Dealer Issue - retail lease order - legal

The summary of my issue is below. The deeper detail is that I have zero trust in this dealership and likely the ideal resolution is just unwinding everything.

I executed a lease for a Jeep Grand Cherokee on 6/17. In the financing office I was presented with all the papers including the actual lease agreement. I traded in an older Jeep, surrendered the title, signed title assignment. Signed the actual Lease Agreement. Among the many documents was a Retail Lease Order.

This document would seem to normally precede the Lease agreement, it has specific language stating so. Anyway, I was presented with the RLO at the same as signing the Lease Agreement.

The RLO had numbers that were wildly incorrect and two terms that I pointed out to the finance person under no circumstance would I agree. He took a bunch of time trying to ‘fix’ it, and basically said (the numbers) were a software printer issue. I continued to address the language (pasted below) which gives them the right in the RLO to terminate the LA if they cannot sell my lease for up to 45 days. Was assured by them that I was already ‘placed’ and that this provision was because they will ‘sell’ cars to less than creditworthy customers ‘on spec’ who they think may not be able to get approved (?!). Again, was flat out told I was done, I have a credit score over 800, the trade-in was $19k equity against a $60k+ MSRP lease, and the first payment and all fees were made. Finance guy said he would follow up.

Car sat at the dealer for four days (after I signed the LA they informed me the new car was subject to a recall and I could not ‘legally’ drive it off the lot). They fixed the recall and delivered the car to my residence, no discussion of the RLO. Last week, ten days after signing the LA and six days after they delivered me the vehicle, I get a panicked call from the finance department that I ‘must’ execute an RLO. They Fedex me one, I’m on holiday. Numbers are fixed, same onerous language. Told the finance guy the same thing I told him ten days earlier, not signing on to that language, let’s delete those two terms and I’ll execute. Get a call next from his finance manager. Told him the same thing, he says the only thing they can do is ‘unwind’ the transaction and have me return the car. I said fine, put my car to the side, I’ll come in and drop yours off and pick mine up. He was slightly taken aback and we agreed to meet tomorrow.

Additional info, as part of my deal they still owe me a dealer install of a trailer hitch and harness, and when my car was being delivered to my house the dealer person noted the rear door would not open from the outside and would need to be repaired (again, new vehicle, 10 total miles).

At this point my gut says I don’t want to be anywhere near this dealership or have them anywhere near my car and just unwinding the transaction is best (how does that work with the title I assigned them when I take my car back?).

Alternatively, I get them to agree to delete the two onerous sections (as you can see from the below one clearly implies agreeing to it is optional) and keep the vehicle and pray for the best as they continue work on this new vehicle?

Thoughts, comments? Seeing them tomorrow. TYIA.

Relevant document section here, wouldn’t upload:
https://imgur.com/a/PweDaRq

You will never get a dealership to strike out part of their contract language. Its just not going to happen. So if youre not willing to sign the contract with the stated terms and conditions, unwind the deal and move on.

What youre looking at is standard contract language. Your lease is not between you and the dealer, its between you and the bank.

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Unwind and move on

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He can unwind and move on, but nothing is going to change with any future deals/paperwork. All contracts will have that clause.

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And don’t put 19K equity down on a lease…

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Thanks all for the comments. I don’t usually lease, only other time I can remember was in 2020 helping my son. I do have much experience with Jeep, four in the family right now. Not thrilled with the dealership.

On the terms being standard I looked at my son’s 2020 origination (NJ) and did not see it in there…I’m sure you guys know better but I can’t imagine anyone who reads this would give a 45 day cancellation option on 48 hours notice while being responsible for depreciation and daily cost penalties to take on the dealer’s placement risk…that’s what their profit on the financing is for, they and whoever is funding them takes the market/rate risk until everything is bundled and sold, not me. Not to mention having to agree to not travel more than 100 miles from the dealership in that time…

If those terms are standard down here, yeah, back to purchasing the vehicle I guess…

Any suggestions if the dealer doesn’t still have my title (ie, already sent it in for change?)

