Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
Options
Comments
Last week I got email quotes for a Honda CR-V from 3 dealers. All about 21,300 out the door (Base model LX, automatic). Didn't mention CFC. Last Friday went to a different dealer in person and agreed on a final OTD cost of 21,600 (had added options). I even told them about the $4,500 I'd need for CFC. They said they had to finalize the program over the weekend.
But, they agreed to sell the car for a final price of $17,188. Before going to pick it up yesterday, they called and the owner wants another $1,100 if I want to use CFC. Otherwise, they'll do the same price without CFC. Owner says they don't want to "loan" the Gov/t the $4,500 for an unknown number of days till they get the money back.
Okay, I can see that. I offered to pay them 6% of the $4,500 for 90 days ($68) plus an extra $100 just so I wouldn't have to start over. They still want $1,100 more. I told them no.
Funny, another dealer told me last week they would only sell a car at MSRP if someone wanted to use CFC. Same thing about floating a free loan to the Gov't. So, I gotta start all over.
This sort of thing and the post about the person waiting to get their $4500 check from the dealer (which is not the way this is supposed to be done, according to the rules) are some examples of how this deal might not turn out to be what it appears to be for some. For the person waiting for a check, I wonder what happens if the dealer does not get the $4500 and has already destroyed the clunker (which I think they may need to do before they can get the money)?
I was figuring there would be a mad rush of people doing deals with absolute junk vehicles so they'd not care if the new car was $500 or $1000 higher than it otherwise would be. With the rush of buyers, the dealers may not need to offer as big of discounts as otherwise to sell cars.
So in my case, with a $2000-2500 vehicle and only $3500 in C4C money available on the only cars my kid might want to use it for currently, we decided not to worry about jumping in to this.
No real surprise (I think it's pretty impressive the gov't put the whole system in place in basically 30 days), but I haven't seen anything when the payments will process once submitted, assuming clean paperwork.
I've never seen that title before. Is that the Edmunds equivalent of "Boss" as in "Boss of the Hosts"? If I get mad at a Host can I get them in trouble if I complain to you?
Please let me know, some of them have been mean to me and I'd like to tattle. :P
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
I love it when you talk technical.... :P Dorks. I've used that term a lot when dealing with car dealers...
I'm not sure I understand your point. The driveline is precisely the scrap that CARS is intended to create - i.e. it IS the bulk of the scrap value defined in the law. That would ordinarily work out to $300 to $400 for typical sized car even with modestly depressed scrap values. What's leftover can be sold as parts and the dealer stands to profit from that.
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
If the (all) money was intended to be retained by the dealer then why specifically require the dealer to inform the customer? Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
I can't imagine the government wants the customer auditing the salvage yards to find out what parts they salvaged and how much they sold them for a year down the road.
When I was younger, many a day I spent at the junk yard looking for a certain whatever. A lot of the bigger scrap yards now, actually have a computer based inventory.
He bought it from an Acura dealer as a USED car.
You have to be very careful selling those cars! They "appear" to have a NAVI screen but it's not! Some even have a NAVI button that may cause someone to assume the car has NAVI when it doesn't!
This means the car is "prepped" to have NAVI installed. I didn't think it was anywhere near that much money though.
My guess is that the inexperienced dealer saw the NAVI button and assumed it had it. Making a dumb assumption will bite you every time. I doubt that fraud was involved just ignorance.
I would ask them to unwind the deal or refund whatever you think is fair.
BTW, the Mercedes NAVI systems weren't that great. For under 300.00 you can buy a nice Garmin or other system and getting a Bluetooth adapter is no big deal either.
Sure the most valuable thing in an scrapped car is the engine / transmission, and yes most cars are scrapped because of an accident, but your logic on everything else is non-existent. I don't know what you are seeing , but what I've seen is a lot different. The seats and interior panels can all be removed very easily as can the dashboard and all interior electronics. I've pretty much taken my convertibles apart more than once to clean / repair / replace. Exterior parts - except for the accident area are usually all usable as well. Sure some cars are trashed - usually the 12-25 year old ones. Newer ones have a lot of usable items in them. If the wheels weren't trashed, some of these factory chrome wheels are worth $500 EACH. I know my ElDorado's wheels were worth that much, when it got hit.
But car dealers don't want to have any part of this - it's the salvage / recycle (aka junkyards) that are doing this and they are making money - and not soley off engines & transmissions!
So yes scrap value to the dealer is usually less than $500.
