Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

Doug,

He's trying to screw you by saying the car value dropped by $3k (30%) in 7 months when there's no f'in way that's true. I'd guess a year difference (i.e. 03 now vs. 04 now) would be around half that at most. General car dealership karma aside, he's trying to screw you now by taking maximum advantage of any generosity or guilt you might feel. For that I say [censored] him.

Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

g,

Again, please find the difference in blue book values if possible!

If that number is less than $3,000, you should most absolutely tell the dealer to F off.

Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

I looked up the difference in blue book values for a mazda 6 (i have no idea if that's what he had but it should provide a reference) for 04 and 03 and 30k miles. The difference in price was ~12%

Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

Diablo,
Assuming the car wasn't driven or neglected, I don't think it's possible for any used car to drop 25% in resale value in 7 months. So why insist on checking the actual numbers in the blue book?

OP,
I think it's possible the car dropped $1.5k in value, and by offering to "split the difference" the guy was actually trying to get you to pay the whole lot. Or that you got an inflated trade-in price, but got a correspondingly worse deal on the car you bought.

Either way, I don't think you owe them anything. They knew when they took the car that there might be a delay in getting the title, but they took that risk in return for the reward of getting an immediate sale. Compensating them for this risk is like giving an umbrella salesman $10 on a sunny day because he's unlucky you didn't need an umbrella that day.

Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

I dont understand, where is the moral dilema?

You have to decide whether or not to give a stranger 3k?

Give me back my last 3 minutes and next time put a warning in the title that says not really a dilema just wanted to chat about my boring life.

Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

Tell the GM that you appreciate him being straight-forward, but this your fault in this is a tiny fraction of the total fault. Tell him that in the name of customer service, he should consider it a closed issue, and that if you like the beamer and you ever want another one, you promise to come back to his dealership.

Edit: Never mind. ArcticKnight has a much better solution. The guy *is* a douche for trying to convince you the value droppped 3k in seven months.

Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

They're probably making like 15k+ from you on the 335i lease. That's why they didn't make too big a deal about the Mazda's title situation. They found a way to get it done eventually. That was probably their plan from the start: Find a way to get it done eventually.

They probably could have eaten the full amount they paid on the trade-in, and still come out ahead on the deal. Don't let them chisel you out of another 1500.

Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

What in the hell is all this discussion about "moral balance" and such? If the OP wants moral balance and wants to feel better about himself, donate $1,500 to a good charity vs. giving it back to a car dealership who screwed up in their apparent haste to make a sale at any cost.

That's not to blame the dealership, they were doing what they do for a living, making sales. Under no circumstances, sans if I was ordered to by a binding legal entity, would I give the dealership one red cent.

Plus, IAW about how does the car lose $3K of value in a few months? That's asanine.

The $3K in "lost value" is an arbitrary figure. You can't say for certain what the car would be sold for three months ago because in any kind of sales job, an object (in this case the car) is worth what a consumer is willing to pay for it. Maybe they sell it for $10K, maybe not. Maybe nobody buys it at that price and it sits on the lot for two months.

What I'm getting at is you can't say what the lost value is on something that has a variable price. Again, a car is worth what a consumer will pay for it. On the last car my wife and I bought, the dealership ended up dropping the price several thousand dollars because we refused to buy at their original offer. So there is no way this guy can accurately tell you the lost value to him is $3K.

Do not go to a meeting with him. Do not engage in conversation with him. And absolutely do not pay him a dime. Tell him if he ever wants you to buy a car from his dealership again or have you recommend his dealership to anyone else, he'll leave you alone and never bring the situation up again.

The dealership has no legal claim to force you to pay any of that money. All this moral high ground stuff to help smooth over someone else's screw up is making my head spin.

Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

For the record I don't think you should give them a dime because it was there mistake...

But when I mentioned that my buddy should keep the extra grand he was given on accident by a casino cage... the two of us were FLAMED for being unethical priicks.

Funny that people have no problem ripping off car dealerships :-)

Re: Moral dilemma/car dealership help? (a little long)
 

gonores,

"Then he says he wants to come to me man to man and ask what I felt my responsibility in this whole mess is."

Well, chief, I was going to offer you something, but since you lied to me about the price drop and tried to f me up the ass here, I feel my responsibility in this whole mess is absolutely zero.