Greetings, I searched the site about this situation but didn’t find anything that quite fit.
I leased a new Ram pickup and was approved with a tier 1 money factor from Chrysler cap. Drove the truck home the same day. 3 days later the dealer called and said I had to come in to sign a new deal because while the dealership approved tier 1, and saw no reason why it wouldn’t go through, Chrysler cap said no, had to be tier 2 because I’m self employed (partner in a business for 20 years) Everything on the application was true, my fico is around 770 with each agency. Not sure what the actual monthly payment difference will be but thought I’d ask and see what sort of leverage I have. If the application was truthful which it was, I thought a contract was a contract. Opinions?
Unfortunately, the captive (Chrysler Cap) can reject a contract after the dealer signs it. They ultimately own the contract, not the dealer. That said, you don’t really have much leverage. I’ve never heard of a captive rejecting a business owner who’s been in business this long, though. Under 5 years, sure… But 20 years in business? That’s odd to me…
Seems like an odd story. It doesn’t make sense if you have a tier 1 FICO and it’s approved that Chrysler Cap could make it tier 2. I can’t imagine the dealer can’t just take a buydown on the deal to tier 2 and just get shorted some on the payment from Chrysler. I’d try and play tough with them a little bit- they’ll lose more taking your truck back as a used car if you refuse. Ask to see the document from Chrysler Cap showing tier 2 as this doesn’t make sense.
I’d ask the dealer to see the approval stating tier 2, I wouldn’t surprise if an FCA dealer was trying to bump your payment for additional profit. You could play hard ball too and say you will unwind the deal if they don’t keep your payment the same, make the dealer eat the difference on the price or make the finance manager do some work to get the deal bought at tier 1. I’m really surprised that Chrysler would not approve this as tier 1, something is fishy. Didn’t read @KD6-3.7, but I just repeated what he said, ha!
Correct me if I’m mistaken, however, this sounds like a spot delivery. Chrysler Capital could’ve been closed, F+I assumed tier 1 based on credit, and wrote up the contract that way. Chrysler said no when they got the contract the next business day.
I’m not saying there might not be some shady actions on the dealer part here, especially since we’re taking FCA, but the scenario isn’t out of the realm of possibility either.
Ask to see the notice from Chrysler. If it really is tier 2 I would stay firm and have them discount the car more to bring the payment back. You can always refuse the new deal and just give them back the car.
Thanks for the replies. The weird thing to me, and what I’m going to need fully explained is why tier 2 simply for being a partner in a long running business. Same fico, same credit history etc. Dealer has said he’ll explore further discounting, haven’t seen any numbers yet. Love the truck and it’s a good lease, it would suck to bring the thing back.
You never told us the payment, drive offs and terms of your lease?
36 mo /10k mi, $2500 drive off, $420/month including tax (TN Davidson County is 9.25%), msrp was $45,650.
Just act indifferent toward them, I doubt they want to unwind a deal at the end of the month. If you act like you don’t care either way, they’ll think you would actually walk away from it.
“That’s fine. The Chevy dealer called me back with a great offer, anyway…”
Ha, exactly or Ford, GMC.
Yeah that new Nissan is looking less ugly by the day!
i’m assuming there was previous auto history? perhaps they just needed proof of income to get tier 1. i saw on a jeep thread someone got tier 1 with a 638 fico…
Plenty of history, and there was no issue with income. They did say that because I’m “self employed” that they turned it over to their commercial division whatever that means. This is not a company truck, not used for company business and will not have commercial plates.
I once had this happen to me. Dealer couldn’t believe me when I said F that and brought their car back and drove my previous one home the very next day. Do the same.
I don’t think it really matters what division they use (commercial or otherwise) or whether or not it was because you are self employed, etc. The bottom line is that they are trying to rewrite your contract for a higher tier (whether Chrysler legitimately gave tier 2 or they are trying to trick you is irrelevant). You have ALL the leverage despite what someone above posted. You have the option to walk away. Changes to a contract can only be made in writing if BOTH parties agree.
Your choices are: 1. don’t sign a new contract for the lower tier. Dealer then has the option to eat the difference or unwind. If they don’t balk at your choice to unwind then you have; 2. the choice to just take the higher payment if you don’t want to go through the hassle or negotiating somewhere else or don’t think you can get a similar/better deal.
Spot delivery or not, they offered and you agreed to tier 1. Unless there was a gentleman’s agreement (between you and the dealer) to rewrite if tier 1 was not attainable, they rolled the dice and lost. They should eat the difference.
They don’t even have to rewrite the contract, they can just call the bank and have them deduct the difference from proceeds. Easy peasy. And if you legitimately have a 770 fico (auto enhanced score and not one of those third party credit scoring sites) and this isn’t your first car, then I don’t care what your employment status is. Any F&I Manager that can’t get a tier 1 with a 770 is the biggest weak-suck in the history of weak-sucks.
Good Luck!
if they have financed before with jeep and never missed a payment the dealer might have gotten a teir bump and bought down the rate as well.
We had a similar issue with Nissan a while back but not about being self-employed but because whatever credit score Nissan financial pulled was significantly different than what the dealer had pulled. We were about to bring back car as it was going to increase payment significantly and what we were told at the time was that the finance manager spoke to Nissan and they were able to get the paperwork pushed through. I really have no idea what happened as once we got back to the dealer with the car and all the other docs to return it had been worked out. I can’t recall if I signed new paperwork (i.e. the selling price decreased) or not since this was about 10 years ago but I know the payment remained the same.
