I got an email from J.T. regarding her unfortunate experience with a car dealer. She asked me to post it here so that readers can give her advice. J.T. I’m sorry I’m not very familiar with car dealers (that’s why I never post about them) but hopefully someone reading this can help.
Please leave her a comment if you have any advice or suggestions.
Hey guys.
My boyfriend got a car in May of this year and had several problems in terms of the information that was fed to him. Here’s the story:
The situation began on the day he visited the dealership and was introduced to a sales representative by the name X, the person responsible with helping out with his transaction process. Mr. X before signing any papers had provided him with confident understanding that the $1000.00 deposit would be refunded if for any reason he would not want to close off the deal. Trusting that Mr. X was an honest and loyal sales representative he signed the papers off for a lease. Approximately a week later, we returned to the dealership stating that he would want to receive the deposit back. We were then consulted by Mr. X’s manager who stated we were unable to do so and cannot even forfeit the deposit.
We had originally wanted to purchase this vehicle under a financing plan but was advised that the price to lease was a cheaper and smarter method to obtain the Mazda 3. Mr. X had made it clear that during anytime within the lease period he was qualified to switch to a financing program. At the end of November this year, he decided it was time for me to switch to the financing plan. He had phoned back to the dealership who advised him that he would need to call the head office to obtain this information. Once he had contacted the head office they told him only the dealership would be able to provide him with this information. This processing of calling head office suggested by Agincourt Mazda had occurred twice before he was told by the dealership he was not qualified to be on a financing plan.
He has emailed the head office and been told he will get a response soon. But from all those lies, I’m not sure what a ‘response’ would be like. I hope it is not a “We are sorry” and done deal.
You should always get everything in writing. This could be very costly for you in the end. However, you should be able to switch to financing for a fee likely.
Normally a deposit is your way of guaranteeing that they will not sell the car to anyone else. If 10 people gave a deposit and the dealership turned away 10 buyers, then the deposit people asked for a refund… what kind of business would they be running? The same line of thinking goes along with security deposits for rental houses/apartments….if you change your mind, too bad.
You should be able to switch from a lease to a purchase plan though, but be aware that it will likely increase your payments quite substantially or require you to make a large payment. The advantage of a lease is that you are only financing the value of the vehicle you will use, while a purchase requires you to finance the entire cost of the vehicle. What you will probably end up doing is “borrowing” the payout of your lease (outstanding payments plus residual), paying off the lease, then refinancing the newly borrowed amount.
Sounds like your boyfriend doesn’t qualify for the amount of loan required to purchase the vehicle
In May he took a lease as it was a cheaper method to get the car. Possibly what the dealer didn’t say was that he was not approved for a loan for the purchase price, various reasons for that – doesn’t earn enough, self employed, bad credit, not enough time in current job etc, etc.
Ask the dealer for the lease buyout amount and go to a bank or finance company to see if you can actually afford the payments required to purchase as they will be substantially more than the lease payments. If you can, buy the vehicle. If you can’t then that’s why the lease was offered in the first place. 6 months of lease payments will not make much difference to the original loan payment amounts
Search the web for loan payment calculator and there are lots of sites that will calculate the monthly payments
Hindsight is always 20-20 but before you even think of walking into a car dealership, you should know how much you can afford to both lease and purchase a vehicle and based on that how much you can spend on a car.
On December 5th, I actually went to the dealer to ask to speak with Mr. X but he wasn’t in. I was directed to the assistant manager who told me a load of crap and it wasn’t their fault that we fell into what was told. So basically this agrument went on for a good hour. Half way, being fed up I asked him to put what he said is the truth on paper and he asked me ‘why?’… Now doesn’t that say something?
I showed him the letter similar to the original post and told him its been sent to head office and is getting posted across the internet forums he actually thought I was bluffing him! Anyways, eventually he told us the usual “I need to speak to my manager and I’ll look into it .. dah dah”
On my way back to the car in the parking lot, a fellow by the name Mr.R called from Mazda’s Customer Relation department. Saying that the fax and email has been recieved and he will talk to the dealer.
Nice and early this morning we get a call from Mr. R saying that Agincourt will be in contact with us. Agincourt has called in the afternoon asking me to go in to work something out.
Well after customer relation had called, Agincourt had asked us to call customer relations back to state that we are being taken care of and by doing so (without realizing or told by Agincourt), it closed off my file! So basically they told me i need to refile it.
