Need a LOT of help: Mazda dealer pulled a switch on us - We bought/paid for AWD, they sold us FWD

racerfink said:

Interesting that nobody seems to think the mix-up might have come between the Costco rep and the dealership.  Yeah, she’s telling you she told them AWD, but...  Without a lawyer to read any paperwork she might have sent (it might have all been handled by phone), you’ll never know.

I believe he said that the dealer salesperson has acknowledged that it was supposed to be AWD.  The disconnect seems to be with dealer management.

I hope it all works out well.

I believe that the initial request from Costco to the dealer went electronically and included AWD as the last three letters on the line.

I also believe that when the that electronic transfer reached the dealership, the online salesperson put pen to paper or words to manager and overlooked those last three very significant letters. 

As someone who suffered a bait-and-switch at a dealer before, I hope this gets worked out.

My situation was a little different. I bought a 2009 WRX back in December of 2008, and I opted to get the "Subaru Gold Plus" warranty, figuring that it's a Subaru and it will inevitably break. I was still young and dumb and had my dad and older sister that was in the car sales business there and trusted them to make sure all the paperwork was good. So I signed away and drove off with my car.

A couple years later, stuff started breaking on the car left and right, but I didn't sweat it because I had that "Subaru Gold Plus" warranty. I dropped it off at the dealer, and they informed me when I picked it up that I had the lesser "Subaru Silver" warranty, and a bunch of the work I had done wasn't covered. Basically, I paid for the good one and they gave me the cheaper one to make more money on the deal.

After reaching out to the dealer and even Subaru of America, I was told to go pound sand and I had to foot the bill. I checked the paperwork, and sure enough, they swapped out the correct paperwork for different stuff and yup, I signed it. I felt as stupid as you could imagine.

C/N: Never, ever trust the dealer. In fact, don't trust anyone but yourself when making a deal on a car. Triple check EVERYTHING before driving that car off the lot!

Woody said:

I believe that the initial request from Costco to the dealer went electronically and included AWD as the last three letters on the line.

I also believe that when the that electronic transfer reached the dealership, the online salesperson put pen to paper or words to manager and overlooked those last three very significant letters. 

That kind of rationality might be stretching it a bit thin. It's not like the availability of AWD is a big change from the last 15 years of Mazda 3 or anything...

A lot will also depend on state law.  I had a car dealership in Connecticut.  The amount of regulation was staggering, going so far as to specify type font and size on contracts.  I moved to South Carolina, where anything goes, no used car warranty or inspection, just put some cars on the lawn and a sign, and you're a car dealer!  Until recently, they used the plastic license plates with the dealer's name on it as a temporary registration with no expiration.  

As a business, they may not want (or have to) take your car back, or refund you any money.  I think it will come down to state regulations, COSTCO's standards, and the dealer's willingness to work with you.  I would not drive the car anymore than I had to.  It is going to take a little time to figure this out.  Depending on time and regulations (there's that word again) it may be possible to "unwind" the deal, and not have the car titled as used.

car39 said:

it may be possible to "unwind" the deal, and not have the car titled as used.

I am absolutely rooting for the OP here because I think it was just one of those honest mistakes that we humans are capable of making and I would like to see my belief in humanity reinforced.  But...  I sincerely hope that there is not any legal way to alter the title on the car so that it washes out as a new car.  Because even though it's only been driven for a week, it has been driven - especially through its break-in period.  But how the various states do or don't brand titles is a whole different soapbox...

Never mind, I won't say it.

While the resolution is pending.....  (I will speak more to this later - after the deal is finalized)

I DO believe Mazda has a small responsibility in this fiasco.  Why would you not include drive type on the window invoice?   Now, not having the awd, that invoice likely does says awd, but the fwd car SHOULD say fwd.  Especially now that there are both available.  

It (the invoice) tells me hp, and torque... (whooppieeeee) but no drive type....  THIS needs to change.   Drive type should be part of the section, "Engine and Mechanical Features"

In reply to wae :

Easiest solution, if Mazda allows it, is to add it to your loaner fleet.  Those cars get driven, and in some states be sold on a new title.  

In reply to oldeskewltoy :

AWD is no small detail in my book. Do you ever see Subaru not crowing about it? Yeah, it should be pretty dang prominent. It’s probably one of the few options that help sell a car nowadays.

oldeskewltoy - Fingers crossed for you!

In all seriousness, it's possible it could have taken a different owner years to notice the lack of AWD.

In reply to Snrub :

My wife had a 1994 S10 Blazer with the floor 4WD shifter that 5 years down the road was quirky.  

