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 ...
The real judgement total was $824,000. The $350K was punitive damages calculated by the jury. The actual damage was a mere $38,00 for the car and related expense.
The largest portion of the judgement went to lawyer’s fees and court costs for a trial in Federal court.
I don’t think this is good enough, there should be Criminal Prosecution for Grand Theft and Extortion for everyone in the chain of command that made these decisions.
That's wise. People often say that you shoud never buy a new car. You lose up to $5,000 or more in value the minute you drive it off the lot and it becomes a used car.
That's nonesense. You only lose that value if you trade it in right away. And who does that? Buying new keeps you in that car a year longer than if you bought a used one year old car.
I bought a brand new Xterra once. Drove it for 12 years. When I bought it, I could have bought a used one at the dealership with only 3,000 miles. Seems a fellow bought a new Xterra and found out right away it was too small for his family, so the dealer said. So they traded in this amost new car for a bigger Pathfinder. Same SUV just with a third row seat.
3,000 miles? That's nothing. But the dealer was only willing to come down just 300 dollars off the price of an identical brand new one. So of course I bought the brand new one. The point is - yes you can save money up front by buying used, but you also get the baggage of miles, wear and tear and a shorter life cycle. And then most new cars come with better financing and warranties over used.
Most people also don't know that new car dealerships make more money selling used cars over their brand new ones.
We had the same thing happen years ago at a Jeep dealership. Signed all docs, took the Jeep and went home. They came back the next day and wanted an extremely high interest rate even though we were approved and had signed the loan docs. That dealership no longer exists.
I also pay cash or I put good money down if I buy a nice car.
One time I was at a used car lot and saw a car I liked. I asked the dealer “How much?”
He gave me an amount of so many dollars down and just $xxx per week. I said no, I have cash. How much cash to buy in full today.
He wouldn’t sell it that way. BHPH. Buy here. Pay here.
Now I get that. These types of dealers sell to people with bad credit who otherwise can’t get regular financing or pay cash. And if they miss just two weekly payments, the dealer takes it back and it’s sold again. Same arrangement.
The dealer makes his money back with just the down payment and 3 months of regular payments. So the other 33 payments he gets is pure profit.
“They refer to her as being given the title. “
Page 13, Item 60
Thanks.
Illuminating.
Other details aside, I find it interesting she received the title. I wonder in how many states that is the procedure. I have only financed cars in FL and KY. In 7 or 8 new car purchases I have never received the title from the lender until the loan was satisfied.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.