Mark
San Diego,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, November 23, 2004
I just read the input I gave you yesterday, and I must say "sorry" for all the typo's in my message. I must have been distracted when I was proofreading it.... Anyway, Tim's input to you was right-on. Most important is that you must take payments to the dealer and get a receipt, or as a minimum, send them via registered mail/return receipt. If you do not make the agreed upon payments the dealer would most likely be within their rights to repo BOTH vehicles. It's unfortunate for both you and the dealer that this happened (the dealer is in business to sell cars, not make your life miserable.... I assume you still want both vehicles; make your payments), but these things do happen alot more often than people realize!
Michael
whitehall,#3Author of original report
Tue, November 23, 2004
Mark & Tim: I want to thank you for your help and assistance, it is greatly appreciated. I have more info and a few answers to the questions. Yes, I did make my first two payments to Centrix Financial. The payments were sent money order, they were cashed by Centrix..I do have my reciepts. Centrix refused to accept my third payment which was due on 11-10-04. Centrix told me yesterday that they are sending me a check for the first two payments. I called Ford Credit. They confirm the dealer payed off the Mustang. They also told me that Mary Richards from Reedman Toll called the week prior requesting the title for the Mustang. Ford sent the title to her. I have contacted a lawyer. I have an appt with him on Wed. Dec.1st. However, I am going to take the advice of both of you and contact the dealer today to make an appt to go visit them. I will also ask them to whom should these 3 payments be sent to. The Explorer is for my wife..and she loves it. She does not want to give it up. We have also in the past 3 1/2 months made several upgrades to the vehicle, so that is another factor. I thank both you of again for your help! If anyone has any ideas or thoughts please let me know, I could use all the help I can get. More to follow...
Tim
Winnebago,#4Consumer Suggestion
Mon, November 22, 2004
The Dealer is actually the creditor until they "fund" your deal by forwarding all documentation, including the contract assigning rights to the bank. If the bank now will not accept the contract, that's ok for you, the dealer is now the creditor. The dealer may apply for a duplicate title showing themselves as lienholder to protect themselves. As for the payments, I'd make any payment that is due right away. If you default, the dealer has all the rights of the bank and may repossess your Explorer. Contact the General Manager of the dealership, explain that you have payments to make and arrange a time for you to come in and make them IN PERSON. Make sure you get a receipt, showing the next due date on it from the person who takes your money. Now here's where it will probably get goofy: The dealer is in the SALES business, not the BANKING business. They will likely try to send your loan to other sources. If they do, do not accept any higher interest rate, lower loan amount or anything like that - you already have a valid, negotiable contract and they are as obligated to it as you are.
Mark
San Diego,#5Consumer Suggestion
Mon, November 22, 2004
Although I don't do it anymore, at one time for about a year-and-a-half period, I did sell new and used cars for a living. Hopefully I can give you a constructive suggestion and some insight into was is going on in your situation. This type of lending situation does happen when a dealer is desperate to sell a car. The dealer in question probably does not carry their own financing contracts, they "sell" them by placing them with various finance companies like GMAC, Ford Credit, etc. just for example. I've never heard of Centrix Financial, so I don't know if they specialize in "hard to place" credit or even what kind of reputation within the finance industry they have - anyway, your problem really isn't with them. When you purchased the SUV the finance mgr. most likely knew from your credit report and your disposable income that a potential finance company would not want to see you having to make 2 car payments based on your credit score. It's not that uncommon in this situation for a dealer to pay off your old loan, but include that payoff amount in your new loan. Normally they do this if you're trading in your old vehicle but it is not worth enough to completely pay off your existing loan if they try to sell it as a used car. In your case they let you keep the Mustang instead of taking it in as a trade. The potential downside to to this is if they (the dealer's sales mgr.) approved the deal for you and let you complete the sales transaction and drive the car away before they had confirmation that one of the finance companies they deal with would approve your loan. That's possibly why the original finance mgr. was fired. So, your Mustang is paid off, but now the dealer is left "holding the bag" or, holding your loan because they most likely did not have actual confirmation that the loan went through.... What I recommend you do is to make an appointment with their present finance mgr/sales mgr and that you do go there in person, but DO NOT drive either of the vehicles in question. 1. They probably really are trying to arrange financing for you, and they need you there to sign a new credit application, or 2. they have been scrambling around trying to get you approved, but have determined they can't get you approved the way the deal is currently structured (meaning you will probably have to come up with some major cash to put into the deal to offset your credit score). The reason I say don't drive either of these vehicles when you go there is because they will possibly try to "unwind" the transaction and not allow you to keep the new SUV. Also, depending on how desperate the dealer gets, they may attempt to reposses either, or both vehicles. In this situation the dealer is in a bind, because they allowed you to drive off the lot in the new SUV before they new the financing went through. So, I recommend that you do go in and talk to them, just to see what they plan to do for you. Show them my suggestion and see what kind of reaction it gets, and you'll know what they are going to try to do - in this situation you have more power than you think based on the fact your Mustang loan is already paid off - by the way, do you have the actual title document from your State Motor Vehicle Department that proves the car is "actually" yours? The answer to that question could factor in to what you end up doing. Depending on much you like the new SUV also factors in to what you do - do you really like it based on what your monthly payments are? One thing that confused me in your story is that you make it sound like you made at least on actual monthly payment - did you actually send in a payment via check that was processed? Do you have a cancelled check from your bank? If so, who did the actual payment go to? They have a stake in the outcome of this, as well. If they can't get you financed, suuggest to them that you make your payments directly to them. At some point, if they have not already done it, they have to pay the factory for your SUV... maybe the dealer has enough cash to do this and then you reimburse the dealer by making your payments to them. They probably won't like this idea, but then, they made a mistake by letting you drive off in the SUV before they knew it was actually placed with a finance company. Oh, if you fill out a new credit application, make sure that YOU fill in all the blanks! Don't simply sign a blank application and let them fill it in - trust me, this has been known to happen! I guess the bottom line is, from what you presented, is the dealer did make a mistake by letting you drive the SUV off the lot, but now what are they willing to do to fix THEIR mistake?