Agincourt offered me soemthing I didnt’ settle for. It was a difference of $1000 and they gave me nonsense that they would only allow me to take a use car and if I go with a new car, they would need to lower the trade-in value. But the Pre-Sales manager managed to get the msg to me, he had too many Mazda 3’s in his lot and he wants to get rid of them. So that’s why he’s willing to do an exchange.. Stupid? I think so.
Anyways, without wanting to be ripped off, I went to Avante to check out prices. Excellent excellent and EXCELLENT customer service! Everybody in the dealership was nice and friendly. Got tons of business cards and introduction from pratically everybody.
In all, I told them about the situation and hopefully something will be worked out with Avante rather than SHADY AGINCOURT MAZDA. I have been arranged to meet with the owner of Avante to see what can happen. I look foward to it.
P.S. For those who are interested and are considering leasing OR purchasing from Agincourt… beware. You aren’t told all that you need to know and lies will be feed for you to drive the car off the lot.
Lots of crooked car dealers out their thanks for the info…..I am from this area and will avoid that dealership like the Plague…ty
Always get it in writing. Don’t give any money without a contract. I’m sorry this happened to you, but unfortunately I don’t think there is anything that you can legally do. Spread the word, tell everyone you know what happened to you at the dealership.
I WANTED TO BUY A NEW CAR AND WENT TO ROSELAND VOLKSWAGEN TO SHOP
I HAVE NEVER HAD GREAT SERVICE FROM THE SALES STAFF LIKE I HAD AT ROSELAND VW
I WAS TREATED LIKE A CUSTOMER
I BOUGHT AND HAVE REFFERED ALL MY FRIENDS THERE
HONESTY AND FAIRNESS IS STILL ALIVE AT ROSELAND VW IN BURLINGTON.
I am so ashamed. I’ve been scammed twice by Yorkdale Volkswagon o/b 2031113 Ontario Limited. Iknow I should have been more on the ball. I probably cannot do anything about it. Hopefully others will not make the same mistakes. Start by shopping elsewhere.
I leased a new VW Passat CC through this dealer. They used an offer to lease form which doesn’t include the selling price of the vehicle on it. They told me the purchasing price was $34,735,which included the base price of $31,975 + $1,400 for auto transmission and $1,360 for freight and PDI. The leasing company is VW Credit Canada Inc. The numbers were the same as posted on VW Canada’s website. The monthly payments were a little more than what I wanted to pay so I asked if they could lower the purchase price enough to make the monthly lease payment an amount of $350 per month (this included an $8,000 trade-in). The salesman told me that he required my credit card in order to present this to his manager. He came back with a reworked offer to lease form and told me I have a deal. At that time, the salesman took my ownership papers for the car I was going to trade-in.
What they did not tell me was that they retained the same purchase price, but increased the amount I would have to pay up front, not to mention that they used a slightly higher interest rate to calculate the lease payments than the amount posted on VW Canada’s website. After I released what they did, I called the new car sales manager to complain and ask for my $1,000 deposit back. He would not give back the deposit. He agreed to reduce the up-front payment by $700, while maintaining everything else the same. Further I was told that I could have the car in the colour scheme that I wanted by the end of the week. I later found out that they do not have the car I wanted, and promised to order one for me from the manufacturer. The car arrived three weeks later. It did not come from directly the manufacturer. Instead, they acquired it from another dealer and had a manufacture date that was five months old, meaning it had sat through the Canadian winter — they did not disclose this to me.
When I picked up the car and fill out the leasing paperwork, the leasing rate offered by VW Credit Canada had dropped from 4.9 to 2.9%. The dealer had forms for me to sign which stated that the interest rate was 2.9% but the monthly payments or up-front payments had not changed. The residual value had been lowered by a mere $340.00. Again the purchase price was not disclosed on the new offer to lease form. When I pointed out that the lower interest rate should have a more significant effect on lowering either the up-front payments or the monthly lease payments, I was told that the effect was minimal. The Business Manager told me that they made $250 and he would make it up to me in services. At this point they already had my car and my insurance had already been transferred to the new car. So I just took his word for it. However, the lease agreement itself, which is an entirely different document, only presented to me after all of the above had occurred, contained a Vehicle Selling Price that was 37,662.83. This price was significantly higher than the MSRP of the vehicle, and when I questioned it I was told it includes freight, security deposit and first month payments as well as some other small charges. Not having a computer with me at the dealership, these items cannot be easily checked. After getting home, I realized they the selling price only included freight, not security deposit and first month payment and was $3,319.83 above the selling price I had agreed to. Do I have any recourse against this dealer?
