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 ...
“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”
Michigan law deems transaction complete upon execution of sales documents and delivery of vehicle.
“What the dealer did is common practice. “
Submitting a fake application is not a common practice.
“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.”
Not good. The dealer submitted a fake application. Not a normal process.
“She should have been repossessed”
According to Michigan law the dealer has no legal right to repossess.
I can understand them letting her drive off pending finance - that's common enough. But if they were stupid enough to give her the title, they deserve what happened. They should never submit it to be titled until they have the lender on there. And then the fight would be between the lender and her, and the dealership could say 'not my problem'.
If the story is true (and it looks like the jury and the judge thought is was) the dealership had a major screw-up that they then proceeded to double down on. And their floor plan lender might want to do a physical count.
“Actually standard verbiage in these contracts make the sale subject to loan approval. She didn’t get loan approval and she refused to cooperate.”
Dealer told her loan was approved before she came in to pick up car.
See #26
“They should never submit it to be titled until they have the lender on there. “
The title had Ally as the lender. The problem was that the application to Ally was fake. She bought a 2017 Dodge Durango. The dealer submitted a 2020 Cadillac CTS.
“Actually standard verbiage in these contracts make the sale subject to loan approval. “
Dealer omitted this standard verbiage.
One of my nieces was at a Ford dealership and she wanted to lease an Escort and she knew what terms she wanted. The dealership putzed and delayed so after 4 hours she got up and left. They called her the next day and she went back and got the deal she wanted.
I’m a little confused here. They refer to her as being given the title. Maybe things are different in Michigan, but I’ve never financed a car and gotten the title until I paid off the loan. The lien holder holds the title until then.
Could they be referring to the registration papers?
2 years ago I was buying another CPO Nissan truck and I did hours of shopping online using aggregates like Carguru and other websites that gather sales data from all the dealers.
And they rate prices as exceptional, good, fair or poor. I saw a truck I liked so I went in person to check it. We struck a deal on the price but yet when I went to the finance office they added an additional $2,499 for a non negotiable mandatory Protection Plan which included anti theft phantom fingerprints, 1 year free car washes, 2 years tire rotation, and 2 years guaranteed paint/leather/fabric sealant. At best, this was maybe $500 worth of stuff that nobody should pay $2500 for
What a load of garbage. I refused to be ripped off $2500 more than the advertised price and I demanded the dealership remove this garbage from the sales contract. They refused so I walked out.
Later that very afternoon the dealership called me back and agreed to delete this garbage package from the sales process. And so therefore I bought the truck.
But of course I’ll never go back there again.
Regardless of whether I buy or I lease, I have already run the numbers every way there are to run them. I’ve run the hypothetical payments every way there are to run those and when I walk into negotiate, I’m not surprised. I usually get what I want although I have to haggle for it, but that’s just fun for me.
I leased brand new Mazda CX 30 a few months ago I had already worked out all the details number wise and of course I read into them at the dealership with different payments that were way out of kilter on what I thought they should be, but I ended up getting exactly what I wanted after they figured out if I didn’t play the numbers I wanted I would do the deal.
Sometimes the best negotiating tool is to just walk out. That’s someone’s paycheck leaving the business.
I worked years in automobile financing at a bank here in Texas and I pretty much know all the tricks and games these dealers play.
Last year I bought a used Chrysler after doing hours of research. I found 2 almost identical Pacifica minivans. One at a local dealer and the other at CarMax. CarMax also gave me an internet offer of $20,000 on my trade in.
I went to the local dealer first. I found and agreed to buy the Pacifica they had at the price they asked. Yet they were only allowing me $18,000 for my trade in. I showed them the contingent offer from CarMax and said this is what I want. They said no, I’d have to go to CarMax and get a written offer from them, not just an internet offer and then come back.
I looked at them and asked if they were crazy. Were they really going to blow the deal and send me to CarMax knowing I would not be back? Even if CarMax did offer me only $18K on the trade in, I’d take it and buy their van.
They came to their senses and gave me the $20,000 trade in allowance.
There’s a million dirty tricks these dealers play. Did you know when they leave their office for whatever reason leaving a couple alone to discuss what’s going on that they record you?
I really should have gone to CarMax in the first place. I hear they don’t screw their customers over and people leave satisfied.
What is it that makes car dealers so unethical?
Excellent information, thank you!!!!
Jerry Lundegaard : Yeah, but I'm saying that TruCoat. You don't get it, you get oxidation problems. It'll cost you a heck of a lot more than $500.
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.
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We have always paid cash but usually from private individuals for used cars except for the first car we bought back in 1968. I had the cash but the credit union I had my money convinced me that I needed to establish credit so I got a loan that I didn’t need. Since we are old now and don’t have any of our 9 kids around, we don’t owe anybody anything so a few years ago we bought a new car from a dealership. It was the last day of the month and we were paying cash and we got a great deal at 11pm on the last day of the month. We saved several thousand dollars from what they were trying to get from us. A few years later we did the same thing again, the last day of the month and cash. They did not want us to walk away and again we got a really good deal. We drive our cars until the wheels fall off so we don’t mind taking a hit on the loss of buying a new car. We won’t trade them in anyway.
A few years ago I was negotiating on a used car. I was paying cash and was at my max. We were only separate by $100 and the guy wouldn’t budge.
Your loss dude. I walked away. Never heard from them again. A couple weeks later I bought the car I really wanted for less money. Drove it hard for seven years and wore it out at 300,000 miles.
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