I'm not a lawyer either, but I think you're right. Having said that, I realized in the middle of the conversation that we don't really have a "contract" when we pay a deposit. We have some sort of "intent to sell" or something like that (I'm sure someone on here is a lawyer and can correct me). That's what allows them to say "I agreed to sell it to you at MSRP, not at a specific price" and charge us more for a de-contented vehicle when the thing shows up a year after we pay the deposit. I swallowed that one, unhappily.

So I don't think I had an enforceable contract - they could have sold the car to someone else and just sent me my deposit back. And at that time in the market, they would have made significantly more profit by selling it to whoever was willing to pay above MSRP when it reached the lot - at the sacrifice of their reputation for "creating long-term relationships with their customers" which they basically sacrificed by trying to squeeze me.

 

No, not deceptive. As a business owner, I can set a price, change the price as long as there isn't a contract in place, determine the payment methods that I accept, and decide I don't want to work with a particular client so long as I'm not discriminating against a protected class.

I'm not saying what they did isn't terrible and short-sighted customer service but it's certainly not illegal.

 

Fair point. You actually made me think about the small business owner saying cash only or the new trendy business idea of going cashless. This particular ones bugs me though and I would exit if I ever walked into a business transaction of this size where they made these kinds of stipulations (no cash/self arranged financing OR no title for 1 year).

Back to the OP's original issue. Even if you don't want to get a lawyer involved, I would still write a strongly worded letter to JLR (hell, get ChatGPT to do it for you) to get them to relinquish your title to you.

 

Yes, it’s not illegal. But it’s a crappy way to do business. Like overselling a flight and bumping passengers. Somehow that’s legal even though in my business if I told my clients I didn’t really sell them the service they paid for, just a chance I might give them the service they paid for, they would fire me.

When all the airlines do that, I have no market power. When only one or two dealers pulls this nonsense, I have some power. And our memories are long - when the supply chain issues are resolved and we have some more
choices about who to buy expensive vehicles from, we will remember who acted in bad faith.

 

1000% agree. I run my businesses like Zappos. Freaky fast shipping and the most customer-first service you've ever experienced. All I can say is, it works. Life is good.

 

call your DA and ask for advice.

 

Wow. As I read these stories of shady dealerships, I count myself lucky. My dealer actually discounted the price from the MSRP at the time of purchase to match the MSRP that was at the time when the deposit was made and the intent to sell order signed. JLR of Tysons in Virginia.

 

They didn't discount the price. They sold you the vehicle at the price that was agreed upon. And you should not feel lucky because that's what they are supposed to do.

 

Well, to be fair, most other dealerships were putting significant markups above MSRP. I felt lucky to have found one that would sell me at MSRP. Compared to the then-prevailing market price, it sounds like Poptopp was able to buy below market price. Seems like a discount to me...

 

That's nuts. In Fall 2022, I had my own financing, and it was at a better rate, (3.84 in October 2022) they asked me to use theirs, I said 'sure if you match my rate' and they did. At that point no reason not to use theirs vs what I had. There'd been no way I'd have done it at a higher rate, especially in fall 2022 when rates were climbing fast. There was no high pressure stuff at all, only thing I didn't want to deal with is they did a partial paint protection thing (door / trunk edges PPF) and hadn't told me about it ahead of time. I was looking at doing a full ppf later once we get everything aligned to go offroad.