OUCH! Here is where one extra car came from

unbelievable....I am not a litigious person but I would be suing their ass....

unbelievable.......I am not usually a violent person, but I would kick someone's A**......late at night......after the dealership closes.....just to even the score!......and hold his thieving little a** ransom until the car is delivered! How long did you say it will take to deliver one from the UK? Finger by finger.....chop,chop!

Wow, that really sucks. Based on what little I know of that dealership, I think it probably WAS an honest mistake. I agree that they should make it up to the buyer; selling the car at invoice would be fair under these circumstances.

Oh, and that part about the names being on the orders...I don't know about that. I haven't seen documentation supporting that theory. It's possible it's on the build sheet, but I think that's it.

This is not the first one i have read about. Thomas from Hawaii had almost the same thing happen to him. They just plain lost the car! He posted it today actually. Sucks.

MattG said:

Wow, that really sucks. Based on what little I know of that dealership, I think it probably WAS an honest mistake. I agree that they should make it up to the buyer; selling the car at invoice would be fair under these circumstances.

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Based on what I know about Smith Motors, I think they purposely screw you. My experience: I called Oct 2003 about putting down deposit because I went to college in San Luis Obispo, and I think it will be a cool trip to visit the old college and pick up the car. They said MRSP. Several days later I called back and said it needed fair market at time of delivery which can be anything. I told the salesmen to confirm this BS with the owner and call me back. The confirmation was that the Elise will be sold at market value at time of delivery.

I do not trust those assholes.

I wonder how much they sold it to the local guy... I think the money they made on the sale (Premium+MSRP-invoice) should be deducted from the price of his car as a settlement. Otherwise time to go to court.

Although this is a single example, by a single dealership.....
....There you go.......

How can the dealer not know that the Vin was assigned? they have been tracking the car since it left Hethel... Or are they not paying for preordered cars?

I would compare what the car actually went for to what the buyer has quoted in writing by the steal... erm, I mean dealer.
Also if it could be discovered if the car was purchased by someone of celebrity or political status... without naming names unless there are grounds for litigation.
m.

pianomaniac said:

Finger by finger.....chop,chop!

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Ding.

This is simply inexcusable behavior, even if it was a 'regular' dealer who could get another car spec'ed to his order in a short time it'd be inexcusable. With wait like this?.....yowza.

agent.5 said:

They said MRSP. Several days later I called back and said it needed fair market at time of delivery which can be anything. I told the salesmen to confirm this BS with the owner and call me back. The confirmation was that the Elise will be sold at market value at time of delivery.

I do not trust those assholes.

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I was told that 1 salesman was trying to get market value from people. When Brent Smith found out about this, the salesman was fired. They are indeed charging MSRP, a policy they continue to maintain since I last spoke to them a month ago.

And I have to agree with Matt. I do not believe the mistake was intentional. Although, if it was by accident, I am a bit freaked about my cars status That is really pathetic organization.

what a horror story. It makes dealers like Silver Star, with its complete indiference to customers, look good.

If the dealer wants to do the right thing they should buy back the car from whoever bought it at whatever that person asks.

How in the hell does anyone think that there are "spare" cars to be sold? They know what the waiting list is like, don't you double and triple check what your selling before you sell to a guy off the street?

At very best this is major incompetance.

Holy Sh*t!!! I think I would be in jail right now if that happened to me. I'd definitely sue their ass. I find it very, very hard to believe that this was a mistake - with all the lists, how the hell could they think they had an extra car? After all the communication this guy had with the dealer, including leaving a number while he was in the UK, there is no way any salesman in their right mind could forget that this was a customer car. I think they just got a really high offer and jumped on it - greedy bastards.

I think they should have to hunt down a new car that someone is flipping for a profit and buy it at over MSRP to sell to the customer at or below MSRP.

I guess I'll go ahead and throw in the ubiquitous-

doomed.

This very thing happened to us. The ordering salesman was on vacation when his customer's car arrived (Porsche Cayenne S). He had not given anyone a heads up on the car(secretive about his deals).
The order list had the customer name on the car but no one looked to see if it was spoken for. It's a little different when you KNOW that every car is pre sold.
We gave the customer a later car AT INVOICE to make up for the oversight..
I can tell you that a Lotus dealer knows that every Elise IS spoken for! There is no excuse for such behavior! You should first get an attorney to draft a letter insisting that they find you a car immediately even if they have to pay another dealer $10,000.00 over sticker for it .
BMC of SF has a Starlight Black with touring in stock available at 10K over.
Don't let them get away with this [email protected]&*()&^%@#%)(

Remember these battles are won with the pen and not the sword!

The problem as I see it is that "finding a car" means that someone else will have the rug pulled out from under them. There is no easy and quick solution to this without someone else getting screwed unless the victim would accept a random "extra" car floating around.

_JD_ said:

The problem as I see it is that "finding a car" means that someone else will have the rug pulled out from under them.

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Maybe not. Theremay be enough dropped list spots, dealer ordered spots, etc.

FWIW, Newport European has a Arctic Silver/Black, Sport, Touring Elise coming in that's "unspoken for" and might be their demo. Get that dealer to buy NE's car (I think they want $7-10K over MSRP) and sell it to you at invoice (if that's a color and options you can live with.)

Bob