Any illegal or iffy billing should be looked at by your local MPP or an MP ASAP<<<<
Cunning can be everywhere and in anything.
Lying and cunning can be or is 100% illegal in Canada.
A legal free ride is still a myth in Canada,even nowa days in 2009<<<
Your MPP and or your MP will stand up for your rights ASAP
at toyota dealer we had a same problem ,we ware looking for new car we gave deposit and then we fegure out we can get cheeper rate at other toyota they told us they cannot give us deposit back,and he want’s to know who offer us cheeper ?? hen we went to other dealer we told him story and he told us because we sign agreement with him he cannot give us anything in written??
Shift
This is a post for my 65 year old father who bought the first new car of his life from Melody Motors in Melfort Saskatchewan. Against my better suggestions about buying domestic since they are going into the toilet for reasons which have become clear to me he went ahead and bought a new Ford Focus ten days ago from this writing. Here is the story..
He was driving down a highway on a clear day with no other traffic when he heard a big crash. He stopped the car got out and looked at the tires which he thought he blew and noticed that the rear window was splintering and falling into the back seat, on his then 8 day old car. Being a trusting person since he had been sold on the extended warranty he called the dealership and talked to the sales manager. They told him that this wasn’t there problem and told him to go to his insurance and never to call back there again for this problem. My dad is too nice a person and he did what they said and then he called me. I gave him the 1 800 number to Fords Customer care and he called them expecting that they would be a little helpful and again they told him that it was not their problem and not to call back. I don’t care if this is something that he can fix himself they should have at least tried to pretend that they gave a crap about their customers. So my father had to get the window replaced himself with no one from Ford caring what kind of crap they are selling out their doors. So I am going from website to website blogging about the ford customer care and warning people to think very carefully before they buy, cause if they are this rude for something minor how do you think they will act if you have something major happen to your new vehicle. Which could happen cause not everything apparently is built with quality Ford parts. I was going to go buy a new Ford Escape since it looked like a great deal for the vehicle but I am going elsewhere now since having to deal with the Ford Customer Experience has left a bad taste in my mouth. If anyone wishes to republish this and help me spread the word that would be fantastic.
We, my husband and I, also had car dealership issues, although we are pleased to announce the dealership we dealt with has since gone under as our experience was several years in the making. In 2004 we bought our first brand new domestic vehicle (had ALWAYS bought Honda previous to this). It was a 2004 Chevy Colorado (beautiful truck). We bought from a dealership in a small town (Goderich). Here the sales department was excellent and assisted us with everything, even scrubbing out a small coffee stain in the carpet from a spill when they transported our new truck in from another dealership. Our issue came later with the many visits to the service department of this dealership. We had various issues relating to defective parts ect. (leaking windows in the back cab, peeling clear coat, defective electronic parts ect.) All within the first year of ownership. The service department didn’t help as the replacement vehicles that they gave my husband to drive were all old and in rough shape. The dept. even told him to be careful in the one big van as he shouldn’t drive it on the highway due to engine troubles. We couldn’t believe that they would give these loaners to someone having work done on a brand new vehicle! Growing up my parents had a Subaru they bought brand new and when they needed some minor work done on it the dealership gave them a replacement vehicle equivalent to their own car (even nicer actually).
Bad experience indeed.
I haven’t even got my car yet.
I should had stayed with Avante Mazda! They took care of me for four years and they were great. People called and made sure I was happy with my lease. Sales were and STILL are nice!!! They sat there three times explaining to me about lease to finance options. No pushing and most importantly, no shady business!
Anyway, back to Agincourt. Miscommunication or no communications at all! I double checked and asked the sales twice about getting my car within the month. He told me two times that the car is in the lot in Mississauga. So I asked that there wont be too much kilometers on the car when I get it right? Saying as confident and assuring as he was, he told me that it wont be more than 40km. I jokingly said, that would be around the same kilometer that it will take to get from Mississauga to Markham, I hope my car isn’t driven all the way from there but instead it was shipped.
