Toyota dealership wants 2020 Prius Prime back

Yea, I always show up with a loan already. You get better terms that way anyhow.

 

Horror stories are fairly easy to find.

One should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER take delivery of a "new" car until all of the arrangements are FINAL.
This is extra important if a trade-in is involved.

Sometimes the dealer calls 2 days later with the bad news that they could NOT in fact find you any financing.......anywhere.
So the sale is VOID. Please bring the car back or they will send a tow truck.
Oh.....and the other bad news is that they have already sold your trade in.......so you have NO CAR.

I've heard this kind of story several times but don't remember ever hearing what the outcome was.
I suspect the dealer gives some low-ball price for their "trade-in" and there is no easy recourse.

 

Happened to a neighbor of mine, except that they hadn't gotten her signature on the document of sale before letting her drive it off of the lot. Her trade-in was buried immediately, when they noticed she hadn't signed anything, her van was already scrapped. She drove the car around for 6 months, making no payments, before they repossessed it. They couldn't accuse her of theft since they handed her the keys. They couldn't accuse her of non-payment since she had not signed any loan papers. They just hounded her known addresses until they got lucky.

 

OP pretty well answer this in post #47:

This casts considerable shade on the dealership's rescission letter, raising more suspicion that it was a cover for something else.
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In some states, this is consumer fraud, already prohibited. Dealers still pulling this shyte in such states are depending on consumer ignorance of their legal rights.

The Honda I bought in the 1980s had been previously sold (starting the manufacturer warranty), but the sale fell through when the financing being pursued by the customer, not by the dealership, fell through. That buyer never took possession during their financing wait. When I took legal possession, after my own test drive and credit union financing wait, the odometer was at just 32 miles.

 

I'm pretty sure that in ALL STATES, you could make a pretty good case for vehicle theft by deception.
Problem is that the Police department might not see it as a criminal matter and you would need a lawyer.

 

Here is the link.

By the way I've been in this situation before. Though it was a lease from Hyundai (Sonata PHEV). They said they needed to get approval from Hyundai financing to approve the lease for me as I was an international (on a student visa). But I had the car, documents were signed, I was driving it for two weeks until they said Hyundai couldn't approve the lease and they want the car back. They drove 100 miles to come get it. What was in it for them? To claim the sale at the end of the month? Anyway I didn't know any better so I just let it go. Maybe I could have kept it if I fought, I don't know. It was a killer deal on a lease.

 

Did they pay you back any deposits or down payments you made? If not, you should have pursued at least that much.

 

Oh yeah of course got my down payment and rebate voucher back from them.

 

I’m still wondering how/why they offered an Uber discount if you don’t work for Uber. They are usually strict about that stuff.

 

Not sure who you're talking to, but I'll respond since I did try to claim this rebate also. Back in 2016 at least, no they were not strict about that. You just had to have signed up as a driver and have your uber driver account open to get the discount. That's it. Things probably have changed.

 

Nope. Nothing changed.
Last I saw the Uber deal was good through early January. Must be "active" account status - that is all. $750 Toyota rebate that goes towards down payment. We also go the $500 USA Triathlon member rebate. They changed the terms on that though, to prevent people signing up for $50 to get $500 back. We got in last Oct. Great ROI on these rebates!

You need to pay attention to the prices paid thread for info on recent deals and all that. We did quite well last Oct with our timing.