When she thought it was in 4WD and the light was on it was still in 2WD.  Half if the 5 times she used it in the latter 5 years it wasn’t needed or used.  

Her 2003 Trailblazer was a 2WD version and she survived 15 Chicago winters.  

Of course my 2016 Silverado has 4WD.....

It's over...  for an additional $1120(97% of the Costco discount), we got the car we went in for in the first place.   They "traded-in" the FWD.   They can not undo the deal, there was 7 days, and about 300 miles.  They are "taking the loss" on the fwd car now being "used".    Speaking to that very briefly...  I seriously doubt this "loss" will affect their overall bottom line.  

My take on this was the salesperson is NOT at fault here - in my opinion the fault lies entirely with the "Sales Manager" who gave the Costco #s to the sales person.  He(the Sales Manager), was one of 4 contact people at that dealership, that was listed in the Costco letter as official contact at this dealership.  As he was the contact, he gave our salesperson our contact info, and the pricing with the Costco discount.   Not KNOWING, but my guess is HE missed the "AWD" at the end of the cars description in the Costco email

So... the numbers (MSRP) we got from our salesperson was actually a little higher(26,875) then the MSRP of the awd model($26.600) as listed on Mazda USA, but here is how the "Sales Manager" wiggled out of that one... but saying the number he gave us was "total MSRP", and not plain "MSRP"... get where this is going....  as that may/may not be... he can't overlook that it was HIS responsibility  to forward the information(pricing) of the AWD model(NOT the fwd model), and yet he didn't do that....

Now the gem as to why we were "happy" with the deal...  My wife booked an artist vacation for herself about 3 months back... it is important, and it began TODAY... with all this CRAP - by her having to go back to the dealer to swap the fwd, for the awd...and the previous few days of STRESS.    So do to circumstances... we were kind of forced(admittedly our "force") into accepting the $1120 more deal - OR having it hang over our heads, (her's while on vacation) AND needing a last minute rental car.....   

Part of the reason we decided to buy a new car was specifically for this trip... so she could focus on art...   

I was worried about talking too much on any media outlet, as was spoken in this thread a great deal - IF they had wanted to be hard A$$e$, we'd be stuck with the fwd model.... so all in all it could have been a lot worse.

Yes, Mr "Sales Manager" - YOU screwed up royally 

This is just another reason i cant see buying a new car. 

Glad its kinda over but yeah you kinda got screwed for someone else's mistake. 

I love when people want to be all poopoo about paying for their messups. Who berkin cares if your poor dealership has to take a loss, you’re the idiots that caused it! Enjoy the fruits of your mistake. 

oldeskewltoy said:

It's over...  for an additional $1120(97% of the Costco discount), we got the car we went in for in the first place.   They "traded-in" the FWD.   They can not undo the deal, there was 7 days, and about 300 miles.  They are "taking the loss" on the fwd car now being "used".    Speaking to that very briefly...  I seriously doubt this "loss" will affect their overall bottom line.  

 

My take on this was the salesperson is NOT at fault here - in my opinion the fault lies entirely with the "Sales Manager" who gave the Costco #s to the sales person.  He(the Sales Manager), was one of 4 contact people at that dealership, that was listed in the Costco letter as official contact at this dealership.  As he was the contact, he gave our salesperson our contact info, and the pricing with the Costco discount.   Not KNOWING, but my guess is HE missed the "AWD" at the end of the cars description in the Costco email

 

So... the numbers (MSRP) we got from our salesperson was actually a little higher(26,875) then the MSRP of the awd model($26.600) as listed on Mazda USA, but here is how the "Sales Manager" wiggled out of that one... but saying the number he gave us was "total MSRP", and not plain "MSRP"... get where this is going....  as that may/may not be... he can't overlook that it was HIS responsibility  to forward the information(pricing) of the AWD model(NOT the fwd model), and yet he didn't do that....

 

Now the gem as to why we were "happy" with the deal...  My wife booked an artist vacation for herself about 3 months back... it is important, and it began TODAY... with all this CRAP - by her having to go back to the dealer to swap the fwd, for the awd...and the previous few days of STRESS.    So do to circumstances... we were kind of forced(admittedly our "force") into accepting the $1120 more deal - OR having it hang over our heads, (her's while on vacation) AND needing a last minute rental car.....   

Part of the reason we decided to buy a new car was specifically for this trip... so she could focus on art...   

 

I was worried about talking too much on any media outlet, as was spoken in this thread a great deal - IF they had wanted to be hard A$$e$, we'd be stuck with the fwd model.... so all in all it could have been a lot worse.

