I traded in my lease to a Chevy store in metro Detroit last week and was able to get about $3500 in equity to put down in new lease. Could have gotten more elsewhere, but not the issue. I’m GMS eligible and had $4k in rebates to apply. Credit score >750, so a MF of .00119 is listed on my purchase/lease agreement–Here’s where things get slimey…In reviewing my lease agreement, I now see a charge for $1,880 for a service maintenance contract was included and not anything I was presented nor discussed with sales/ finance. Upon inquiring, I learned this amount was all interest rate markup they had to “move around” in order for the deal to work for them. They are refusing to credit back this service contract and saying they can recontract me but it won’t change my payment. This seems crazy because on my 36 mo/ 30K lease term, this is an incremental $50 per month added to my payment which i feel is a deceptive.
Any tips on how I can proceed or potential recourse? I’m in a pickle because I didn’t realize this until a week after I’ve signed taken delivery of the vehicle, however, I feel I was decieved because I was shown a reasonable MF that deceptively marked up and put into a fake maintenance contract.
Thanks for any help!
F&I is where you are tired and take anything they say as ‘truth’. It’s basically a 2nd level salesperson.
So yes, they look very slimy.
But is your payment the same as you agreed before signing? And the DAS didn’t change? Assuming yes, then there’s nothing that slimy or going on here.
Dealers can and will “move things around” like this on the contract depending on how they want to structure it. They most likely wanted to park their profit in a service contract as opposed to a higher selling price or MF markup.
payment remained the same as we had agreed to before signing…just wish I’d known I could have gotten a much lower payment elsewhere. Unfortunately, not much selection at the moment so I guess that comes at a cost. Appreciate your comments, Jeff.
Yes, indeed. Huge source of revenue on the variable operations side of the house. Just wish they’d shown me the money factor they were actually using rather than showing me a competitive rate and throwing in a fake service contract.
As a follow-up question, is there a maximum a dealer can markup the interest rate before it’s considered predatory? Perhaps GM Financial, as a captive, would have some guidelines they’d expect dealers to follow?
Never concentrate on the ‘money factor’ they can hide stuff somewhere else.
Always look at the payment or Total Payments. you can never go wrong that way.
I’m confused. Did they mark up the MF or did they sell you a service contract?
If they charged you for a service contract, you should now be the proud owner of a service contract.
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I’ve never seen a lease contract show a MF. Where was it shown?
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If you knew the MF they were theoretically using, why didn’t you calculate the payment yourself to make sure it matched?
Bottom line, you agreed to a payment and they structured it to maximize their own personal commissions. That happens every day ending with a Y.
How did your thread title get so messed up.
OP - 
that’s really the bottom line. No guarantee any other dealership will come close?
If you really want to push it, does MI law or your maintenance contract allow for cancellations? That way you can get your money back without rewriting the contract. Might want to check the fine print.
They kept the money factor at .00119 on the contract and said the markup (which they’re allowed to do) was moved into the service contract (which they never actually offered to me). I believe the service contract is fake, as I don’t have any documentation of its existence other than the line item on contract. Hell, I don’t know what’s included–maybe normal maintenance but how much coverage will i need over 3 yr / 30k mi?
100%- this is sound advice. Thanks.
yeah, i get it
If payment and drive off were the exact same that you agreed to, I don’t think you have all that much to gripe about.
I’m guessing they just moved the profit from the front to the back to likely hit a volume goal (related to products sold). While it’s a little shady it wasn’t disclosed, if they didn’t change your payment and drive off a penny, you should probably just leave it be. Looks like you got a product for free (the way i understand it).
Kchtham, i get they were able to hide money by essentially tripling the interest rate my credit could have earned me. My point is there is no actual maintenance contract, it’s just where they “moved” all the interest markup (instead of increasing the MF), which seems odd/deceptive to me. I understand I agreed to a payment that included this markup, so I’m SOL…just sore their markup represents about 20% of my monthly lease payment.
no free product. I don’t have a maintenance contract even though it looks like I paid for one.
You probably have a legitimate claim there with your state consumer agency. I had a finance manager lower the MF at signing and threw in a tire and wheel package because they made more money on it than on the MF markup. In that case, they were upfront and I actually received the package. In your case you signed that you paid for something and they haven’t provided it. That is deceptive.
So we know the terms stayed the same and the money factor was raised, but what about the selling price? Did they lower it? I could make more sense for them to lower the selling price by $1800 and raise the money factor accordingly since it could help out with someone’s bottom line. Also, depending on state law a service contract could be something like VIN etching or nitrogen tires rather than an actual pre-paid maintenance.
But if the payment, DAS, term, and miles all stayed the same, I can understand your frustration but it doesn’t really matter.
If the dealer wrote it up as a maintenance contract purchase, you should make them provide what they indicated you purchased simple as that, and if they’re unwilling you should pursue it with whatever consumer protection agency regulates car dealers in your state. As someone earlier said, there’s often a mandatory cooling off period with these types of F&I add-ons given that the regulators know consumers are not on equal footing in the F&I office, so after getting the contract read what you bought and if it’s not providing value and you have a rescission right, you should exercise it. No need to feel bad for the dealer since they chose to go this path.