Missy Elliott sues Fox Valley

Maybe if they paint it purple for her she'll be OK.

Seriously though...dealerships pull this crap all this time. I hope she wins. But I doubt she will. If I recall correctly this is actually a legal action on the part of the dealership, to raise the price of the car. If you read it as "the dealership backed out of the deal and then relisted the car at a higher price" which the buyer also has every right to do up to the moment they drive off (ie. back out of the deal and come back asking for a lower price), then you see why she may not win this fight. We'll see! Maybe Missy Elliot will get the precedent changed for all of us!

 

Not knowing all the details...such as DID they take possession of her trade or not..?

But, here in Washington State..not sure of others..BUT if you take a Depoist on a car, (new or used) ...at ANYTIME untill the Dealer ACCEPTS the full paid price for the car (or accept the trade incar to your inventory) the Dealer by State Law my return the deposit in FULL and decline to sale you the vehicle. There is no recourse, the deposit JUST provides for the customer to hold the allocated vehicle and FIRST right to purchase when it comes up for sale..which may or may not be the agreed to intial price.

Deposits are held in a seperate "Trust" account here in our State and get returned with no intrest paid as well. I also know that our "Local" Authorized Lamborghini Dealer did it here as well on thier first two 700 cars that came in. One of the buyers paid the "increased" selling price of the car...whicle the other the Deposit was returned with no offer to sell at a higher price.

It may also be important to understand that if the Deposit is for a buyer "out of the Dealership range"...they may choose to not honor the Deposit and sell the car to a local "in-range" person as to maintain the car in their sales area and have service work down the road and possible trade in of the car in the future as well..build up their local client base.

I am sure Fox Valley and my local Delaer were not the only ones to do it...I know other Dealers as well that took the standard $30K as required by Lamborghini Factory and used it "just" to secure order spots...basically working with others money. Once the Deposit was confirmed, Lamborghini would release the slot and build a car..then once it got here...the Dealer now has a car he/she did not have to lay any funds out for, sells the car at a "higher" profit margin or returns the deposit and moves to another buyer willing to pay more.

For the record, I do dis-agree with this form of business. I think it is just plain "Greed". You may make a few extra bucks on the higher price of the car...but boy does it give you a ****ty name and reputation. I would imagine any Dealer that did this is sure to loose a LOT more money in future deals then they make in the "Quick" over sticker sell it now price.

 

Really really a poor PR decision on their part... with easy research on the web plus her exposure i think this will cost them more money and grief than it's worth.

 

Hearkens back to the "old days" where Lamborghinis were doled out by one rather notorious dealer.

 

Tim, it seems the marque has quite a history with unpredictable new-car pricing, because, in the 1970s the Lamborghini factory itself often did the same thing, even with substantial deposits in hand.

I have an original letter on file from the Lamborghini factory advising a customer on his way to Sant Agata to collect his brand new car (1121034) that the balance owed would be 15% more than the previously agreed amount, AND that he would also have to pay Campagnolo directly for a set of Bravo wheels! All this despite the fact that he already had an expensive Milanese-based attorney retained because a year earlier the factory had told him on the eve of the originally scheduled delivery of his car that it had been involved in an "unfortunate testing accident".

He went to Sant Agata, paid, and collected his car. Of course, Italy in that era is a different story.

 

Speaking of original literature.... I love browsing these letters from Jim Fox's collection. There is some fascinating stuff in there!

http://www.400gt.com/estes/

Mike

 

Weird. I used to live just up the road from Fox Valley Motor Cars & stopped in quite frequently. Pretty sure they were/are a stand up dealer & there may be more to this story than what is presented.

 

The birthplace of organized crime.

 

In fairness, that era produced some interesting activity here in the USA too.

Another Countach owner told me in person that he went to Sant Agata to collect his brand new Countach.

He arrived in the nick of time too, because he happened upon a Sales Official in the process of selling his car to another person from another country. I imagine it was an awkward moment for the factory representative....