What a horror show. If the transaction were contingent on them getting a document I said I wouldn’t sign that vehicle should have never left the lot…not to mention they kept it for four days before even bringing it to me during which time the should have raised this…

This is called a spot delivery. Standard practice and every dealer has you sign something to this effect when you lease or finance. All it is saying is for some reason your lease isn’t approved, the dealer gets their property back. Either return the car or sign the agreement. You are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

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Good, if you’re a dealer and view it that way I’m encouraged. My interactions here have been downright horrible…the new car is titled and insured in my name, and I hope the unwind is as clean as you imply. Will post the results.

I should just be getting the original title I handed them, back, with my vehicle. Right?

You will probably need to get a corrected title from the state since the title should have been signed over to them.

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I have leased many cars over the years, but I have never seen anything like this. Since this is a Jeep, can’t this lease be put through CCAP and the buyer knows if it is accepted almost immediately?

This seems to give the Dealer up to 45 days to shop the lease contract to numerous lease buyers. Does the dealer keep your trade for 45 days, or is that a separate deal?

Im sure youll find similar language in your previous contracts if you deep dive into them.

How much per month are you paying for this new Jeep if you put down $19,000 worth of equity? As others have noted, you should never, ever put down that much money because it’s all at risk of anything happens to the car.

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So update. Wam22, TY on the comment made me sleep better. Spoke to Finance Manager this morning, told him I would put a short voidance letter together to memorialize what we are doing superseding the contracts (which had survivability clauses). He was very amenable. Drove there, signed the letter, swapped out the cars. No issues. Either they’re going to flip this 2023 quickly for better than I paid or he realized what a cluster_ my experience was and just figured they were better off making me happy and going separate ways. Maybe both. Doesn’t matter to me, lol, I’m out. TY.

Re: spot delivery is definitely new for me, especially on those terms (45 day tail, travel restrictions). Checked my other cars, no such thing, four vehicles 2017-2021. Don’t know if it’s a regional thing. Did google it after you posted…just ‘spot delivery’ and holy cow did it pop a ton of returns, nearly all highly negative.

Seems good for convenience, ie. weekend shopping, and then getting things done on Mon/Tues. One addendum I signed actually committed the dealership to that, two days…seems like that convenience has stretched to potentially abusive with the expansion of terms I noted above in the other doc…either way, off to some bank/credit union for me to get pre-approved and we’ll flip this into a buy I guess.

Big thanks to this forum, you guys are great with both your knowledge and willingness to contribute!

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Very little, just over 100 IIRC, papers not with me. Would have topped up some cash to go full pre-pay but dealer said it wouldn’t impact MF.

Re: loss, no different than if I purchased with large DP? Car gets boosted/totaled I collect through comprehensive? LMK if I’m wrong or alternatives.

Other than checking the boxes of the rebates and some dealer incentive giveback and the MF didn’t put much thought into it…Past decade plus I’ve bought Wrangler Saharas, traded them in every three years (65k miles or better), received 60-70% of purchase price, rolled that and some cash to take a loan around $100 monthly, boost credit.

Got jammed up this time as my Jeep was 2017 so couldn’t do anything b/c of COVID so now I have a six year old 95k vehicle…after the math checked out I effectively viewed it as rolling the current vehicle’s [low] future equity into residual, and figured if I like the new car buy it at lease end if not reset everything then…

Open to any advice.

Edit: Plus, if I were to go high cost lease (low DP) and sell the current car i’d get treated unfavorably for taxes? Isn’t trade in value not taxed?

WTMeyer: They told me it was going CCAP, part of the ‘you are already approved’ line that was there until the legal docs had to be signed…I’ll check when I get back home but one doc had CCAP at the top, think it was the actual Lease Agreement…again, all this cumulatively (plus being in a brand new State) were just too many red flags for me…especially since they sat on it for ten days when it could have sailed through…

Not on a lease in FL. Only a purchase.

Nobody posts about their positive spot delivery experiences. It’s just people that don’t get approved, never read the contract, and then are mad about the outcome.

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