Dealership Changing MSRP Deal

[esquirebdc]

Detrimental reliance has entered the chat and begins a scuffle with promissory estoppel.

Detrimental reliance is Promissory Estoppel's legs...

As an attorney, this is a potentially actionable case but as Lord Bronco said, for the amount of markup it may not be worth it and the bad advertisement game would work better. However, some states have both unfair and deceptive trade practices acts, which usually bring with them attorney's fees if you win, and you may get an attorney to take the case. Again, we are all so damned busy right now in most parts of the country, its hard to say.

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[midwestpilot]

Kinda sounds like 7 pages in since the question wasn’t answered the OP did not get the MSRP in writing, in which case he may be out of luck.

 

[jonwithanelcamino]

Forget all this lawyer talk and whatnot... I don't see a lawyer doing much other than costing you more money. It's one vehicle. Even if it's 10 vehicles it doesn't matter. That's the problem with this country, someone stubs a toe, let's call a lawyer.

I'll give you 3 options.
1. BBB - Albeit BBB is typically the slow route, but can be effective. I've received a few good results over BBB complaints.
2. Google Reviews - No one likes to be smeared locally. Not even assholes. Though the assholes will fire back. If you take the advice of some others so far, find out if anyone else from the forum is at that dealer. Strength in numbers.
3. Drive down there and kick his ass! You may not get the Bronco you want, you may end up in jail. But man that will feel good, don't ya think?

I had a dealer buy back a used car from me because of a bad google review

 

[Dr.Detroit]

Forget all this lawyer talk and whatnot... I don't see a lawyer doing much other than costing you more money. It's one vehicle. Even if it's 10 vehicles it doesn't matter. That's the problem with this country, someone stubs a toe, let's call a lawyer.

I'll give you 3 options.
1. BBB - Albeit BBB is typically the slow route, but can be effective. I've received a few good results over BBB complaints.
2. Google Reviews - No one likes to be smeared locally. Not even assholes. Though the assholes will fire back. If you take the advice of some others so far, find out if anyone else from the forum is at that dealer. Strength in numbers.
3. Drive down there and kick his ass! You may not get the Bronco you want, you may end up in jail. But man that will feel good, don't ya think?

I am willing to bet you will not end up in a Bronco with option #3, you might end up in a "Corral". Unless of course the police Broncos were already made!? If that is the case, can you snap a couple of pics of the inside and post them on here? I want to see how much room the back seat has.

Thanks bro!

 

[BurtoSquirto]

Just to understand though a dealer can mark up after an order but you aren’t obligated to take/pay for the vehicle on an order right? You are just out of getting the bronco you wanted at that price you thought. Not ideal I know but you aren’t forced to pay the piper.

Had he known the dealer was not going to honor MSRP, he could have gone somewhere else. Now its too late to do that. Dealer knows that, OP knows that, a lawyer would too. Its false advertisement, leading to fraud.

 

[Gamecock]

I think the story is probably made up, but who knows. As much crap as dealers get, they mostly will honor their word….even when they give you a commitment by mistake. If they hedge, a little pressure from you that indicates that you will make things difficult, and they back down. So since OP won’t say the dealers name, nor whether they offered the deal in writing, how was this “policy change” communicated? Did they put in writing that there was a change from the MSRP commitment, which confirms that they promised that prior? Did they call you? Either way, have them put in writing now that there was a change from the policy, and then go talk to the GM/owner and work it out.

 

[midwestpilot]

Had he known the dealer was not going to honor MSRP, he could have gone somewhere else. Now its too late to do that. Dealer knows that, OP knows that, a lawyer would too. Its false advertisement, leading to fraud.

Worked around many of the Ford dealers in kansas. With few exceptions, they’re pretty scummy and I bet anything the guy didn’t get it in writing so no, it’s not fraud. Just bad dealers. One of the biggest dealers in Wichita has made a business model of sending people home with approvals on cars that never went through and charging them bogus return fees weeks later. And shotgunning credit apps for weeks after you look at cars by tricking people who don’t know better into doing credit apps. Or convincing 82 year olds on social security they need to buy a new car on 9% financing even though they just need an oil change on their perfectly good one. Due diligence probably wasn’t done here.

 

[Boxer4]

So far several good ideas to use. Hadn’t thought of using the BBB. That’s a good idea. I learned this over the weekend after attending one of the Off-Roadeo’s which was incredible. As much fun as I had this was not a welcome email from my dealer. Plan on contacting Ford Corporate tomorrow. I’m reserving naming the dealer in public so they can quietly walk this policy change back. Really interested if anyone else have had this happen yet. Did yo

From Ford's Global Brand Licensing Code of Ethics :
Honesty
We shall uphold the principle of fair play and be vigilant against conduct which has the intent, capability, or effect of being deceptive towards our customers.

