Long Island Chevy Dealer sells '02 Malibu for $13,900 to an autistic 25y/o (Updated!)

[paul8488]

Did the delaership know he was autistic? As they said, he had everything in order to buy a car... not something you might typically expect for an autistic person.

What rubs me is that after they found out they didn't reverse the deal... THAT'S low. Selling an '02 Malibu for $13,900 to a person who has the financing and is readily willing to buy it isn't the issue here... it's not having the decency to reverse the deal once it was discovered that he wasn't capable of making such a decision.

[unkillsam]

Originally Posted by CobaltSScrazy

unchecked unregulated unfair cut-throat capitalism at its finest! (eyeroll)

Give me FAIR TRADE and FAIR CAPITALISM with EVERYONE playing by the rules instead of this free trade garbage where everyone else bolsters their economy at the expense of ours...

until that occurs, abuses like this will continue unfortunately. Some people have a very poor soul and are worse than ebineeezer screwge

CobaltSS

What are they teaching you in college? Does the government have the right to just step in and reverse contracts that are deemed unfair?

The parents can take the dealer to court and let a judge decide. Your so-called "fair capitalism" is just socialism in another guise.

[MelvinJ]

Originally Posted by asim

Man, they really jacked up the price of that car. I bought an '02 Malibu for CHEAPER than that NEW.

I got my sister an '02 Malibu with 44k miles in September '03 for $6900 on eBay. The $8550 they dropped the price to is still close to double the car's true market value IMO, and the original price is more than 3 times what it's worth. Selling ANYONE a car for triple what it's worth, even if you are legally entitled to do so, is something that's going to come back and bite you in the ass eventually.

[solman98]

Originally Posted by paul8488

Did the delaership know he was autistic?

Ever been around an autistic person? Remember the movie Rainman?

I have two nephews that are autistic, their conditions are like totaly opposite of each other, but you can tell they are not "right". Unless this was a extremely mild form of autisim, they knew. They took advantage of him. I would get this plastered all over the local news there.

[goblue]

Originally Posted by unkillsam

What are they teaching you in college? Does the government have the right to just step in and reverse contracts that are deemed unfair?

The parents can take the dealer to court and let a judge decide. Your so-called "fair capitalism" is just socialism in another guise.

While I agree with you it may not be appropriate for the gov't to throw this one out - I also think it would be great to live in a country where this sort of thing just doesn't happen. So - I'll punt it back to you - I assume you don't think this was "right" - how should we as a society go about encouraging / protecting people from getting taken advantage of who lack the capacity to make sound decisions?

[GMCdriver]

Originally Posted by goblue

While I agree with you it may not be appropriate for the gov't to throw this one out - I also think it would be great to live in a country where this sort of thing just doesn't happen. So - I'll punt it back to you - I assume you don't think this was "right" - how should we as a society go about encouraging / protecting people from getting taken advantage of who lack the capacity to make sound decisions?

Stop electing them to public office for starters.

[Uzzy]

Originally Posted by solman98

Ever been around an autistic person? Remember the movie Rainman?

I have two nephews that are autistic, their conditions are like totaly opposite of each other, but you can tell they are not "right". Unless this was a extremely mild form of autisim, they knew. They took advantage of him. I would get this plastered all over the local news there.

There's many different forms of autism, as I'm sure you know. Not all are very apparant. I'm sure they get weirder people in there that buy cars without having any sort of recognized behaviour disorder. BUT no matter who the customer is, or what, if anything, is wrong with them...selling them a 2002 Malibu for twice what it's worth is CROOKED!

[coaster.n3rd]

Originally Posted by GMCSonoma

If I was the competing GM store in the area, I'd contact that kid & pay off his term on that Malibu...

+1

I would certainly do what I could to help the guy. It is hard to tell if he was taken advantage of because he had Autism though.

I worked very closely with Autism in high school. Those affected by Autism can vary from not being able to communicate to fully functioning and showing little to know signs of having the disease. 3 of the students in the program I volunteered for are fully licensed to drive with no restrictions.

[atomicshark]

I had a feeling this story was about Hustedt when I read that is was a Chevy dealer on Long Island.

