Car Dealer gets greedy, winds up paying the price
In 2022, Mr. R wanted to do something nice for his wife. She had been going through some hard times, so he wanted to buy her a car she had always wanted – a new Range Rover. This was during the COVID supply chain shortage and car price hikes. At that time, due to the limited supply of new cars, customers often either had to pay a premium for a new car, or order one and wait for it to come in. Mr. R decided to order a custom built Range Rover, so that it would be exactly what his wife was looking for. He went to Jaguar Land Rover of Chantilly, and met with a sales person. He explained what he was looking for,
and that he was going to pull money from his home equity loan to pay for the car. He was not going to trade in a vehicle. He paid $5,000 as a deposit, and placed his order. He was told that the car would be built and ready for pickup in early 2023. The final price was to be $145,428.70.
When the car was ready for pickup in March 2023, Mr. R went to the dealership, ready to pay for the car and pick it up. The salesperson had left the dealership, so he spoke to a new salesperson and with a manager at the dealership. At that time, supply of new cars was still low, and cars were stilling selling well over MSRP. Despite him having custom ordered the car, paid a deposit, waited 9 months, and being ready to pay the balance in full, the dealership refused to sell him the car. They first claimed that he needed to trade in a car – they knew they could sell a traded in car for a large profit in that market, so wanted to make an even larger profit on the deal. Mr. R explained that he did not have a car to trade in – they had already sold his wife’s old car. The manager tried to coerce Mr. R to find a friend or family member to provide a trade in. When that failed, the manager turned to another profit center for the dealership – financing. They wanted Mr. R to finance the transaction so the dealership could receive more money on the back end of the financing. Ultimately, the dealership refused to sell the car to Mr. R, and escorted him off the premises. They did not refund his deposit until Mr. R filed a lawsuit against them. He was embarrassed and upset at how he was treated, and had to go home to explain to his wife why she was not getting her dream car. If he had gone out and found/purchased the same car that day, without waiting another 9 months for a custom order, it would have cost him $52,830 more.
The dealership demanded that the matter be sent to arbitration pursuant to an arbitration agreement in the purchase contract. After hearing the evidence, the Arbitrator had no problem finding that the dealership had breached the contract, and willfully violated the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. The Arbitrator tripled the damages under the Consumer Protection Act, and awarded all attorney fees and costs incurred.
At the end of the day, the dealership’s greed – trying to milk and extra few thousand out of an already inflated sale price – resulted in them having to pay Mr. R over $175,000 – more than the price of the car.