1/9/2025 EDIT: MAJOR UPDATE POSTED BELOW
Update Summary: Dealer Finance office made a mistake and sent over a lease agreement with the wrong RV and MF. This was made worse when a request to confirm the numbers was once again answered with the incorrect data by the Sales Associate. They incorrectly entered the 36M/5000mi structure with those from the 24M/5000mi. So it wasn’t a case of not honoring the Sold Order Protection, but a data entry error.
The dealer is working up a new 24M Lease Agreement, with the RV & MF originally provided, and finalizing a means of offering a “discount” that will make up for months of confusion, and some of the perceived loss in RV they caused. The end result will be a 24M Agreement with a payment a little more than my initial 36M estimates, but significantly less than what the dealer initially shared, once the error had been discovered.
Thanks to those who provided insights and suggestions.
Original Post
I am in TN, and have been working on a deal for a new 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona since late October/ early November 2024, after I placed a “First Call” Program deposit ($1000) and ordered a unit from my local Dealer.
The unit originally had an estimated delivery date of 11/7/24, but that date continues to be pushed back, two weeks each time they missed the following estimated date. During these delays, and right after I placed my order, Stellantis FS and Dodge released their Lease Program structures for this new car. It even ended up on few automotive press websites, and won them an award for ‘Best Residual’ value for an Electric Vehicle.
At that time, Stellantis FS was offering on a 3 Year, 5000 Mile Lease with a Residual of 61% (I have documentation to back this up) and a MF of 0.00006. With all my qualified discounts and incentives, that put the monthly payment around $514.00
These document screenshots are from the back and forth with their finance office. Ignore everything else (as they weren’t including my preferred pricing and incentives, and focus on the RV, which is $52,438.65 on an MSRP of $85,965. That equals 61%.
During this time, I posted online that I was disappointed with the continued delays and fearful that when the car finally arrived, my initial deal wouldn’t be honored and that the cost to acquire and the lease payment would increase. Matt McAlear, the CEO of Dodge personally responded to my post, and reassured me that my lease payment and price (including applicable incentives at the time of the order) were protected and to not worry about any changes when I took delivery.
Now that 2024 has passed, and we are in 2025, the Lease Program available at the time of my order has expired (as of January 2nd, 2025) and new structures have been released. And as you would expect, the RV is not as attractive on what is now considered a 1 year older car. Even though it was never technically released to dealers and didn’t launch until early 2025 (they are just now appearing in dealer’s inventories).
My unit finally shipped and dealer was invoiced, so we set about finalizing the Lease Contract and preparing for delivery.
Now, with the same terms (3Y/5000mi) the RV is 52% and the MF is 0.00005
That significantly increases the depreciation and bumps the monthly payment upwards of $750+, far more than we had originally agreed.
We are stuck at this point, with the manager of their Finance Office reaching out to Stellantis FS for an answer, because they claim that the CEO was wrong and that my lease terms were NOT protected.
As of today, five days after escalation, they are not returning my emails or calls.
Anyone have any experience with this type of situation? Particularly with Stellantis?
Cheers!
