Okay, here is an update on this whole mess. I sent the owner an email with the letter that the lawyer wrote for me last Saturday. I told him in the email that I would further mail the letter to him on Monday certified mail which I did.
Monday evening I got a phone call from the salesman. He stated that he had just come from the Owners office and wanted to talk about the situation. He wanted to know if I could come in to discuss it. Due to my work Schedule I wasn't available until Wednesday.
I also received a phone call from the owner on Tuesday when he got the certified letter. He stated that he didn't want to ignore me, so he called. I advised him the salesman had called and that I was coming in Wednesday to talk and he said that would be great.
I arrived on Wednesday and the owner greeted me, told me the salesman was tied up with another customer and would come in when he could. He showed me to his office and he began to talk.
Now, I was born and raised in a very small county that even now only has about 30,000 residents. I realize I am not the smartest person in the world, but it's really irritating to me when people that are arrogant, condescend because they think no one else is as smart as they are.
The owner pretty much spent the first 15 minutes telling me what a great guy he is and over the years of being in the car business he had over 50,000 customers and none of them were mad at him and he wasn't going to start now.
I won't go over the entire 4.5 hours that we basically argued, but the end result was the owners first offer was $500 cash and $500 service credit. I told him that was highly offensive to me. He countered with $1000 cash and $500 service credit. I told him the service credit meant nothing to me because I don't do service at a dealership. I change my own oil, and filters etc. He thinks he's going to get me on this one, so he says well is the oil you are putting in this car Dexos1 certified? (that is the oil my car requires to make the warranty good) and I told him yes I did. Matter of fact I have 9 quarts of AC Delco oil that is the GM part number listed in the owners manual. He says well I didn't know you knew that. I said, well you should keep in mind that there is probably lots of things I know that you don't think I know. blah blah blah.
The deal is this: the lawyer said it would be reasonable to ask for 10% of the purchase price. The purchase price was $13,990, and the out the door price was $15,500. 10% maybe reasonable but I wanted it to sting and told the owner so because I was lied to.
He basically wasn't admitting any wrong doing on their part, but since he was such a great guy he was willing to make this right.
I was asking for 20% of the purchase price and he said flatly that he wasn't going to do that. His best offer was he would give me $1850 back in a check. But to get the check I had to pretty much agree that I was 100% satisfied and would pretty much promise to buy any cars I ever decide to buy at their dealership. To me that is offensive and arrogant. They also wanted to explore the idea of buying another car which to me is like saying, hey man we screwed you once so let us do it again and you can then tell all your friends what great people we are. He only offered me $12,200 on trade in for the car they lied about. The payoff is around $15,200 so I would be way upside down. I told him that wasn't going to happen. He then stated that no one else would give me that much, I told him that no one else had lied to me and I wasn't interested in what others would do.
He upped the trade on mine to $13,050 and I asked if he was so willing to make this right then why would he at least give me $13,990? He said that since I had put several thousand miles on the car it wasn't worth what it was when I drove it off the lot. I told him I get that, but you committed fraud here and now you expect me to share in the loss? He then said that if I had came back in one or two days, then we might have been able to zero out the deal but since it was a couple months that was the best he could do. I very sarcastically said to that I understand now. You committed fraud and I didn't catch you quick enough, so now I have to be responsible for suffering loss?
They wanted me to drive a 2016 Cruze RS with all the bells and whistles, take it home and drive it a couple days. I had already been there 5 hours by this time so I said fine I will drive your car, but I aint gonna buy it. Drove the car home, it's a nice car. Called the salesman the next day and told him to come get it and bring mine to me because I wasn't going to buy the car.
The car that I have has a $232 monthly payment. To buy this car it would have been $355. My car is financed for 72 mos, and this one was going to be 77 mos.
So a few hours later the salesman came and brought me an LS which is a lower model than my LT. I had already told him that I wasn't interested in buying an LS. I had previously told him that if he could get me a new (mine is a 2014 with the bumper to bumper warranty running out in 2K miles) 2016 LT I would be willing to buy it, but the payments would have to be between $280 and $300 a month. He wanted me to drive the LS while he works on a deal. He basically agreed that what the owner was wanting wasn't right and he was going to do whatever it takes to get me a new car with the parameters on the payment I have set.
So i drive the LS for 24 hours. Now the payment on the LS was going to be $297 for 77 mos.
I also told him that the range I gave him was solid and I absolutely would not pay over $300 even per month.
He texted me yesterday and said he could get the LT and it was looking good and was going to be $327 per month for 77 months. I text back and say UH NO, I will be there in a little while to get my car. He texts back and says to not give up on him yet.
I show up and trade cars back and he says he is still thinking he can get it for $300 to give him a few more days, so I say fine.
I just looked at 4 or 5 dealerships online that are near me. I priced out LTs and it looks like the $300 per month will turn out to be as good a deal as I can probably get even if I had no trade in. Maybe I am a sucker but I will probably buy the car if he can come through. The car I have is a 2014 with only about 2000 miles left on the B2B warranty so a new one will give me 36,000 b2b.
And yes at this point I wish I had just bought a new one to begin with.
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