They really are a shady operation.

Here is what I said about Hustedt in an older post:
"Personally I had a horrible experience with Hustedt Chevrolet. I had just negotiated a final price on a new Impala with the salesperson and her manager, so things looked great. When I went into financing things went south fast. The finance guy told me they could not sell me the car at the agreed upon price! He wanted to either raise the interest rate or tack on a couple of thousand to the bottom line. Needless to say I had him reimburse my GM Card points and I left.

GM really needs to try and reign these guys in. They can and have really hurt GM's image.

I would love to see a poll asking how many people ended up getting a competitors car due to poor dealer practices.

A year later in 2004 those points came in handy when I bought my GTO from King O'Rourke in Port Jeff Station. That was a good experience and the service has been quite good there."

It is disheartening to see that Hustedt has not changed at all in the five years since I've dealt with them.

[paul8488]

Car dealers can't and shouldn't be expected to detect mild cases of autism. I don't agree that it's normal to sell car for double it's book value, but I am not certain that they took advantage of this guy because he has autism... they took advantage of him because he was willing to pay over 13 grand for an '02 Malibu. I still maintain that they should have returned his money once they found out, but if he's not capable of making such decisions the people that are aware of this might have to start helping him out more.

[unkillsam]

Originally Posted by goblue

While I agree with you it may not be appropriate for the gov't to throw this one out - I also think it would be great to live in a country where this sort of thing just doesn't happen. So - I'll punt it back to you - I assume you don't think this was "right" - how should we as a society go about encouraging / protecting people from getting taken advantage of who lack the capacity to make sound decisions?

That is what court's are for.

Court's protect mentally handicapped people from being im-properly prosecuted when they commit a crime.

I am sure that a law similar to that can be legislated so that there are escape clauses for people so they can sue if they are taken advantage of in a business agreement.

Or perhaps there can be some form of guaranteed waiting period, such as a week, where the contract can be torn up if it is deemed unfair. A law like this applies to door-to-door sales.

However, it is not the goverment's role to individually tear up contracts between 2 parties, that is un-constitutional.

[unkillsam]

Originally Posted by Uzzy

There's many different forms of autism, as I'm sure you know. Not all are very apparant. I'm sure they get weirder people in there that buy cars without having any sort of recognized behaviour disorder. BUT no matter who the customer is, or what, if anything, is wrong with them...selling them a 2002 Malibu for twice what it's worth is CROOKED!

I met an autistic pizza delivery man at a Pontiac dealership about 1 year ago.

He bought a new Pontiac every 3 years as soon as the warranty ran out. He was the dealerships best customer, and always paid in cash with his tip money.

Is the dealership being irresponsible? I don't know. But it is a fine line.

[Uzzy]

Originally Posted by unkillsam

I met an autistic pizza delivery man at a Pontiac dealership about 1 year ago.

He bought a new Pontiac every 3 years as soon as the warranty ran out. He was the dealerships best customer, and always paid in cash with his tip money.

Is the dealership being irresponsible? I don't know. But it is a fine line.

Do you mean the Pontiac dealer being irresposible? Certainly not. I'm happy for the guy that pay cash for his car every 3 years, that's great! If that's what he wants to do, then that's what he wants to do. Now, if the Pontiac dealer was charging double for those cars, no matter the mental state of the buyer, they are being irresponsible.

This Chevy dealer should have known there was a problem when they sold the stupid 2002 Malibu for over $13,000! How did they even get to that number?

[espo19047]

Originally Posted by MelvinJ

I got my sister an '02 Malibu with 44k miles in September '03 for $6900 on eBay. The $8550 they dropped the price to is still close to double the car's true market value IMO, and the original price is more than 3 times what it's worth. Selling ANYONE a car for triple what it's worth, even if you are legally entitled to do so, is something that's going to come back and bite you in the ass eventually.

He must of had a bigger down payment. How else would that car book out? What bank would take that deal? Something is not right...

[TheGeneral]

20/80 Rule

20% of the dealerships causing 80% of the problems.

This dealership is in the top 1% though!