Tried to buy a RL

[bigwave]

A few days I went to see the internet sales guy I had been e-mailing. He is at a dealership in the Portland/Vancouver area. I arrived, test drove the vehicle then sat down to negotiate. The negotiating was necessary as the vehicle had 500 miles, and several dealer installed options. We went back and forth for a bit, and the got close to what I thought was a fair price. I said I would do it at the price if they threw in the title and license, which is less than $200. He returned to the table, the manager came out and said we can't do it at my price. I said fine, I will pay title and license at the price you quoted 10 minutes ago. He said no, deal's off. My salesman claims they miscalculated and said the would sell it for $1000 more than the price they wrote down. I left.
My question is this feels wrong, but is it? They wrote the number on the four boxes, and then said they would not honor it, can they do that? Do I have any recourse? It was a pretty good deal, but not good enough to pay an extra $1000 for. It seemed like they got me hooked(the sales guy was even trying to sell me the clearbra before the manager came out), and then jacked up the price figuring I would just pay up. Any comments or advice are welcome. Sorry for the long first post.

[RedDawg]

As someone who has dealt with dealers (from a lender's perspective) for years, my first advice would be find another dealer (However, without all the details of the transaction, it is difficult to know if there was an "honest" mistake or if the dealer is playing you).:eek:

The first thing you should do is research the deal and ask yourself, was this actually too good to be true? If so, you can assume an honest mistake. :( Since there was no contract signed by you or accepted by the dealer, they are under no obligation to honor the original deal, however, they should be able to provide you with a sufficient explanation of the error. It's up to you to determine if it is reasonable.

If you are a member of a credit union, contact the loan department and find out it if they have any special arrangements with the fleet directors. (Also, members of Costco also have similar arrangements). Generally, fleet staff will offer a very competitive price, treat you with respect and make the buying experience much more tolerable.

If buying a used Ridge, what are comparable prices in your area for a "like" vehicle? As a general rule, once a vehicle is titled, I depreciate the value to 85% of the original values (MSRP & Invoice) - Most fleet managers can get you in to most cars at or around invoice up to about $500 over invoice. Once the price is established, they will offer back any cash incentives and can usually dip in to the dealer incentives if necessary. In your case, I would first determine what the exact vehicle would cost me at invoice less any current rebates (exclude TT&L), multiply that by 85% and you should have what I would generally consider a pretty sound deal (again, from a lenders perspective). If the deal you were working was a diffence of $1000 or less than a structure like this, I would assume the dealer made an honest mistake. Give them another chance and try to get them to throw in some freebies or other adjustmentsfor the mistake (free oil changes, discount warranty or GAP coverage at cost, etc).

I use 15% as the initial discount from original prices based on past experience with first year residual values (this may or may not make sense in today's market. I checked auction values on the '06 RTL-S yesterday and if memory serves correct, this particular unit was coming in with an average auction value of $27K assuming approximately 10,000 miles.

Probably more info than you were looking for, but I hope it helps.:) Good luck!

[ShootinDownTheStars]

In California, if they write a price on a worksheet, they have to honor it...unless the mistake is so ridiculous that a 5 year old could interpret it...and yes, that is the way the law is written. A $1000 mistake, would be something they would have to honor. Again...this is one of these laws that are not easy to get enforced, but they are there and can be if you are willing to do the leg work.

Unfortunately, once you left, you lost that right.

Moral of the story......if you do the research of prices before you go in, when they make the mistake, you will know that you need to JUMP on it ASAP!!! :D

However they handled the mistake though is where you should make your decision to do business there or not. If they handled it professionally, then I would give them a shot at your business still. We are humans and we do make mistakes. Unfortunately, because of the rep this business has, anytime we make a mistake, everyone assumes that it was a gimmick to earn their business. IF they handled it poorly, or you could tell it was a trick, then I would take your business elsewhere.