I’m just adding details. Using the conversation as a sounding board. Seems pretty reasonable to me. I do plan on doing research today now that it is Monday. Thanks man.
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That’s really your fault for giving them a $5k deposit. You can order cars with no deposit, a $500 deposit, etc. The deposit amount doesn’t matter. Dealers only want more to see if you’re serious.
Well, seems like they realized they couldn’t order a 2019, talked to OP and decided to order a 2020. Keep in mind that the programs can be completely different on a 2020, so the RV might be lower, MF higher, etc. Now that the 2020 has arrived, they are trying to get him to sign at new terms, he’s refusing (well in his right to do so) and they want to cancel the transaction and give him back his deposit. I don’t see anything incredibly heinous here. Yeah it sucks that the programs are worse, and the dealer is trying to mark up the MF, but such is life. I still believe contacting the GM and DP can get this sorted out (if OP didn’t leave anything out).
This depends on the manufacturer. Ford lets you lock in MF and RV and take better ones if they come out. I believe BMW is the same. Not sure about anyone else.
Those contracts, like I mentioned previously, are worthless until the car is delivered. Up until that point, either party can back out with repercussions. It’s not worth suing them because OP doesn’t have a case. There’s also a lot of fine print.
My suggestion to OP is to contact the GM and DP, and ask them how they’re going to make it right. They will likely get very close to the original numbers. Otherwise, get your deposit back and go somewhere else…
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They’re honoring the 15% l. Just trying to charge me 50% mark up on insurance. Anyone know for sure what MBF standard Tier 1 MF are for 2020 AMG E53? A local dealer told me 0.00245.
On insurance?
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Edmunds can provide this for you.
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Waited 7 months for THAT build… no one has any since early 2019. None coming. Has to ordered and extended my existing lease 6 months. No longer extension available. So need car now.
All deposits on ordered cars in CA are refundable (technically).
The law states we cannot hold a deposit if customer doesn’t take delivery but in the times we have had someone double order (happened to me where a customer ordered a supercharged with me and an autobiography at another store and tried backing out of my order when it arrived). She tried to sue us for her $5,000 back and lost. It was a really odd spec car that we would have a hard time selling. Oddly enough I ended up selling for full sticker + the $5,000 deposit against the deal (so essentially 5k over).
But in this case, if they are refusing to honor an agreed upon deal and you have it in writing then you should be able to get it back and run away. Go to another dealer and slam that one on yelp.
Add: And in my experience it is heavily expressed to every one of my customers doing an order (50+ cars in my career) that programs are subject to change for better or worse. We have no control over it and we are only able to honor discount (although we only did full MSRP for custom orders).
Definitely understand the disappointment. But this kinda starts to feel like a first world problem.
I’ll pile on: get your deposit back and go lease a car somewhere else. Probably consider a broker since it seems you’re both price AND vehicle specific on your wants.
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This is interesting. I have two thoughts for you:
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What others said, crap dealer. I would also file a BBB complaint. It doesn’t get you the car but the regional market manager will get a copy of the complaint and usually step in and resolve because they don’t want a complaint against corporate for a crappy independent dealer. I had one sell me a used car as new but because I had it in writing the manufacturer ended up stepping in and fixing the issues.
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I would also publicly post their info on this site and others with factual info, let the court of public opinion try them
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I’m not saying they did anything heinous. Just that at some point (maybe as soon as the day the purchase order was signed) they knew full well they couldn’t honor the deal since of course the MF and manufacturer incentives will change on a 2020. They chose not to tell OP that. All I’m saying is that once they realized they couldn’t get a 2019 model they should have clearly told him they couldn’t honor the deal and returned his deposit. The dealership chose not to do that, probably in hopes of convincing him to take the 2020.
Let’s use a home buying analogy I dealt with at work recently. I’m the seller and we are under contract. Shortly after the inspection there is a serious flooding issue that knocks out power to the whole house and seller’s estate doesn’t have the money to fix it. Buyer is clearly going to notice on final walk through and cancel the sale. Should seller tell buyer about it, cancel sale and return deposit or wait a month and have buyer find out on final walkthrough. I don’t care what the law says, the ethical thing to do is tell the buyer ASAP, return deposit and cancel deal.
Alternatively, once OP gets deposit back, s/he could do yoga or listen to Metallica or whatever it is that relaxes them and move on with their existence. Articulating this further isn’t going to aid in salving the raw emotions. There’s a Merc somewhere that can be rounded up the the “1” as Dan Savage would say. Dwelling on this stuff leads to wealthy cardiac surgeons.
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Then it’s a fair game. They have the right to mark up MF and you have the right not to accept it.
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Standard MF (on a lot of AMG and even some non-AMG Mercs) is a weird thing. Even the edmunds guys don’t know what it is, but it is thought to be .0025+.
On the E53, 2019 had a different MF - .00196 now, I think a bit higher when this car would have been ordered. For 2020 it is the higher, ambiguous “standard” money factor.
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According to OP, they told him that he can’t get a 2019 anymore and asked if they should order a 2020. OP agreed. I’m sure that OP was made aware that the programs might change. The dealership can’t predict the future either. If OP agreed to the 2020, how would they know that the programs wouldn’t be better right now compared to what was available back then on a 2019? You are assuming that the dealer didn’t tell OP that the programs might change, but we have no proof. Alls we know now is that they aren’t honoring the previous price.
Your analogy is completely different. That would similar to if the 2019 came, and was flooded a month before OP comes to pick up the car. Now there’s a car with electrical problems, that doesn’t start and god knows what else and the dealer decides to let him wait the month and tell him when comes to pick it up in hopes that he won’t notice that his new MB doesn’t work.
They ARE honoring
Yeah, poor wording on my part, they’re not honoring the previous payments, but are keeping the selling price the same.
Yep, that’s the only thing they could really guarantee and they are giving it to him. Everything else is like you said - RV/MF change.
When you order a car w mercedes, you are bound to mf and residual UPON delivery of said car. They could not lock you into a payment as per mbfs terms and conditions. The dealer is honoring 15 percent off, that is only thing they have control over.
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They agreed that the MF would be “whatever it is from MBFS at the time of receiving the car.” Same for the residual. What theybare doing is marking up MBFS MF rate by about 60%. We didn’t agree to a rate. Just where that rate would come from. We did not agree that they could mark it up to anything they wanted to.
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Did you put it in writing? I ordered a Mercedes custom order and in my deposit form it was written BASE MF. If it’s not in writing then they can jack up mf based on ur percentage off they are giving you