10 days of fun or Hassle?

So my wonderful wife has put up with me for a year wanting to look at Porsche 997’s. Ever since I owned my Porsche 993, I knew I wanted another one, but with a manual transmission and the newer 997 body style.

Well 11 days ago, Melanie went to look at two 2005 Carrera’s with me, the first one at our local BMW dealer was perfect in ever way, but was a tiptronic (automatic). So before I dove into contemplating a deal, she said I think you need a manual transmission. I agreed and I knew there was one at Fletcher Jones in Fremont, so we went there first to take a look.

This one was perfect as well, plus more, so we started the negotiations and got the deal we wanted (or so we thought).  After an all day negotiation, it turns out the contract was written up as a Negative Equity, where we thought they were going to pay our car off in full. It was our fault by just assuming the car loan was written properly, I think Melanie and I have done this too much and we just started signing. Anyways I drove off with a beautiful 2005 Carrera as giddy as could be and had the fun opportunity to drive it for 10 days.

The next day our credit union said they would not do a negative trade and denied the loan. We then went to another credit union and they said the same thing, but would honor the lower purchase price, which the dealer wouldn’t go for.  Fortunately for us, the contract terms you sign are binding and they wrote us up at the payment/term we wanted and interest rate. So the dealer has to find you a loan with those terms or choose to cancel within 10 days of signing.

I’ll say this right now, I’ll never buy a car from Fletcher Jones of Fremont. This was the worst experience we’ve ever had in purchasing a car and they were far from accommodating.  Usually high-end dealers are very customer service conscious and they do everything to make your experience wonderful.  But not here, I was literally managing this whole problem with little work from their end.  But once I did some investigation and found out they had to honor the contract, then I just said “you deal with it!”.

Not many of you may know this, but dealers have 10 days to cancel a contract once it’s written. If they make a mistake, they will try to get you to sign a new contract. DO NOT sign the new contract unless it’s what you want.  Fletcher Jones called me back and said a new contract was available.  So yesterday we went to review the contract and re-sign.

Melanie and I got in there and the contract was PERFECT, it’s everything it should have been when we first purchased the car. But I had some hesitations, so I asked, what happens if I don’t sign this tonight.  The loan manager (who was very cool) said you’ll get your old car back and we’ll cancel the deal.  This was a very tough decision for me, so I said I’m having dinner with my wife and we’ll be back.

Well my gut instincts told me not to do it, so we went back and I said we’re not signing and I’d like my old car back. Yes, I decided to let my beautiful Porsche go, but there’s many Porsches out there and I’m sure I’ll find the perfect one again.

Oh, but wait… This story isn’t over!  They brought my car out and guess what?  Total wheel damage on my right front and deep scratches on the bottom of the bumper, oh was I mad!  This experience couldn’t get any worse. I ended up writing an e-mail with all the problems and requirements they had to do to fix my car and gave them a 12 noon deadline to reply today.

Of course, no one called or wrote back, so I had to get back on the phone again!  I finally got in touch with the guy that handles these incidents and he’s agreed to meet my requests. We’ll see if this actually pans out!

For all of you reading this blog, I suggest you take a look at this website, it’s the top 10 scams dealers try:

http://www.ucan.org/gasoline_autos/automobiles/top_10_auto_scams

Of course, we got the #1 scam, but were lucky the sales guy wrote a contract to our advantage, if not we’d of been screwed.  If you’re ever asked to sign a new contract, be very weiry of this.

Here’s pictures of what should’ve been my car, click on the picture below to see multiple shots.

Here’s pictures of the damage to the car I traded in, which will hopefully be fixed back to it’s original state.  Click on the image to see all the pictures.

In conclusion, make sure you understand your contract when buying a new car and don’t ever buy a car from Fletcher Jones in Fremont, CA…