I have a hopefully a quick question for your guys. My girlfriend bought a new Scion TC on 3/12. They told her at the dealership that she qualified for a 5% finance rate. She signed the contract for that rate, and all was fine until yesterday. Yesterday (4/, the dealership called and told her that they made a mistake, and that Scion has a pre-set finance rate of 5.1%, and that they want her to come in and sign a new contract. According to the back of the contract, they have only 10 days to notify the buyer if they fail to secure the agreed upon finance rate. Now, I know the difference is not significant, but I am wondering what options my girlfriend has. What happens if she refuses to sign the new contract? Is the original still valid and she pays the agreed upon finance rate? If she agrees to sign the new contract, should she ask for some kind of compensation? Thanks for any advice.

 

Oh thats weird, I got qualified for 6.5 few days before I got mine at the dealership, then on the DAY I sign the contract they told me they are giving me for 5.2! Of course I said COOL!

 

As far as I know, 5.1% is the lowest Toyota offers without a special deal. I know they couldn't get me any lower when I financed and I have an excellent credit history and score.

 

4.65 is Toyota's lowest. I got 4.85% on my xB

I would demand some type of letter FROM scion/toyota financial service, telling you why your interest rate was changed.

I wouldn't sign anything until I had a good reason behind it.

 

Show them the contract. It's outside of 10 days. They really don't have a leg to stand on here. But to someone who doesn't read the contract they have them walking in the door ready to sign a new set of docs. Put it this way they are "taking a shot" Legally they can't do anything but if you on your own free will come in and sign the doc it's a different story

 

I signed my contract on 3/22 with 4.8% financing. Signed a new one today that lowered my payments a few dollars.

 

i got 5.1%

 

i got 5.40%

 

i went with my bank after TFS pulled that ____ on me.. ended up with 4.2% through my bank much better of anyway so it was fate

 

Seems to be a common move lately from the dealer's finance dept, sounds fishy to me. I would call the place where your loan is financed thru and ask them if there's a problem. Remind them of the terms of the SIGNED contract you have...

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55858

 

I got 4.45% back in november. You should definitely fight the change. I know its just 0.1% increase, but its the principle of it. If it says in fine print 10 days, then dont give them a penny more. This is exactly why I hate car dealerships. They try to play too many games.

 

They aren't allowed to jack up the interest rate on you if you qualify for a certain range.

They should have all of the Scion interest rates posted near the accessories and if they get caught messing with your interest rates they could have their franchise taken away.

On another note, the lowest Toyota can go right now is 4.8% as the rates were changing the day after I signed my contract. I got 4.7%. It all depends on what the federal rate is.

I would call Scion directly and tell them they are messing with you. Go over top.

 

i bought on jan 13th and got 3.5% rate.

 

At the dealership I went to they gave me a seperate piece of paper to sign. They called it a "promissory note." Basically the paper said that if for whatever reason the loan application didn't go through (you don't really borrow from toyota; they assign a bank to take on the loan) that they could demand the entire balance within 30 days OR reassign the loan to any bank they want for any terms they want!!!

I refused to sign that ____ and I had the guy so flustered that he ripped up the paper in front of me.

After my first car buying experience I have determined that car dealership people are some of the worst kind of scammers out there. The moral of the story is to read what you sign! I work with a guy that bought a hyundai and the literally changed the sticker price from the point of negotiation to the contract, but guess what? he signed it so he had to pay the extra...

 

Oh but they do. I had a very similar experience. The financing _______ tried to change the loan term from 60 months to 72 months without stating so and conveniently keeping the monthly payment the same in the hope I didn't notice. That's like an extra $4,000 plus of pure interest and a rate of something over 10%. Simply unbelieveable. Did I mention this is with my dad cosigning the loan and that he has a FICO over 800? If i didn't really want that particular car I would have walked out of there several times

 

Maybe she should return the call and say she doesn't want to pay the extra .1%, so she'll just bring the car back in.

 

Thanks for the responses. She is going to call the dealership today and demand a few things. First of all, if they want to write a new contract, then she wants the $400 college grad discount included this time. She forgot about it last time. That itself will more than make up for the difference. Also, she wants some free accessories because she has to drive down there, and the dealership is not close. If they give her these things, then she will sign the new contract. If not, it's time for a call to Scion. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

When I resigned my contract, the dealer drove 1.5 hours from MA to CT to get my signature. No way in hell I am going to drive to them to correct their mistakes.

Make the dealer work for your girlfriend signature.

 

My dealer here in Maryland was really cool! I have had some credit problems years ago and I was able to buy the tC at 10.5% on a Saturday. They called me at work the following Monday and told me they had a better rate for me. I ended up with 4.9% and am paying almost 1/2 the interest for the car. Now I can't wait to pay this off!! I have never owned a new car before, so payments are a little strange!

 

3.9% oer 5 years.