The deal isn’t enforceable. Until the car is delivered, the contracts are basically worth as much as the paper they’re written on. As an attorney, you should know that.
That said, I would go get in contact with the GM or as high up the chain and let them know what’s going on. Maybe they’ll honor the deal.
I can’t imagine how a legal challenge will net anything in the favor of the buyer here. You are absolutely entitled to the prompt return of your deposit, but it doesn’t seem like you’re saying they’re trying to keep that. If they are willing to return your deposit, I don’t think you’ll be able to show any damages that you’re entitled back to.
I don’t even think you can force them to honor the pricing you gave you, but if they can’t/won’t honor it, you’re 100% entitled to the return of your deposit.
Beyond that it sucks, and you’re probably just better off just trying to negotiate the deal further to get it closer to MY19 numbers. You may have some leverage as it’s a custom build that won’t necessarily appeal to other customers as much.
Edit: just saw the OP is a lawyer, so surely they have enough legal knowledge to know a lawsuit here is frivolous as all get out.
That’s what I also don’t understand. IANAL, but my understanding of contract law is strong enough to know that the only way there’s a case here is if they don’t return the deposit. That said, OP, you can sue them just to be an asshole, but know that you’re not going to win.
I had a deal pulled on me at Mercedes Benz Encino in 2012. Waited for a long time for an order to be built and delivered. At time of delivery, they put it in the show room prior to me arriving and jacked up the monthly quite a bit. There will always be a few sketch bags amongst many hard working folks
Thanks. Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines. How much of their time is it worth. I just want that car. I was wondering if there were any clear answers. Appreciate you all. Doing research tomorrow.
So as an attorney it’s a reasonable question why a contract isn’t worth the paper it is written on. Normally contracts are written on paper and become binding once they are agreed upon. If I contract to sell you 100 widgets in 30 days and you agree to pay me on delivery, I can’t back out a day before I am to deliver said widgets and say too bad, I ended up not producing the widgets.
A quick Google search indicates deposits for cars can be non refundable in California. It would be very strange if a dealer could cancel a deal and leave the buyer with no recourse whereas if the buyer wanted to cancel the deal he would forfeit his deposit.
You absolutely can, and I’ve had this happen before with suppliers just a month ago. The issue is with most contracts, you can only sue for damages, not pain and suffering. In his case, there would be no damages as they give the deposit back. Even in states where the deposits are not refundable, they will refund them 99% of the time, even if it’s your fault.
As an attorney, he should’ve taken classes on contract law and should know why 99% of contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Buyers orders and contract the dealerships use have a ton of fine print that cover basically all situations and what happens.
My point stands that the contract is valid and you can’t back out unilaterally. Damages are a separate issue but that doesn’t impact contract validity. In this case my main issue is that the dealership likely acted unethically taking a large deposit on a deal they perhaps never intended to complete. Then they definitely acted unethically by not returning the deposit/telling OP the deal was off.
I doubt a dealer would waste their time to do that. What benefit do they get? Earn interest on that $5k deposit?
Even a signed auto contract isn’t final. There’s tons of fine-print in the contracts and deals aren’t really finalized until they are funded by the bank.
They’re willing to return the deposit according to OP. Try proving in court that they acted unethically. I will put money on it that the contract OP signs has fine print covering this exact situation…
I was a criminal defense atorney and haven’t practiced for 20 years or more. Contracts can be oral and implied. $5,000 is quite a considerable deposit to hold for 7 months and yet I have no recourse? Why have a deposit if there’s no obligation? I could have ordered from the factory directly with a small or no deposit.
How would you do this? 
I have no idea but it seems like they did. Best case scenario for dealership is they figured out 6-8 weeks post signing that they couldn’t get a 2019 model and then they keep his deposit for 5 more months. I’d be less skeptical if they had returned the deposit rather after 8 weeks instead of holding it for 5 months, misleading the OP and then trying to negotiate a new deal on a 2020 model.
Factory delivery program.
You mean MB’s European Delivery Program? That’s not factory direct. You still need to place an order through a dealer.
I’ve never done a custom order before - do the RV, MF, incentives get locked at the time of deposit? It seems odd they’d change the MY of the custom order without any sort of documentation or modification to the original contract.
While the MF is higher on the 2020, RV is a few percent higher than 2019 and there is only a small difference in dealer incentives (looking back from late-Spring on, at least. Sort of depends on what numbers you have). Feels like it should be possible for the dealer to make things right and get close to the original number if they acknowledge they screwed this up.
I’d be surprised if there wasn’t something in the contract that let them off the hook, or at least made it more difficult than it is worth to sue them. Definitely annoying to wait so long and then have this happen, though - I’d be pretty mad too.
It’s 15% off that the dealer won’t do on 2020, not that MF/RV are worse.
When you order a car, the lease contract is not signed until the very end. For example, if you order a BMW and leave a deposit, you may sign the purchase and sale at time of order and deposit, but not the physical lease contract until it arrives.
If the incentives improve the month after you sign the purchase and sale, you can re-sign that to gain those enhanced incentives. But, none of this is the official lease contract. That is the very last step when the car is physically stocked in.
Disclaimer: I have no legal knowledge, so I am not sure if the P&S holds any water here. I can’t define legally if it is an official contract that is binding.
IANAL but you are. What is in the agreement you signed with the dealership when you ordered? You said you have texts and emails but other than a build sheet and a copy of the check, did you draw up a contract?
Except for Tesla, in the US you can’t buy a car directly from the manufacturer/factory, you have to go through a dealer. If that one sucked, try another one. Have a broker see if they can find you one of these somewhere and put on a truck.
The dealership has no advantage to hold your deposit when they know they can’t get the car. No doubt a comedy of errors but assume ineptness over malice. Get your deposit back, trash them on Yelp if you must, and move on.
You’re questioning everyone’s responses anyways so why don’t you figure it out yourself?