Course of action for dealersip ripping me off?

[Ride92]

I bought my 2016 CX-5 GT tech/I-active about a year ago. It was a very long drawn out process at the dealership, 6.5 hours to get everything done. As we were going through our finances for taxes this year, my wife asked me "how much did we pay for your car again" I couldn't remember exactly so I went to the file cabinet and pulled out the paper work to have look. Looking at the numbers, I was shocked to see that the dealership never actually gave us the S-plan pricing that we were eligible for because of my wife's job. The price should have been invoice minus the bonuses and cash deals they were giving me. Here's how it happened, we negotiated the price and was waiting to see the finance guy, he was busy so we would see him about 45-60min, we left to get some lunch around the corner, came back and he still wasn't ready for us, 2 hours later we sat down with said finance manager and he pushed us some papers and told us to sign. I was like, hell no, we haven't even discussed interest rates or finance options yet and he wanted us to sign for 8.5%, bulls***. Another hour goes by and he finally gets us an interest rate we can live with so we sign, we didn't look closely at the price before discounts, assuming it was the S-plan (invoice price) we had negotiated. We should have looked closer but I feel that they did a bait a switch and were snickering at us for our error after we left.

What course of action if any do you guys think I have to try to get this remedied? All told I believe it's about $1000 dollars they swindled out of us. I feel cheated and want to report them to the BBB. Do I contact the dealership manager, the salesman that we worked with, the finance manager? Should I go right past the dealership and go to the management of the dealer group, russ darrow? Do I report this to Mazda USA? I doubt any action I take will get me a different finance contract but I would like to be compensated some how. I would like a roof rack and trailer wiring, should I ask for a gift card to cover those costs? Any advice?

 

[TimelessMazda]

Pretty sure the list should be the following:

Dealer (Finance guy or General Manager)
Mazda Customer Service if nothing from Dealer
BBB/Online Reviews if you feel the need to trash them and do not want to go the lawyer route.

Quite honestly if you go the nice route and you get service done there anyway, they should be able to help you in some way. Maybe compensation on service/warranties if the original deal cannot be changed.

 

[ctbale]

BBB, and thats it, I think your gunna get zip. If you like the car then thats more important that waging war on a dealership about a certin % on the sale price, because they have seen it before and frankly they dont care. Dealershits make their money, in their terms, "front end" and "back end" Front money has to do with the sale price of the car, incentives and holdbacks, rear money is warranties, interest rates and fees you accept in the business office. Even with the $1000 they got extra, I can assure you they made more money on the back end, its usually 40/60 Front/Rear. be happy with your car, dont waste your time, lifes too short.

 

[Pototoy]

A year ago (?), that's tough.

do you know any of the guys there? like this is your second or third you bought from the dealershit?

if not, first contact the F&I guy. Most likely he'll play BS and that's normal. Be polite but firm. Most likely you can settle for dealershit services. Don't call Mazda as they can't resolve this. But you can inform what the dealershit did to you.

Honestly though, don't expect much.
Good luck!

 

[CX5_Pete]

Complain and maybe you can get some free service?

 

[Unobtanium]

A year ago and you signed papers? It sounds like this is the penalty for not reading. I'd never do business with them again in any way, but it sounds like they "got you".

 

[yrwei52]

Sorry to hear the story like this. We had similar experience at the Honda dealer when we're purchasing the CR-V. The finance guy sneaked in some unnecessary finance changes and told us that was required. A couple of days later I found out that several hundred dollar charge is unnecessary, and I brought this issue up to the general manager. He agreed and re-wrote the contract, and said he's going to fire that guy! A couple of weeks later when I stopped by the dealer the guy was still working there, but switched to another office!

Anyway in your case I believe legally there's not much you can do as you signed papers and it's been for a year. But I'd talk to general manager of the dealer and see if he's willing to do any compensation. If the GM refuses to do anything, I guess you can call BBB and Customer Experience Center of Mazda North American Operations and complain. But really, anything you can get from here is a bonus to you.

 

[minnesotaart]

I feel sorry that you feel you got taken, but in the end it is totally up to you to know what you are signing. You have every right to sit there for hours and read it all, so if you didn't look at it carefully, you really have nobody to blame but yourself. IMO, it's best to learn from your mistake and move on, life is too short!

 

[Unobtanium]

I feel sorry that you feel you got taken, but in the end it is totally up to you to know what you are signing. You have every right to sit there for hours and read it all, so if you didn't look at it carefully, you really have nobody to blame but yourself. IMO, it's best to learn from your mistake and move on, life is too short!

It still cant hurt to try and ply the service dept. for a coupon...I mean, it's not like he's asking for something for nothing. In my mind, he "paid" for it.

 

[CC58]

Always read the contract in detail. If they pressure you to hurry up, leave, and don't come back.
I've had dealers try to swindle me several times on contracts.

On my CX-5 deal, they tried to sneak in a trade-in of my Civic, which I only had them evaluate and turned down their offer. If I had not read the contract, I would have lost my Civic for half its value ($4000 loss).