 

[rugbysecondrow]

Question: and prefaced that I am not an attorney.

If they gave me a vehicle price, including my options and model and I paid a deposit and placed an order for that vehie based on that price sheet at the time of order, that would seem to be a type of contact. It might not be a formal sales agreement, but if they gave me a price and I give them $$$ to move forward with the ordering of that specific item at that price, that would seem to be an agreement, maybe even a contract. Am I wrong?

I could understand if there was not a deposit paid at the time of order, but most of us probably paid a deposit when we placed our order.

 

[Dads_bronze_bronco]

Let's start with this.... The BBB is a shady outfit that is nothing more than a protection racket. They attempt to shake down businesses for money and once they have a business paying them off, they are on the side of the business, not the consumer. I have seen them firsthand doing this, it's shady AF.

Yeah - I know they are not ont he side of the consumer - but logging a complaint with them does cause more heartburn for the dealer.

I agree with others to look at state consumer protection organizations, though I'd bet on those being pretty hollow right now too.

Either way - it all depends on what the OP has. I have an iLaw form that lists price fo vehicle, fees, taxes, etc. (The only trick is I have altered the order by $1000 since then, so that could get interesting.) How anyone orders a car from a dealer, and walks out without a piece of paper without those things is ... well beyond me. I guess if you have x-plan, and it is a normal supply and demand situation. However, if the OP doesn't have this, and they do have an email, or anything agreeing to MSRP, then they have what they need.

 

[JCAntimatter]

Be nice if you could publicly ridicule these sort of practices... but you’d likely be sued if you did.

Why would you be sued?

 

[old goat]

I think the OP is a dealer looking for answers for their intent
if you don't have a DORA / preview summary with all the prices listed and your signature you are out of luck
if you do have one , take his ass to court.

 

[Big House]

Recently I was informed by my dealer that they were changing a policy to charge “market value” rather than MSRP. I specifically went with this dealer because they originally promised they wouldn’t up charge the bronco and would only charge MSRP. Of course they made this change and informed order holders after the deadline to change dealers. Anyone else being faced with this issue? Several legal issues come to mind with this tactic not to mention consumer protection issues.

I’m pretty sure if you look back through your emails they said this would not be happy if you reserve and pre ordered

 

[MadMan4BamaNATL]

I talked to them last week and they are sticking to there guns with the price on my order summery which was MSRP.tried to talk them into doing invoice but they won’t , they say it’s because of supply and demand , I keep saying but I’m a returning customer and I need to buy a truck, they don’t care . All we can do is MSRP. . Ughhh

Realistically, do you really think you can get such a hot vehicle at invoice? Not like you're a fleet customer, just another customer.

Although I literally HATE car dealerships, salesmen, the entire industry, I have to respect that dealerships are in the business to make money, by selling vehicles at a profit.

These days even used cars are marked up to crazy amounts, so yes, that new, hot Bronco you've ordered is going to be sold at MSRP. Want a deal? Buy that Explorer that's dusty in the corner.

Yes, I am stating that you and anyone else should be happy with MSRP and not $5K-$10K over MSRP which will happen and IS HAPPENING.

I'm a first time Ford customer and customer to Jim Ellis Ford. They said they would honor MSRP and nothing over and I said we can agree on that, but I still have to face the finance guy and his attempts at adding extras.

For the record, I've never purchased anything at sticker. All of our Bimmers have been purchased new and I negotiate hard. However, I can read the room of this Bronco and understand how this business works, the global business situation we're in, and need for this large automotive sales group dealership to make a profit. My leverage was always compromised because I can't walk, thus the compromise that we both can live with.

The dealerships shouldn't be greedy, but neither should we.

 

[EvlNvrDys]

I think the story is probably made up, but who knows. As much crap as dealers get, they mostly will honor their word….even when they give you a commitment by mistake.

Did they call you? Either way, have them put in writing now that there was a change from the policy, and then go talk to the GM/owner and work it out.

I can agree with the word mostly... And I say this because early one when we started looking for deals for our group, I had 1 dealership in particular who told me they would offer (to our group), MSRP AND $500 accessory credit. This was specifically stated in email and confirmed over the phone. Fast forward 2 months as things started to pick up, I called the dealership one more time to confirm the deal they were willing to offer. Spoke to the same guy (who is the GM at the dealership), and he denied ever talking to me 2 months prior. When I told him, not only did I speak to him on the phone, but also had a chain of emails stating this, his response was "Wasn't me. Maybe someone used MY email that day".

I don't know about you, but I don't know how many people typically use the email of their boss to offer up deals

So I agree that "in writing" is definitely a good move, but at the same time, I don't trust the deal until it is done!

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