 

Yes, Mr "Sales Manager" - YOU screwed up royally 

This is a pet peeve of mine (when it's CLEAR where the foul up was, and NOT taking responsibility for it).

I did business to business sales for a bit, so it's easier to do with a recurring customer (where you have a "relationship"), but if you berkeley it up, make it right for the person with whom you're doing business.  Somebody saying "yeah, they screwed up my order" keeps the person they're talking to from walking in to your establishment, and so on and so on.

When I was a kid, there was a mechanic on the corner not far from where a buddy of mine lived, never lacked for business.  Ever.  He did NO advertising of any kind.  I don't think he was even in the yellow pages (tells you how long ago it was).

In the days of social media and yelp, google ratings, etc..., you'd think "eating" a thousand bucks is cheap compared to the review on yelp and word of mouth (really all yelp is...) costing you ten cars that year and the margin that went with it as everybody goes to the dealer next town over.  

The problem is it goes against whoever got the paycheck for selling that car, so nobody wants to watch that go out the door.  I cling still to my foolish philosophy of better to let go of that money and keep getting my sales the remainder of that year, and next year, and so on.  I don't know how often car salesmen get referrals, so that thinking in this case might be wet behind the ears.

That said, glad you got the car you wanted!

In reply to Steve_Jones :

As a former sales guy, your sole job comes down to 2 things. 1. Getting them to sign. 2. Getting the paperwork right. If you screw that up its on you, the sales guy. I would fully expect to eat a mistake like that. Even if it is 'no haggle' sales, it is still your primary job, comission or not. A mistake as big as getting the car wrong is not incidental. Honoring your contract is as basic as it gets. Ethics, morals, religion, personal pride, corporate image, use whatever justification , just do the right thing. /rant

Overall, it seems like everyone got what they wanted. So in this case it is fine, but I will hesitate to consider costco for any car purchases in this light. 

I'll be honest, I'm not sure I understand what happened, but I would burn some sage in the car to clean the slate. So sorry this happened to you.

I haven't heard good things about Mazda dealers, but I suppose that's true of all dealers. 

In reply to Nugi :

The wife and I went through Costco for her Pacifica.  It was painless and we got exactly what we wanted.  Took it for a test drive, worked out the money aspect, inspected it thoroughly, signed the paperwork and drove it home.  No fuss, no muss or haggling.  Plus we got a 50% discount on parts/accessories so we bought WeatherTech mats for it from the dealer.

When I went to buy my Focus RS, I put a request in with the local dealership directly via their online form.  The Internet sales manager foisted me off to a newbie and they tried to show me around to look ar a generic Focus.  They didn't catch the RS part.  So in both cases, it wasn't that the proper information wasn't provided via the customer or broker, it was that it was completely ignored.  Once I explained to them what I wanted, he walked me through the same build page that I used, except they printed out the result and took it to the ordering person and I put $2K down to start the build process.

In reply to oldeskewltoy :

I might be a bit dense, but was the delta on top of what your agreed Costco price was for the AWD version (as in, did they charge you the Costco AWD price for an FWD car), or was that to make up for the "trade in" and price difference?

If you ended up basically paying over a grand on top of the AWD price to fix the dealer's mistake, I'd be having some quiet words with Costco. Chances are that they're not going to like this sort of berkeleyup, and Costco's referall program is (IIRC) the biggest "car dealer" in the US.

That said, having dealt with one of the "good" Mazda dealers out West and seen the interesting things they did with the paperwork on the ND, I'd have to pretend hard that this surprises me.

The interesting thing is that in my interaction with multiple Alfa/Maserati dealers, I've had none of that crap. There seems to be sound reasoning behind "if you want an Alfa, go to the Maserati dealer". Heck, I was waiting for the one I leased the Giulia from to pull a fast one when we had to redo the paperwork for it, but everything was a 100% kosher. Far be it from me to suggest that dealers for expensive cars that may have a clientele that has the money to engage lawyers try less hard to get one over you. Makes you wonder if that's also the case with the other higher-end brands.

I’d love to know if a certain Honda dealer lost sales due to a particular issue brought to light within the last few years.

(was that vague enough?)

In reply to ebonyandivory :

Hennessey? 

Hopefully the replacement car is similarly equipped and is the desired color.

nutherjrfan said:

In reply to ebonyandivory :

Hennessey? 

Ummmm, mayyyyybe....

Is there any badging on the car to show it is AWD?  I feel the OP shares some of the snafu here.