[giancarlo]

Hello,

I apologize in advance if this is not the best forum to post this, I currently don't have much recourse but to file a law suit.

I bought a new STi several years ago, from an official dealer in Europe (I will provide full details via email or PM), two years later, I returned the car in excellent condition and under 10K miles on the clock for sale. I had to leave the country and left the car with him, thinking this was an OFFICIAL dealership I could at least provide them some degree of trust, I signed a simple form allowing him to sell the car. Months later I contacted him for an update, he said the car was sold several months ago and that he was unable to contact me because he lost my telephone number, he also lost my bank account details. Most probably the first two lies, if true, that would still be very unprofessional.

He came up with a horrible excuse saying he traded another subaru in, gave mine away and was given extra money to settle the deal. That subaru he traded in and later sold (all this in a matter of several months) had its *ENTIRE* engine go boom during a test drive to a potential customer, even though it passed his inspection prior to going through with the deal. This is also most likely quite inaccurate.

So now according to him, he lost lots of money (as if I should care) and is unwilling to pay me for the full value of the car.

So far, after months of telephone calls, he has paid one third of the value (and that is of a very pessimistic and low value), he will no longer answer my telephone calls nor return calls left with the operator at the dealership.

I have not given him any authorization to sell my car away in some strange trade-in deal. He did not receive permission from me to sell, at any price, neither verbally nor written, aside from the transfer document. He made a judgement call, probably looking to maximize his profit, and it exploded in his face. Again, he should not have sold to anyone, even at a good price, without my explicit OK to proceed.

I clearly made a horrible mistake of signing any document at all. Any official Subaru dealership should most definitely not behave this way.

I am looking to notify Subaru Japan of these negligent, unethical and possibly criminal practices of one of their authorized dealers. It cannot be accepted that such an enterprise would continue operating under the Subaru flag while cheating its loyal customers in such a blatent manner.

If anyone knows of a contact to which I can convey the full details of the story including any documentation that may be required, please let me know by pm or email.

Thank you

[Spoolin415]

Originally Posted by giancarlo

.... I signed a simple form allowing him to sell the car. Months later I contacted him for an update, he said the car was sold several months ago and that he was unable to contact me because he lost my telephone number, he also lost my bank account details. Most probably the first two lies, if true, that would still be very unprofessional.

... He did not receive permission from me to sell, at any price, neither verbally nor written, aside from the transfer document.

Which is it? If you signed something allowing him to sell the car and said document didn't inculde specific sale criteria you may be SOL.

Contact a lawyer, IWSTI isn't going to be able to speak for you in court, which is where I see this mess going.

Good luck.

[giancarlo]

For now I'm screwed, that is for sure.

However, I don't believe Subaru, or any other company who respects itself, would want to have dealers that give them a bad name.

This is one rotten apple that should not be allowed to continue his practices and screw over innocent and loyal customers.

[bytor]

Originally Posted by giancarlo

For now I'm screwed, that is for sure.

However, I don't believe Subaru, or any other company who respects itself, would want to have dealers that give them a bad name.

This is one rotten apple that should not be allowed to continue his practices and screw over innocent and loyal customers.

Judging by your screen name, I'm going to guess this was in Italy. If it happened to be England, let me know, as I spend a lot of business time in London. Having only just now read your thread, I don't have any ideas how I can help, but if we can think of something and my physical presence at the dealership can help, I'll be happy to do so.

I have no idea of the difference in European law vs. US law in a matter like this, but in the States if you handed the car over to a dealer to sell on consignment, a minimum acceptable price typically would've been specified, with them calling you if a potential deal were below your minimum. And that they took a bad car in on trade would be their problem; not yours. Despite the trade-in blowing up later and proving to be pretty worthless, it was given a value at trade-in time and your payment for the car should be based on that, not what the car later proved to really be worth.

I'm slowly getting educated on this stuff myself as I've got a large motorhome that I'm considering either putting in a national rental fleet or selling on consignment (I've found I don't use it often enough to justify keeping it unless I convert it into an income-producer), and I know if the dealership sells it on consignment, I have to personally approve any deal that would net me less than the minimum I'd specify in the consignment agreement.

[giancarlo]

bytor, that's exactly how I should have explained it, well put. English is not my primary language and I find it difficult to express myself eloquently in so few words.

I will proceed by any legal means possible. But such a corrupt individual should not be allowed to run an official dealership, this is what I am really getting at.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[giancarlo]

I might add that the minimum (or acceptable) price was verbally discussed and agreed. It was also verbally agreed that I would clearly be notified before any deal may happen -- obviously.