Mike
Radford,#2Consumer Suggestion
Sat, February 14, 2004
In the new car business, once a deal is done, the dealer never has anything to do with your payments. They always "sell the loan" to a bank or finance company. In this case, the bank is owned by Chrysler, but it is not part of your local dealer. Even though it's a lease, the bank paid the dealer the full price of the truck soon after you took it. To the dealer, it's just as if you had bought it instead of leased it. He has no financial interest in your truck any more. It's been paid for; they took the money (after skimming off ill-gotten profit) and used it to buy another truck from the factory to sell or lease to the next guy. If you were to keep the truck until the end of the lease and then return it to the dealer, the dealer then has to pay the bank a pre-determined amount. He's willing to do that because he's confident he can sell the used truck for more than that amount. (If the truck isn't in showroom ready condition when you return it, they'll come after you for more money. This is the great pitfall in leasing, besides it just generally not being a good deal overall). If you'd rather keep the truck forever, the bank is usually willing to accomodate that, for the right price. So now, whether you keep the truck or not is between you and Chrysler Financial. If you ask Chrysler Financial how much they want to pay off the truck (sounds like it's $33,000 and change) and send them that amount, then they will send you the title and your truck will be all paid for-- completely in your name. Meanwhile, you seem to have given the dealer the impression you want to buy a new truck. Maybe they think you want to have two trucks or you want to have a brand new one instead of the one you have. If you just ask a dealer "What's the price of a new truck like this one?" they're going to quote a high number like the full sticker price and then some, figuring you're ready to pay anything, or counter-offer a lower price. It seems they aren't playing the car dealer rip-off shuffle very well. They've let two very confused people with apparent access to a large sum of money just drift in and out the door several times without buying anything. At this point, it sounds like the dealer doesn't know what to do with you any more. If you want to pay off and keep the truck you have, which is what I assume is the situation, you don't need them at all. Get an updated payoff quote from Chrysler Financial and ask them where to send the money.