Hey,

So the "Offer to Lease" that both myself and the dealer signed said my extra mileage would be 0 cents/km - a mistake by the dealer when he printed it off. They emailed me a new one that has the correct 12c/km (I assume it's preset by Acura). Presumably they will want me to sign this new one when I take possession.

What's the law around this?

 

IANAL

When you take possession of the car the original agreement would be destroyed and a new one will be signed. This happened to me when I first took the "extended warranty" then after thinking it over a bit more as the days passed I request it to be removed.

Just keep BOTH copies for your records if anything is disputed when you return it.

"The preceding statements SHALL NOT be take as official legal advice."
Matt

 

The law states the the buyer has the right to terminate the contract if a mistake was made on the dealer's part. People try to swindle the dealer by claiming they will get a lawyer if they don't stick with the original document, by asking a lower lease rate since the mile fee went up. In the US, the fee per mile over a set mileage over your lease rate is usually 25-30 cents.

Now, if it were me, I would go to talk to the dealer and ask how they would feel if I did something of the equivalent(in a nice tone), because, in the end, a deal where there is no over-milage fees is A WHOLE LOT better than one that has fees. If they are on your side, they will offer you something, because, you technically don't have to put up with new negotiation. A similar thing happened to us a few years ago with the Honda Odyssey, though, we had the car for about 2 weeks before they noticed the problem with the finance papers. The "new" contract didn't make a difference in payments, so we didn't really care about it, but the problem was that to create the new finance paperwork, we had to redo the credit report/check(needless credit checking is bad for your credit score). We've been very loyal to that dealer, and they offered the DVD package for free for putting up with this. That's what I would look out for.

If, after driving your TSX, you still like what you are paying for it, I wouldn't care much about the fees/new contract. I would be also as nice to the dealer as you can be, because from my experience, treating your dealer nice means you will get the same in return

 

EDIT: I just remembered that there are different contract laws for every state. They usually abide by the same guidelines though, since most of these laws are set up to protect the consumer-seller relationship.

 

Do you think it would be worth trying to get some mats or something?

I'm looking at the Accessories page and there are a few things that look interesting...steering wheel garnish - what is that exactly?

 

If it was a typo and you had agreed to the 12 cent number during negotiation, then IMHO it would be disingenuous to try to get something from the dealer. It's like if I agreed to buy my car for $30k, and on the contract a typo was made and it showed $3k.

 

If you attempt to get something from the dealer in an attempt to "make them help you" you'd be wise not to visit that dealer for service. Simply put don't nickel/dime the dealer, they made a mistake, just get the car and *maybe* they will take care of you for being a good sport.

 

+1 on mkeefe's advice. I mean you made the decision to lease so the mileage restrictions must have factored into that decision, right? What, are you going to drive it 10,000 extra km's because you can, now?

 

go to your dealer, agree to sign the new contract. but let him know that this is goin to hurt your credit score because they have to resubmit the credit check. just let him know your a little upset, but don't make it into a huge deal

 

Thanks for the integrity-answers guys.

Pyro...why would my credit have to be re-checked?

 

these people are tooo nice. id make these guys pay for their mistake. but then again, I'm an asshole.

 

If you did the deal less than 30 days ago it will not count as another inquiry. However it *can* so make sure first.

Each time a loan document is generated most systems require a credit check so a dealer/company couldn't skip that step, though its not always the case.

Matt

 

Credit will not be pulled a second time. Your credit report is already on their computer whether you lease a car or not. Signing the contract or when has nothing to do with it. As for the extra cost, you could try to get the dealer to eat the cost or at least meet you halfway.

I'd say my treatment would depend on how they treated you. Did they work up the numbers solely on payment amounts, or were you negotiating an actual price worked into their standard residual value, money factor, & mileage? If they treated you like a Chevy dealer focusing mainly on the payment, then you should do the same and say that you agreed to ___ payment. If they tried being transparent and worked on the sale price of the car, you should be amicable to pay the full increase or at least in between. There's no reason to be a jerk because of an honest mistake. The F&I person has negative benefit from doing this. No profit, and has to work on fixing the mistake.

 

they made a mistake-what would you do if they had a certain higher amountfor overage on km/mileage and told you they made the mistake and want to lower it.

 

Right, the gate swings both ways on this. Right now you may feel like you are in the position to take advantage, but one day it may be the dealer telling you "hey, you made a mistake."

Would you expect their mercy?

 

Dealers seldom make mistakes. They often "accidentally" create an incorrect document that needs to be "corrected" after the papers are signed.
In this case the question is "what did you negotiate?"

If you expected and negotiated extra free miles then that's what you should get. If you expected and negotiated a fixed mileage lease then that's what you should get and the dealer really did make a paperwork mistake.

 

Never hurts to ask