Hey guys...Here's my situation:

I got married in April and my wife and I planned our honeymoon to coincide with the pickup of a brand new BMW (for her) in Munich via BMW's European Delivery program.

I started dialogue with our dealer in January to decide on a model and my goal was to stay under $450/month with a down payment including first months payment, security deposit, acquisition fee, and doc fees.

Our original plan was to get a 335 convertible but decided against it because it was costing a bit too much. We then decided to try for a 335 sedan instead. The whole time, we were working with an out of state sales person at an out of state BMW dealership because this particular salesperson was highly reccommended by the guys over at the BMW forums and he was apparently very knowlegdeable with the European Delivery Process.

So anyways, in late Febuary, I booked a flight to visit our salesperson personally at the dealership....I explained to him that I wanted to be under $450 a month and asked him to run lease numbers, using a couple different scenarios as far as length of lease and up front money, on a relatively base 335 sedan. The salesperson came back with printouts of 4 scenarios, which ranged from $448-about $490 per month.

I decided to go with the option @ $448/ month which was with $1800 up front. I was happy with those numbers. Eventually, the dealer mailed us a contract. We signed the contract. We got married. We went to Germany, picked up our car on April 10th, dropped off our car in Munich for redelivery to the USA on April 16th, and basically have been anxiously waiting for our car since.

On May 8th, I called our salesperson to check on the status of our car...Our salesperson told me that the car would probably be ready for pickup from their lot by the end of the month.....At this point, he also told me that they made a mistake on the contract and that our payment should actually be $50 more per month. I was told that they used the incorrect rates and that they could not honor the contract.

Now, in all fairness, I did recheck their math and indeed they did miscalculate to come up with the $448 per month payment. Had the mistake been caught there, I probably would have not agreed to a $500 payment. I would have either deleted some options on the car or decided on a lesser trim level.

But as it stands, my car is pretty much being held hostage. I have a signed contract and the dealer says it is no good. I am being told that I need to either pay more per month (they have now lowered thier $500 demand amount to $470ish) or I will not be allowed to pick it up........I feel as if the contract should be honored, given the situation. Any advice?

Would you guys just pay the extra money per month and let things slide or would you guys be bugged out of principle?

At the end of the day, they made the same mistake twice (Once when they originally quoted me lease numbers and again when they actually printed out the lease contract).....And then, they did not even call me to tell me they apparently had made a mistake. I had to call them and then they told me.....

Anyways, what to do?

 

Buy a car you can afford comfortably?

In the next three years, do you realize how much more per month you're going to be spending on gas?

$50 is going to look like chump change. That's less than one tank of gas per month.

 

We can afford it either way. That's not the main issue. Ironically, my wife is a contract attorney but I have chosen to not even tell her yet that the dealer is saying we have to pay more money. I wanted to try and work things out with the dealer without getting her riled up.

It is the principle of the situation that bugs me. I suggested to her to get a 335 and she told me "ok, I just don't wanna pay more than what I am paying now"...That's why I specifically wanted to be under $450. In all honesty, she could care less whether she drives a corolla or a 7 series....She's not that much into cars.

She currently pays $450/month on her Accord and her lease is up in two months on that.

 

Wife contract attorney,.......by all means let her handle it.

 

Yeah, tell your wife - open communication and all that. Personally, you got to do the uropean delivery part, so if they can't make the contract work, walk away. Go by a G35 and save some money.

 

Holy crap it's CKit. Welcome back :-)


I happen to agree, I suspect $50 is not a big deal over the course of the month for you, a buck and change a day. Did you feel strongly about the car when you picked it up? If it wasn't something you really liked and your wife wanted after a drive and ride in it then hit the road. Otherwise, a few bucks won't hurt anyone. Buy one less bottle of the colored Johnny Walker bottles each month

 

That reminds me....I have about 5 leftover bottles from the reception lying around somewhere. Do stores take back unopened alcohol??

Wait a second...Am I threadjacking my own thread...?

Back on topic...The more I think about it, I feel more inclined to just suck it up and pay the 20 bucks more a month.

But on a side note, imagine buying a car and later finding out there was a $1000 rebate on it. If you went to the dealer a month after you had signed a contract on a car and said "mr dealer, you owe me $1000 because i didnt realize there was a rebate...I want to void our contract"...Dya think they would budge?

 

No way they would budge on that 1000 rebate, I honestly think you should let your wife handle it

 

Let the wife handle it, it's better to keep things in the open in a marriage anyway, it can cause problems in the longrun if you keep stuff like this hidden, she might think you don't trust her.

 

Maybe they do this to all their ED customers. You spend money to go overseas, get attached and then won't say no to the deal when they discover an $1800 "mistake"