Goldglv

I will try and make this as short as possible without leaving any important points out. I picked up my new TL at the end of May, I traded in a 2002 Lexus IS300. I initially went down to the dealer on April 20th. On the way down there I stopped at the Lexus dealer that I originally bought the car from. The GM took a look at my car and initially offered me 19K for it. I had after market rims on the car. He asked if I had the original stock rims, I said yes and I would give them to him, he then kicked up the price to 20K.

I told him I was going down the road to Acura to look at a TL, he said that they buy cars from each other all the time and to tell the GM there that he wants to buy my car from them if I trade it in. The used car guy tells me that he really likes the car and wants to seel it on his own, he agrees to give me 20K on the trade-in, NO talk of rims at all.

So I go, pick up my new TL over a month later, drop off my IS300 and start to enjoy my TL. The very next day I get a call from the used car manager saying he wants the stock rims that came on my IS300. He then accused me of bringing the car down on April 20th with the stock rims on and then putting these after market rims on when I brought the car down in May. He continued to accuse me of switching the rims out, not letting up. He wanted to know where the stock rims were, I told him I didn't have them(I did still have them in my basement). So later he called me back and said if he didn't get the stock rims that they weren't going to process my motor vehicle paperwork. I was transferring my registration.

At that point, I let a few choice words fly and told him to kiss my ass and hung up on him. He then left me a message saying to bring the car back and pick up my IS300. At that point, I called the GM at Lexus and he confirmed that I brought my IS300 down to him WITH the after market rims on the car.

So I called the GM over at Acura and spoke to him about the situation. He seemed like a nice guy and after talking to a few members of my family about the situation, I agreed to give them the stock rims. I know, now I regret it but they were nasty 16" rims that I tried selling before and couldn't get any bids on them. So I told the GM I would bring the rims down on Friday. I got down there and supposedly the GM left sick that day, I left a message with the Assistant Manager for him to call me the next day.

Well, you guessed it, he never called. About 2 1/2 weeks went by and I finally called back. He said that he did get the rims I dropped off and he's sorry he couldn't call me back but him and his wife just had another baby or something. What bullshit. So I asked him what happened to the after market rims that I had on my Lexus. He gave me the "I don't know" line and I told him I wanted them back. So he said he'd look into it and I should call him back the next day at 10am and he'll have an answer for me. I called and he still didn't know, then he has the balls to ask me to call him back in 30 min. I told him I was sick of calling there and he should call me when he gets an answer. He gave me an attitutde and took my number down.

Well, it's been 3 days and I haven't heard back from him. I was being as patient as possible because I still didn't get my registration. I literally just got it today, my temp expired 3 days ago. So now that I have my reg and they can't screw me over with anything, I want your guys opinions on what I should do. I have never gone through so much garbage in buying a new car. I want to drive my TL right through the showroom on to his desk and ask him where my rims are!!!

I tried doing the right thing here, being the nice guy and look where it gets you, right? Once the papers were signed I should have just blown everyone off and not even talked to anyone at the dealer. Your guys input would be appreciated. Sorry this was so long.

njtls

why couldnt you just swap the rims before you traded the car in?

Goldglv

Because the acura dealer made no mention of the stock rims. I figured why should I pay to get the stock rims put back on if I was trading the car in. If he would have asked me for the stock rims when I traded it in, I would have just given them to him. What pissed me off was when he accused me of switching the rims out, which I never did.

caball88

didn't you agree to give him the stock rims in the first place? i am not quite following the beginning. to me it seems as tho you agreed to give him your aftermarket and stocks rims with the car for 20K, but then you never gave him your stock rims.

Goldglv

caball,

Sorry for the confusion. No, I never agreed to give him the stock rims. I agreed to give the stock rims to the Lexus dealer but no mention of the stock rims ever came up with Acura. The guy at Acura said he wanted to sell the car on his own and he wasn't going to sell it to the Lexus dealer down the road.

The guy at Acura looked at my car when I brough it in on April 20th and didn't say a word about the rims. Like I said earlier, then the guy at Acura accused me of switching the rims out when I always had the after market rims on the car.

Flanagan

http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/showp...51&postcount=4

^ditto

Lore

The horror! That's not worth the pain your car would suffer! I would go in on a Saturday (so you don't have work or anything to worry about) and talk to the used car manager and have him produce your rims or produce a check for the market value of the rims + tires for you right there.

Whenever I conduct high value business transactions I ALWAYS have a contract or some sort of paperwork describing the goods/services being exchanged. Assuming you don't have something like this, it really becomes a "he said, she said" situation. Your best bet is to make it very clear to the used car manager that they will produce the rims right there on the spot, a check for the rims + tires, or you will file a case in small claims court. Hopefully you have some paperwork, emails, faxes, etc, to back your claim.

6mtV6

Acura of Ocean is as worse as Paragon.

ike4

Although Acura of Ocean is by far the closest dealer to my home I decided to buy my TL elsewhere (Bridgewater) after their salesman repeatedly warn me that I would not be able to have the car serviced there if I did not buy it there. I know that this is a bunch of BS since service departments really don't care where the car was purchased. However, if the sales guy is going to jerk me around from the very start, then I want nothing to do with them. I would not buy a used bicycle from Acura of Ocean!

VQ35DE

Wow, you came all the way to Bridgewater from Middletown. You skipped right past East Brunswick Acura on Rt 18.

Anyway, it sucks that they're putting the screws to you Gold. I hope it works out for you. BTW: Maybe you want to send a complaint letter to Acura about this dealer; you never know what may come of it.

