apply online, so I left the finance office and took a seat at a desk and proceeded on my iPhone to submit the app for 1.9%.
This really pissed off the finance manager. He was not happy, but he called me back in his office, submitted the app to Nissan and I got what I came for.
Loved your story! Small world, I have owned 51 1957 Chevys.
I still have 4, just sold one last week.
Have done much the same, horse traded my way up. Lots of parts and car deals to get here, lol!
Have only bought one new car in my life, a 76 Chev 3/4ton cargo van, for $4100. Built a surfer van out of it and made good bank in less than a year.
Yes, as a kid this happened twice. I was too dumb to fight it. It will never happen again.
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