 

[Ride92]

Thing is I read the contract, got all thru the pricing, which looked right, then I got the interest rate and term length and stopped. 8.5% for 72 months! Hell no. We did the song of ice and fire all over again for a decent interest rate. When we finally agreed to a decent rate, no talk of price change was mentioned, I feel that's when the switch, error was made. He had to print a new contract with the right terms and didn't use the same prices as the earlier one.

I know, I should have read that one with a fine tooth comb, but I took his word when he said it was the same except 2.25% and 60 months.

 

[Ricsta]

Thing is I read the contract, got all thru the pricing, which looked right, then I got the interest rate and term length and stopped. 8.5% for 72 months! Hell no. We did the song of ice and fire all over again for a decent interest rate. When we finally agreed to a decent rate, no talk of price change was mentioned, I feel that's when the switch, error was made. He had to print a new contract with the right terms and didn't use the same prices as the earlier one.

I know, I should have read that one with a fine tooth comb, but I took his word when he said it was the same except 2.25% and 60 months.

Sorry to hear about the bad deal. As a rule of thumb, at a minimum, you should have a financial calculator (or use your phone and go to a website that can calculate payment) so you can calculate monthly payment based on the agreed upon price, interest rate and # of payments. That's the only way to confirm that you're not being ripped off.

 

[bmninada]

Its tough but there might be a silver lining. Was the NY auto show and this Japanese guy spoke about customer satisfaction as his priority. I suggest you discuss with Mazda Corp, US. Mention the auto show, etc. You might get something back, might not.
Here you'll find a lot of folks telling you what you SHOULD have done, but really - that's water under the bridge now. All you can possibly hope for is some discounts in your future services. If offered, to me, I would fight for free replacement battery, tires, brakes (including rotors) - things I know would break at some point.

 

[russiankid]

Being that it happened a year ago makes it tough. Also, because you don't have anything in writing and signed stating that the dealer is going to include the discount, it'll be just word for word. In addition, the financial paperwork is a signed contract, once you sign it, done deal, to bad. Not sure what kind of process you went through to buy the CX-5, but anytime I have purchased a new vehicle, I always know my interest rate, monthly payment, any and all discounts and final drive out of the car before I even meet the finance manager. I am not having them draw up a contract/run my credit until I am happy with the numbers.

Also, I have my own spreadsheet that breaks down payments based on my trade in, pay off amount, interest, and term length. I bring that with me to the dealer just in case, but I roughly know based on the final payment, what the numbers work out to be.

 

[banjos-n-beer]

Being that it happened a year ago makes it tough. Also, because you don't have anything in writing and signed stating that the dealer is going to include the discount, it'll be just word for word. In addition, the financial paperwork is a signed contract, once you sign it, done deal, to bad. Not sure what kind of process you went through to buy the CX-5, but anytime I have purchased a new vehicle, I always know my interest rate, monthly payment, any and all discounts and final drive out of the car before I even meet the finance manager. I am not having them draw up a contract/run my credit until I am happy with the numbers.

Also, I have my own spreadsheet that breaks down payments based on my trade in, pay off amount, interest, and term length. I bring that with me to the dealer just in case, but I roughly know based on the final payment, what the numbers work out to be.

Likewise. I bring a spreadsheet with basically every financial scenario I can think of already filled in with me. The spreadsheet contains multiple values for: Trade in value, length of loan, interest rates, incentives, fees, etc. Its usually within a dollar or two of what the actual monthly payment ends up being after all said and done.

 

[Ride92]

Thanks for all the replies. Telling me what should have happened or suggesting things like make a spread sheet or get a financial calculator is pointless at this point. It's already happened and I'm not going to invent a time machine to go back and change things. All I can is move forward. I will be reaching out to the dealership manager and letting him now my displeasure for what transpired. I have already sent an email to Mazda NA asking for their assistance if they can provide any. At the very least, Mazda NA now knows of the shady dealings one of their dealerships is pulling.

Like I said, I took the guys word that everything was the same just with different interest rate and term length. It could be that the "system" defaulted to sticker price and not S-plan price so it could be an honest mistake. Ultimately I have to live with it, but I'm going to try to get something back for it, or at least voice my concerns and inform the dealer that they have lost any future sales and I will be advising anyone who cares to listen to stay away from them.

 

[russiankid]

Thanks for all the replies. Telling me what should have happened or suggesting things like make a spread sheet or get a financial calculator is pointless at this point. It's already happened and I'm not going to invent a time machine to go back and change things. All I can is move forward. I will be reaching out to the dealership manager and letting him now my displeasure for what transpired. I have already sent an email to Mazda NA asking for their assistance if they can provide any. At the very least, Mazda NA now knows of the shady dealings one of their dealerships is pulling.

Like I said, I took the guys word that everything was the same just with different interest rate and term length. It could be that the "system" defaulted to sticker price and not S-plan price so it could be an honest mistake. Ultimately I have to live with it, but I'm going to try to get something back for it, or at least voice my concerns and inform the dealer that they have lost any future sales and I will be advising anyone who cares to listen to stay away from them.

Not to sound harsh, but you just answered your own concern.

One thing I can say is live and learn. Yeah it cost you, but you'll know in the future to read everything, even if a minor detail was changed. Small changes can make big differences, being in the financial field, seen this happen a lot.