Car Dealers - A Race to the Bottom

It's a story I hear far too often, and one that always leaves a bitter taste. A young man, full of the excitement that comes with a new car purchase, walks into a dealership, eager to drive off in his new Mitsubishi. He goes through the process, signs the papers, hands over his hard-earned money, and trusts that the transaction will be as straightforward as it should be.

He trusted them. He genuinely believed that the dealership – a local business in Warner Robins, Georgia – would uphold its end of the bargain. Why wouldn't he? We're taught to believe that handshake deals, and certainly signed contracts, mean something. That common decency and integrity should still hold weight.

But for this young client of ours, that trust was betrayed, as it is so many times with car dealers, and especially this one.

After taking his money, the dealership refused to honor the contract. Refused to give him the car unless he signed a different contract or paid more money. Think about that for a moment. They accepted his payment, made him believe he had a deal, and then simply... backed out. As if the written contract meant nothing. One can only imagine if they keep the spoken promises.

And then, it got worse. When our client, bewildered and understandably upset, asked for his money back, they refused. Was this a lesson I missed in Sunday School? Is this how we are supposed to treat our fellow man?

It’s disheartening, to say the least. This was a young man's money, his vehicle, and his trust, all held hostage by a business that seemingly chose greed over basic human decency. And it wasn’t even a lot of money. They just wanted to punish him for not signing the new contract and agreeing to the new terms. The salesman had missed his quota. I wish I could say this was an isolated incident, but it isn’t. I have come to expect the lies, deceit, and other devilish behavior from the buy-here pay-here dirt lots. But more and more, I am seeing the same or similar nasty tactics from new car dealers.

We have filed suit on behalf of our young client. We believe in fighting for what's right, especially when someone has been so unfairly taken advantage of. It's a shame that it has come to this, that a simple car purchase required the filing of a lawsuit to enforce what should have been a fundamental principle: a deal is a deal, and a person should be respected.