Peace.

Goldglv

Thanks for the advice, actually just spoke to the GM there yesterday about my rims. Basically he was a total a**hole and said that "unfortunately when your car was wholesaled, we couldn't get your original rims back." So I told him I wanted compensation for the rims since they were $170 per rim. He said he wasn't going to do anything at all. He said I should have made arrangements to get my old rims back when I dropped them off. I explained to him that he left early the night I came down and he admitted to getting all of my messages but just didn't call me back. So I told him i was going to take him to court to get some money back for the rims he TOOK. He said he didn't care what I did and that was it.

I'm in the middle of filing the appropriate papers for small claims court right now. I'm not letting him get away with this. Everyone, do yourselves a favor and stay away from this dealer. I'll keep you guys updated on what comes out of this whole thing.

Aspector Gadget

From what I read you said to the manager, "I agreed to give them the stock rims." Not trade, give. At what point did you tell the GM you wanted your aftermarket wheels back in trade for your stock rims? If you didn't say anything about getting them back until after the 2.5 weeks since you dropped off the rims, during which time you were out of communication with the dealer, then I'd say you are S.O.L.

What are you expecting to get from small claims court? You sold the car with the aftermarket rims, you can prove you did not switch them, you have the Lexus guy to back you up. You then GAVE your stock rims to the dealer without any paperwork explaining that it was a trade. If you are going to court to get the value of the aftermarket rims and tires, I think you will lose. You MAY be able to get the value of the stock rims, but thats a big MAY.

I understand you being upset about what happened, and obviously they are at fault, but getting the court to recognize that will be difficult. I hope it is worth it...

Perhaps a call to the Better Business Burearu will be cheaper and might get the desired effect.

VQ35DE

Good point Aspector. If this wasnt clearly spelled out in writing, it may be an uphill battle in court. The BBB is a great idea and has been know to have a positive effect (if not immediate) and the NJ Dept of Consumer Affairs is another alternative. Both parties DO conduct their own investigations.

I hope you at least get a settlement in return for your grief Gold. Also, enjoy your new TL anyway.

moat

I just moved to Shark River Hills.... And I need my 2nd trans of the year. The first one was done at home in RI at Inskip Acura, with exceptional service. I was in no way inconveinienced at all, as I should not be for ANY major warranty issues.... BUt moving to Acura of Ocean is a horror show. I talk to three different people there about sending my car in for service. It has 98K on it and both of my warranties will be up soon. And each person at Ocean got progressively worse to deal with, the Service Manager head douchebag was the worst. I wanted to drive right through those f'ing glass doors and park right up his ass.... I was nice as can be, inquiring about a free loaner, as should be the case for the 2nd trans of the year... I also mentioned that I just moved locally and was interested in a new TL...and still he told me "well, maybe you should go somewhere else if you want a loaner..." what a-holes....

BdasAcuraTL

i think people need to start calling Acura Customer Service and complain about this dealership...

cvajs

go down there and explain the situation to the CRM (customer relations manager). ask for your other rims back. if they cannot produce them then contact BBB or local Consumer Affairs office, follow the procedures.

if BBB or CA cannot help resolve the issue, then file a small claims suit.

automata

I don't understand why, when the Acura dealer asked for the stock rims, you didn't ask for the afterwarket wheels in exchange? There's a chance the aftermarket wheels were taken off the car before it was sold and someone at the dealer kept them. I have a friend who used to work in car sales and he told me that that stuff happened all the time. Although I wouldn't go accusing the dealer of doing just that since you have no proof.

I'm sorry but it seems to me that you don't have a claim over those wheels. When you traded your car in, they accepted the car as is, so they had no claim over the stock wheels. Unless they accused you of misreprsentation. But how can you misrepresent something like aftermarket wheels wich are plainly visable. You should have asked for the wheels back when they asked for the stock ones or no deal. Or, you should've agreed to bring the TL back, I'm sure they would have changed their story for the sake of not loosing a sale. Good luck in court, although, I don't think you'll get anything there.

berlinrl

You may want to share that you posted the information here with the GM of the dealer. I'm
sure he'll lose a few sales as a result of your posting this situation on the board . . . he may
want to 'make this thing go away' with a few hundred dollars.

Goldglv

The aftermarket rims were STILL on the car when I brought the stock rims down there so I couldn't get them at that point. I SPECIFICALLY asked the GM if he'd be there the night I brought the rims down and he said "YES". I told him I wanted to speak to him when I came down there and he said ok. As you probably read, he left early that night so I never saw him. I left him a written msg to call me back first thing the next day and I never heard from him. When I did get him on the phone he told me that he DID get my msg but he's been busy so he hasn't had time to call me back. So I tried talking/contacting him about getting my rims back but he never returned my calls, what was I supposed to do about that? It's obvious that he PURPOSELY didn't call me back after I left him messages, not a very professional thing to do. I left the rims there that night because this dealer was very far away from me and I was going away that weekend and I wasn't going to cut my trip short to drive back the next morning. I didn't think he'd just take both sets of rims, I NEVER said I would GIVE him the stock rims.

Bottom line is that scumbag GM was being all professional with me UNTIL he got what he wanted. Looking back now I should have just told the guy to f*ck off when he called me, there was NOTHING they could have done at that point, everything was signed. But I'm not that type of person. I figured I'd do the stand up thing and just exchange the rims. It's pieces of sh*t like that GM down there that make buying a car such a hassle.

I think MOAT and I should take a little ride down there and set some people straight...