Why Car Dealerships Have A Bad Name

Q: I wanted to purchase a used car at a car dealership. The salesman told me on Monday that I qualified for financing on the car, but said I couldn't pick it up until Wednesday because the car needed to be detailed and because he would be out of the office until Wednesday night. When I went to pick up the car, the story had changed. The salesman went to get the car for me, but another salesman said that "Carlos's cousin had it out on a test drive". (There is a Carlos who manages the used car department). In the meantime, the salesman went (supposedly) to verify my car insurance and to get my temporary tags. A few minutes later the finance manager appears and says that I don't qualify for the loan on that particular car because that make and model is known to depreciate too rapidly. That, coupled with my less-than-perfect credit, meant that the bank thought my loan would be too high risk. He said I could qualify for other, more expensive cars on the lot, as well as other less expensine, older and higher mileage cars, just not that particular car. I had co-signer paperwork ready at the dealership in case there was any trouble with the loan, so I told the finance manager that I only wanted THAT car, so run the loan again with the co-signer. I few minutes later he returned to say that yes, it would be no problem with the co-signer, but I couldn't have the car because they had just sold it. I believe that the finance manager lied...I think I DID qualify for financing on that car, but they just didn't want to sell it to me because a coworker's cousin wanted to buy it. I think he didn't expect me to go so far as to use a co-signer when I was able to finance more expensive cars without the co-signer, and then was trapped because there was no way to say that my co-signer and I couldn't qualify together. I intend to find out what banks were offerred the loan and determine if I was really turned down on the car. If he lied, can I report him for fraud? Can I even sue them for their misrepresentation?

A: -The best you can do is to complain to the manager or the owner of the dealership. But chances are that he is the same or a bigger crook than the finance manager. Just take a deep breath and forget about it; there's nothing you can do to hurt them legally. Of course, there's always an option of throwing several rocks and smashing windows on their cars at night :-), but somehow I doubt you would like to do that. I've had two experiences with bad dealers, both of them worse than yours. You just have to forget about it.. -Actually, I was thinking it could have been a lot worse. They could have SOLD her the car she wanted. I mean, if they are treating her like shit before the sale, imagine what happens the first time she needs to bring it in for service? I think they did the OP a favor by refusing to sell the car to her. .

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