So that was our conversation. Even before I signed I asked about the damages that they had assured that they will cover whatever AutoBin (AutoVin) will charge me for any damages. I even asked when I would get my car, he said they have the car is Mississauga once again! So I was happy and satisfy, made the $1000 deposit and signed a contract.
I waited a few days for being approved and got impatient and called. Nothing but a voice mail. Called, voice mail. Finally I called the dealers direct line and got him paged to the phone and finally he picked up. First thing he tells me is that I was approved. Okay, tell me something new. I asked when I can get my car, at least I would know when to expect it. My lease is up in a day or two so I need it soon. He tells me that his manager is not here and he can’t answer me. I was kind of curious because he had 6 full days to ask his manager and he tells me 6 days after that he can’t give me the information. So my parents went there in person the next day and he tells them that they don’t have a car and I will have to wait until September and MAYBE they have the car. I am extremely disappointed. Okay, if that’s the case I have no choice but to wait, because he specified that they have the right of a 90 days of not providing a car and it’s written in the contract. Okay, if you had no car, you could have told me and instead of being a liar about it by promising that they had the car in Mississauga right now and it will be here when you purchase. I am now stuck with no car. So if it is to continue my lease with Mazda, at least help me out with the documents, but being a great help as he is, he didn’t even provide information or whatsoever that can help me.
This is Agincourt Mazda dealer. I will keep on passing my story around. I don’t think it was fair and I don’t think I should pay for those two months of a rental or the fee in continuing my lease with Mazda. In my opinion, I would like to take my deposit back and move onto Avante Mazda right now right this instance and I wouldn’t even mind paying more monthly. At least I have confidence with Avante. A few dollars more means trust, I really don’t mind paying. Right now, I don’t think they would even keep their word on covering “current damages”. There must be a catch. My experience means others to avoid the same, I would love to share it even more.
HI everyone
I took my OMVIC certification last year, mostly as a lark and to see how easy it was to become “certified” It was a joke.
anyways There is recorse if you feel you have been ripped off. first car dealers still have to comply to the consumer protection act found at http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/DBLaws/stautes/Emglish/02c30_e.htm
highlights are:
consumers have 1 year to seek recission in the event a vehicle has been misrepresented.
any ambigiguity in the contract will be interpreted in favor of the
consumer
There is a ton of other relevant info that I would like to write, but i don’t have the time.
look into CAMVAP
it is an arbitration program designed to help the buyer resolve disputes with the warrenty of a vehicle
Also look into OMVIC standards of business practice and OMVIC disciplinary process. It sounds as though the standards have been violated in many of the above posts, dealers can be charged fines, although there is little they can do to right the wrongs. Possibly the threat of going up against the discipliary commitee will scare them into dealing with your concerns.
Excellent blog and great post, keep it up!
no reply but another warning if your from ottawa area! ive been to EVERy Dealership in ottawa! no lie, and all were desperate, but at least nice. Then I went to SOUTHBANK! off bank. they lied, missled me, cheated. threatned to sue me and much much more. |UNBELIEVABLE! I was even yelled ya by a salesmen.
I eulogize the valuable information you provide in your post. I will bookmark your site and have my kids check up here oftentimes. I am quite sure they will learn lots of new stuff here than anybody else!
Beneficial question. The next time they call up (and from the sound of it, there will absolutely be considered a upcoming time), find out for any supervisor just before they even enjoy a probability to finish speaking. When the supervisor comes on, notify them you just have instructed them to eliminate your name/number from their phone call list numerous times, and that if it won’t take place this time and now you obtain one other telephone call from them, they will be hearing from the lawyer. Then if it nevertheless transpires, I’d say most certainly search for a lawyers benefit to make it cease.
What?!! AutomotiveWarrantyReview.com tweeted a referencing URL – now, is that how any of you found this page? I popped the link in above. You should pop in that tweet to this thread somewhere…I’ll try to track it down.
This is as most times a pleasure going through your articles
bought a car for my son in oakville mazda. my son was told that he would get 500 rebate after his college graduation. this is written on the purchase document. my son handed the dealership his transcript snf final graduation documents this july. he was told it would take about 2 months to have it processed. it is not mid november so it has been more than 4 months now but every time he calls the dealership the salesrep advises my son that it would take another 2 weeks. today after being frustrated over this false promises i called the dealership. the manager denied everything completely. at the end of the conversation when he notices that my case was strong and all were documented he promised he would look into the case again. don’t buy from these guys. i would avoid them completely.