I Leased an Acura MDX from a dealership back in early February. For some reason deal had not been funded. We contacted Acura a few days before March payment was due and they said no account existed with our social or VIN. We found that odd since our trade in had been paid off by the dealer. Anyways fast forward 2 weeks later and the car gets side swiped. We file a claim with insurance and vehicle is getting repaired. We then contact Acura Financial to let them know about the accident and they said they still donât have any record of us having an account with them. So we speak with our sales and let him know what happened and we donât hear back. Fast forward to last week and my wife receives a call from finance stating she needs to come in bring in a new insurance card and initial a few documents. She told them she attempt to go in that same day and if not she would attempt to stop in by the end of the week. She doesnât get to it since had a trip the following week and got side tracked packing. Fast forward to this week. Finance is bombarding her phone telling her she needs to come in that same day. She tells them she is out of state, so they ask her to send an address so they can overnight paperwork for her to sign. An hour goes by and they leave this voicemail "Hi Alejandra, this is ****. Iâm calling from.
******* Acura I talked to you last week regarding insurance and coming in and you missed your appointments for two days. My finance manager just said that youâre not available to come in unfortunately we need the car back. My boss is saying to have the car picked up can you please tell me where the car is ? Unfortunately, we have to issue a repossession. And you know the deal is from February and they donât wanna wait anymore.
If you have any questions give me a call if not, just let me know where the car is at so I can send the tow truck for it.
So I then contact the dealership and ask them WTF is going on . They then proceed to tell me my wife missed her appointments and since she canât come in to sign they need the car back and they canât wait. I then tell them if thatâs what they want then Iâll have the vehicle removed from the body and towed to their lot, but I that I will also need my trade in back. They seemed surprised that the car is at the bodyshop and was in an accident. I tell them we let the sales guy know about this a few weeks ago. They then proceed to say they they donât need her to come in and they can get an exception from the Acura but they need a new insurance card because the one we provided was now expired and Acura Financial wouldnât accept it. I asked them if they could just get an exception and âwrite in something to do with insuranceâ then why didnât they do that in the first place instead of harassing her two months later.
So my question is, Is the dealer being truthful about why the contract got rejected?
They said it was because the insurance date on the card was expired by the time Acura Financial reviewed the application, but when we provided the insurance card it didnât expire for at least a month and I spoke with Acura and they said it only takes them 7-10 days to get an Account set up. So my assumption is that they sat on the contract and didnât submit it until a month later?
Probably, or forgot to send it in the first batch. Either way after 14 days you would âofficiallyâ own the car but since it has been in a wreck, returning it to them will be the best plan.
Well I mean it is a lease and we liked the car, but didnât like their attitude and voicemails threatening to tow the car so thatâs why I said screw take it. Now my question is whatâs likely hood of them being able to push the original lease contract through and getting funded if it was denied the first time? I asked Acura if the contract was funded would that mean that when the account is created I would already be past due 2 months since I havenât been able to pay since I have no account. This is probably my top concern. Since I assume it would automatically get reported to the credit bureaus as soon as the account is created
Well see thatâs the thing after I told GM it was getting repaired he didnât want it back anymore and said he can get an âexceptionâ and get the deal pushed through. To which I replied âwhy was my wifeâs phone getting blown up if itâs that easy.â
Well hopefully they are not stupid enough to forge the signature because I told them we are not giving them anything except their car back. So either get the deal funded with what you have or pound sand.
There is probably a line in your contract about situations like thisâŚi.e. mistake on the contract, Acura requiring additional info, etc. You are legally required to resign I believe, regardless of how inconvenient it is or unprofessional you think they were acting.
Maybe some of our contract experts on here can chime in if Iâm wrong.
Itâs a paragraph in all leases that you sign on indicating youâll work with them to resolve the issue. One of the options is to return the car however youâd most likely be on the hook for the diminished value. Where as if you keep it on the end of lease term, you just return it w/o being on the hook.
Do you want insurance to cover the diminished value, if you end up returning the car at the end of the lease? This is sort of one of the main advantages of a lease. You donât need to deal w/ the carâs actual (diminished) value vs. what was set by the bank.
Just that it seemed like you did all the the right things by calling around and notifying when the car needed repairs. But then they turned around and bugging you because of their incompetence or lethargy in finalizing the deal.
I think the contract says you are obligated to make reasonable effort to re-sign the contract in case there is an error. Given that they have asked you for over a week (two weeks?) to come in to re-sign, also had an appointment schedule that you missed, and are still willing to overnight the paperwork. I think you would be on the hook for not re-signing the paperwork.
Also, their rudeness doesnât allow you to break the signed contract. You can go over the contract and the state laws to see if their is a requirement for the dealership to bring the new contract within a certain amount of time. If there is and they are in breach of it, then you may conclude the contract null and void and return the car.
Not signing the contract might get you on the hook for the diminished value also. But then again, I am no lawyer and havenât read your contract either so take it with a grain of salt.
Sort of? The Ram was funded within five days, but the registration issues popped a few months down the road. Once I got all the papaerwork from the dealer CHP signed off on the VIN Inspection. Didnât want to sign off without the Certificate of Origin
Is waiting about month before submitting paperwork really a mistake though?
Yes itâs been about 8 days since they first brought up the issue with paperwork. I donât see how itâs acceptable for the dealer to sit on this for almost two months and then loose their shit when we havenât been able to go in for just over a week.
