[JDMSTA]

I made an order from them back at the end of Sept. for the starfire pearl with watergrey interior premium with only LED headlamp & and remote start as the extra options. We agreed on the pricing and all the paperwork was signed and with money deposited. And just now, I got a phone call from him saying that my order has been rejected because in order to get the CT the way I wanted, I need to purchase the leather package & the premium audio system and thats a total of $2,455 on top of what we originally agreed on. Talked to my wife and we came to the conclusion to just cancel our order and get our deposit money back. So no CT for me now.

 

[Moongoose]

The sales guy was telling you that you could get the watergrey leather interior without the leather package?

 

[Don]

The sales guy is at fault for not knowing his product and the new car manager is at fault for not catching that error. I can't believe they just found that major error so far down the line.

 

[JDMSTA]

yeah I know right? I was so excited about the car and now my heart just sank.

 

[Tonic]

Its à bit of à shame what happen to you but please at the end it's not a reason to not buy the car..... Just get one with nuluxe only not in the color you wanted!

 

[JDMSTA]

maybe its not meant to be...there's this thing about me that if I'm gonna pay that much money, I want to pay for what I want and not for something I just settle for. Who knows maybe in the future I'll get to own one.

 

[SurgeCT]

I hope you haven't cancelled the contract yet. You have a binding agreement with the dealer that is a final sale and non cancellable (by them).
What you do is get a lawyer friend to write a stern letter to them about false presentation and how you're prepared to take this to court and to the media...
They will add the leather at no charge. $2455 is peanuts vs a law suit and bad PR.

 

[Don]

I'd probably have my lawyer write a letter to the dealership as well. I'm sure you can come up with some kind of comprimise that is good for you and the dealership. Hang in there and don't give up.

 

[midcow3]

Sue Sue Sue - It solves everything!

SurgeCT and Don,

Unbelievable responses.

No wonder are society has gone to pot, with such a litigious mentality. You guys are the type of owners that epitomize Lexus

And you wonder why people call Lexus owners pricks.

MidCow3

 

[Moongoose]

I guess I could see a (bad) sales guy not knowing that to get the leather option that the audio is also included for $2,805.

But I'm still not sure how they expected to get leather interior without any packages. Unless he was thinking the Ecru Nuluxe was the Water Gray interior...

 

[hdave]

SurgeCT and Don,

Unbelievable responses.

No wonder are society has gone to pot, with such a litigious mentality. You guys are the type of owners that epitomize Lexus

And you wonder why people call Lexus owners pricks.

MidCow3

I was just thinking that is typical American mentality lol
(Sorry for generalizing to the non-lawsuit-happy Americans)

sue sue sue! lawsuit! free easy money! we are entitled to everything!





But in all honesty, I think you should just talk to your dealer, explain that the fault was theirs for agreeing to this, and they should know their product and not make stupid mistakes.
Hopefully they are willing to own up to their mistake, discount the car a bit, offer the leather as a good will gesture, or something. If not, its not a big loss unless the leather is a make or break thing for you

 

[Administrator]

Sorry to hear that

 

[YOW]

I find it difficult to understand how an invalid order like this one gets entered into the Lexus online ordering system. You would think the ordering system would prevent an invalid combination of options.

On the other hand, it seems to be possible to price an invalid combination on the Lexus US website.

JDMSTA, did you try pricing your vehicle on the website before purchasing?

 

[Steveg.]

I hope you haven't cancelled the contract yet. You have a binding agreement with the dealer that is a final sale and non cancellable (by them).
What you do is get a lawyer friend to write a stern letter to them about false presentation and how you're prepared to take this to court and to the media...
They will add the leather at no charge. $2455 is peanuts vs a law suit and bad PR.

This is one of the things that are wrong with our country. A simple mistake by a salesperson and the "Let's take him to court mentality" and see if we can get something for free. These types of frivolous law suits by a few people with questionable morals cost many individuals and company's untold billions every year defending these types of law suits. It's great for attorneys.

 

[atebit]

So, if he had placed an order for a car & then a month later realized he made a mistake & forgot to order a feature/package he wanted, of course the dealership would just let him cancel the order, right?

No way.

