Can Dealer Terminate Lease b/c of $7500 Credit?

Ask the Hackrs
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No this was not a mistake. It was intentional. This is a new scam that dealers are doing. I just had it happen to me. They sell you a car for a good deal and intentionally make an error. They call you and tell you that that there was an error and you need to pay more. If you don’t pony up they take the car back. It’s still new because it hasn’t been titled. I spoke to my coworker about it today and he said the same dealer did the same thing to him 2 months ago and got $1,000 extra out of him. This happened to me a week ago and I had turned my lease a few weeks early so I am currently renting until I can find a new deal.

I was just trying to figure what to do next (report to police, Attorney General, BBB etc.)

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If it’s a scam it is a terrible scam. OP might give them a few thousand extra dollars. Or he might return the car and have accelerated the depreciation of an already rapidly deprecating asset. A new car with several hundred miles on it is worth significantly less than a new car with two miles on it. And no matter what it is a bunch of extra work for the dealership employees.

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I disagree. A few hundred miles doesn’t really make all that much of a difference. I know I wouldn’t care. They take that mileage off the lease mileage. They either get the buyer to relent and pay them or they are back at square one. No sweat off their backs. They aren’t really doing all that much anyway.

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I’d love to see you substantiate this.

You’re crediting way too much malice to incompetence.

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I do not credit any to incompetence. It is all malice. I have no doubt in my mind. At first I thought it was all incompetence, but there is 0 chance that the same exact “error” happened to both myself and my co-worker 2 months apart. Zero. None.

Now another case with exactly the same circumstances? They gave me the rebate for both the 24 and 36 month leases. I thought the additional $7,500 was the dealer discount. All the final numbers tied out. They also had another trick up their sleeve. I keep my social security number locked so I asked which one(s) I should unlock for them to run my credit. I was told only TransUnion. Turns out that Nissan Financial only uses Experian. Did they suddenly forget? No, it was intentional. The financing came back as denied because of the lock. Normally, if that happens they would call the customer immediately to work it out, not ignore it for a week.

It was all orchestrated. I believe the same happened here. These guys aren’t stupid. They aren’t gonna just add all these rebates that don’t apply by “accident”. They know exactly what they are doing. They were able to get another $1k out of my coworker. I’m sure they get a lot people to just relent and pay the extra.

You can give them the benefit of the doubt, which I will admit I did at first, but there are far too many “coincidences” for me to give credit to the most crooked industry in the country.

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But “it’s not a tax credit…blah, blah blah” even though GM says it is - regardless of who it is going to. Rabbit hole word salad on here to many so beware.

OP - lawyer up with the contract lawyer you consulted and have him/her send a FU letter to the dealer. Whether it funds or not (as long as they eat it and not apply it as a rebate) is not relevant right now, but getting what price you agreed to is relevant.

It all depends on your tolerance for pain, free time and how quickly the dealer can get the FU letter. Everything else is gravy - especially if you get it at the “agreed to” price.

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Good luck OP! Let us know how it goes!

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He’s going to waste money. The contract won’t fund and thus is invalid, another contract will have to be written which the dealer can chose not to do if they don’t agree to the terms. There’s a cancellation clause specifically for when a bank won’t fund it.

Not sure what advice the contract lawyer gave and under what basis.

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Yes, but the letter will cost a few hundred bucks and may get him some traction. Worth a shot, but only based upon his “threshold for pain” as I stated.

Contract can fund if he gets the discount from the dealer - like I said if “they (the dealer) eat it” all.

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I can respect the dot matrix printer because the dumb thing works. Why replace it?

But the big monthly software fee for something that doesn’t work combined with the supposed professionals using it not thinking through what they’re doing, that pisses me off.

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I’m on the record saying just return the car. This is not a worthwhile fight. Just no reason to do it.

But in fairness, I do have legal concerns about a car dealership being able to cancel a contract based on it “not funding” without providing any sort of proof. This is generally not how contracts contingent on a third party or outside event work.

Of course, the current Supreme Court LOVES arbitration agreements and even if the contract is void the arbitration agreement probably stands. While going to a local court might be worth it based on consumer protection laws and the “interest of justice”, arbitration, probably in a different location, is even much less worth it.

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do you mind sharing what the payment was vs. what they are offering now? Maybe they can discount the car more than the original deal to eat some of their mistake?

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a man is standing in front of a microphone with a youtube logo on the wall behind him

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Or maybe we should apologize to the poor car dealerships. They seem to be struggling with, y’know, actually doing their jobs correctly. They’re human after all, right? A car dealer would never try to take advantage of anyone.

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None of this “incompetence vs malice” argument is particularly constructive.

What should OP do?

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Op should do what was posted in the 2nd post!

mllcb42

(Can Dealer Terminate Lease b/c of $7500 Credit? - #2 by mllcb42)

There is no $7500 incentive om the equinox, so they’re correct. There was an error on the contract and it isn’t valid.

You can either sign the new contract, try to negotiate a middle ground, or return the car.

Edit- sounds to me like the “contract lawyer” didn’t read the actual contract OP signed

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Try to negotiate a larger discount or return the car. By looking at other posts, there other dealers offering competitive leases on Equinox EV’s.

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As the attorney who receives this letter, this will get him nowhere. I’d have my dealer hooking that car up as soon as I got that letter. The contract clearly lays out his obligations if the deal doesn’t fund. He clearly does not intend to oblige. Case closed

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everyone seems to assume that the contract will not fund. It might not be the case if depreciation is above 0. Dealer might have added 7500 as own discount and in this case, bank has no reason not to fund it.

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