After having to pay for several fixes that fixed nothing and breaking down in traffic several times, I requested that they purchase my car back. Both Mazda North America and the dealer from whom I purchases the car advised me that the '04 & '05 RX-8s with the engine problems were not having any further problems on their 2nd engines, gave me a new engine (after trying to make me accept a "new" remanufactured engine), and gave me an extended warranty after catching Mazda North America lying about no "new" non-reman engines existing or otherwise being available.
I do not do my own auto work, but I always took the advice of the manual and service techs with regards to warming up and not shutting down the rotary engine cold, revving it, and keeping the oil at a good level. Still, I was afraid to drive my car a lot after the engine problems, am only at 62,000 miles now, as I predominantly drove my wife's car after getting married. I am now in need of a family car due to the arrival of our first child, and I took my car into the Mazda service dept to have them fix anything that might be wrong to maximize my resale or trade-in value (one dealership, when offering me a lower-than-expected trade-in value, said my car had a history of engine problems and this prompted me to go to the Mazda service dept).
My question then is what would you do if you were me? I have a pretty short window to find a more family friendly car and will be trading it in. But I want to know whether Mazda North America and either of the two Mazda dealerships (both of which are no longer operating, but both auto groups still own other brand dealerships) were in the wrong in: (1) selling me a car as "new" that already had major value repairs done and without that disclosure, and (2) persuading me that a 2nd engine would be placed in my car and that 2nd engines weren't having problems (when my car unbeknownst to me already had 2 engines that failed)? My nose is bent out of shape at this point, and part of me wants remedy for what in my mind is fraud, and if nothing else would like to get the story out.
While it is hard to imagine the engine being damaged while in transit, if Mazda determined there was a problem and proactively replaced the engine before it went on sale or if the dealer found the engine to be DOA then it would have been replaced before being made available for sale. Again, warranty and status as new aren't impacted.
Consider the relatively recent recall where, IIRC, Nissan had to stop selling some cars so they could be repaired due to a safety defect that was uncovered. Is it really a different scenario? Cars had parts replaced by the dealer before being put on the lot.
Your repair was perhaps greater in scope but I don't see that it matters. And since the car is coming with a full warranty there's not much for Mazda or the dealer to disclose. I'm sure if you had come in and mentioned you were aware of a problem they'd immediately state it's already been taken care of, but no salesman for any brand is going to proactively admit the car has already needed some service department TLC.
BTW I had a '93 MX-3. The AT went at 38K miles and again at 76K. The first was replaced under warranty; the second under extended warranty. I got rid of it before the next multiple of 38K rolled around.
Others can tell you if the engine work impacts resale or not; I'm just saying that having work done pre-sale is par for the course.
Congrats on getting married and on your child.
On a quick caselaw search, I found some cases supporting the notion that not disclosing this amount of repair work on a "new" car as being fraud. In one case in which BMW got hammered for a more inexpensive repaint, the dicta in the case stated: "BMW acknowledged that it followed a nationwide policy of not advising its dealers, and hence their customers, of predelivery damage to new cars when the cost of repair did not exceed 3 percent of the car's suggested retail price." And the trial court in that case held that it was still fraud not to reveal work done when it was below that 3% benchmark. My situation is more egregious in several ways: scope of the work was more than 3% of the car's price, engine failure is a lot more serious than paint damage, and the work was done after delivery of the vehicle (so both the dealer and Mazda corporate knew about it as Mazda reimbursed the dealer for making the repairs).
It sounds like the car is running fine now. Go buy a new car, trade this one in and move on.
I'm looking for a used car and saw this one:
http://greensboro.craigslist.org/cto/3251784131.html
Its actually a small dealer:
https://plus.google.com/109635785125972420420/about?hl=en
I've found 2-3 bad reviews (including 2 on BBB website which gave it an F rating). That sample size is small, however.
So I'm not sure if its dangerous to try to buy a car from here? I'm worried I'll have a mechanic check it out, they won't find much, but later on I'll find out the engine will be just be 'bad' or similar? Should I move on?
Thanks!
MODERATOR /ADMINISTRATOR
Find me at kirstie_h@edmunds.com - or send a private message by clicking on my name.
2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
Review your vehicle
I have a friend who got duped into buying a used car that is worth around 13K with a financing plan that will add up to 30K. Considering how ridiculous the loan is, what are her options? Is this a matter for the small claim court? Should she be contacting a lawyer right away? Should she tell the dealer to renegotiate the contract? I don't know how much money she already put into it, but assuming it's not a lot, should she just stop paying and have them take the car back? Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you.
MODERATOR /ADMINISTRATOR
Find me at kirstie_h@edmunds.com - or send a private message by clicking on my name.
2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
Review your vehicle
She is probably out of luck since the deal has been done.
There may be more to this story. She could have horrible credit and/or she may have traded in a car she was badly upside down in.
Who knows?