While I agree that the first call shouldn't be to the lawyer, it doesn't sound like the dealership was very forthcoming when they discovered the error. The mistake cost him at least a month of extra waiting if nothing else.

Another thing that's wrong with this country is people/businesses not taking responsibility for their actions/mistakes.

 

[Joe166]

Free legal advice is worth less than what you pay for it. I would be careful making lawsuit threats. Most dealers have at least one lawyer with a "free" demo that has nothing better to do than respond to things like this. I bet your lawyer will want real money.

 

[midcow3]

What you should probably do -the action to take going forward

JDMSTA,

I am not sure if you went through a configurator or not. Most of the online configurators are "packages only" and catch the obvious errors. If you went through Edmunds, you can usually check what you want, whether or not the combination is valid. You might or might not have known your configuration was not valid.

The CT200h was a new model in 2011 and don't know how familiar your salesperson is with the CT200h line. A lot of Lexus come standard with leather; maybe he incorrectly assumed. If the salesperson put the special order together in late September, it might not have made that order cycle and it just now came up that it was invalid. Maybe the sales person or maybe you should have known that LED without leather and premium sound was not a valid combination. It could have been an honest mistake. But no matter, it is certainly not worth getting a lawyer involved and trying to sue. With your arm chair "Law and Order" legal advice that might seem the route to take, but it is most certainly not. It would cost you much more than the $2,455 and what would you really hope to gain ??

Now going forward, if $2,455 is too much of a bump to you and your wife why not consider the Ecru Nuluxe and regular lights and standard audio. You could easily add an HID conversion kit for less than $100 and get brighter lights than LED. The Nuluxe is actually a very good synthetic substitute for the leather seats. The CT200h is a very, very nice car and you should still be very pleased with the Nuluxe and standard lights IMHO. Because a mistake was made you might be able to and probably should be able to negotiate ( not threaten to sue) a discount.

Good luck whatever your decision is.

 

[Don]

SurgeCT and Don,

Unbelievable responses.

No wonder are society has gone to pot, with such a litigious mentality. You guys are the type of owners that epitomize Lexus

And you wonder why people call Lexus owners pricks.

MidCow3

MidCow3, sorry you’re so shocked by my response. If only we could buy a car by a handshake and a nod, but that’s not true anymore. I know when I sign papers for a legally binding contract like buying a car; I’m bound to that contract. In reality, I’ve never sued anyone nor do I ever plan to do so. My neighbor is a lawyer and I have copied him (with his approval) on a few letters I’ve had to write where work wasn’t performed or as promised. Just by adding his name and title to a letter I instantly add a little more bite to my growl. I did a little research on my Lexus dealership through the Better Business Bureau and have read of complaints about last minute “add-ons” that were charged to the customer at the time of delivery. Of course these complaints were resolved so the dealership will remain in good standing in the business community.

To sum it all up, pricks abound no matter what automotive badge you drive. I would have thought being a qualified/certified Lexus salesperson; they would have proper training on configuring a build sheet for ordering any Lexus vehicle at their dealership. I can see finding an ordering error in a week or perhaps as long as two, but not a month.

Hopefully JDMSTA and his dealership can agree on some compromise so there will be no bad blood between them. If nothing else, let's hope this situation will prompt a review of policy and procedures for ordering vehicles at this dealership. Any company can make mistakes, it’s how they handle their mistake that makes all the difference.

Don

 

[Joe166]

For those offering sage legal advice, you should be aware that impossibility of performance is usually a defense to failure to perform under a contract IF a contract is even found to exist.

If you can't get a red lexus with purple seats then your suit to make them "compromise" is not likely to succeed, but then again, I am not giving legal advice. Just count on a dealer trying to maintain good will but NOT willing to agree to something that could be used as precedence every time one of their dumb salesmen agreed to sell something that doesn't exist, which happens far more often then you would think, since many salesmen have a lot of trouble with facts, even ones concerning their livelihood.

 

[prosperity]

I'd like to think a Lexus dealer would come to the party and meet you (say) halfway at least. I'd be reasonably confident that my Lexus dealer would help out in the unlikely event that they goofed up like this. Good luck and I hope you get the CT you want by way of an arrangement with which you are happy.