Freeman Honda

On July 21, 2007 we went in to Freeman Honda to test drive a Honda Ridgeline. The reviews on the truck are great and upon calling the dealership, had been told by the sales representative that there were sufficient incentives to get us out of a negative equity situation. We met with Justin, the Internet sales rep, and drove the truck. We loved it, but price and the negative equity on our existing car were an issue. After being passed along to James who knew more about the Ridgeline, we came to a sales price on the truck of $31,000 (with extras that my husband wanted) plus TTL. Because that was more than we thought (we understood that there were incentives as it is the end of the model year), we then asked them to evaluate the trade, hoping that if the trade came in higher than expected maybe we could buy the truck. They came back with an offer on trade of $15,000. As we would still be losing $4200 on our trade (and there were no incentives, apparently we were lied to on the phone), we left and decided to shop around. A week later we found out about the Costco auto buying program where Costco negotiates a discount off of MSRP in exchange for sending customers to the dealer. We contacted Freeman again (as they were one of the Costco-approved dealers in our area) and informed them that if the price was right we would buy from them. They were made aware of our trade situation and the Costco agent at Freeman asked us if our trade was already in the system. We indicated that we believed it was as we were made an offer on the trade the previous visit. We negotiated a price of $29000 (the truck itself was $27000, plus $2000 worth of options). We reminded them at every possible turn that we were planning on trading in our car for the previously negotiated rate and were told it was no problem. While we were at the dealership, I had started looking at other cars for myself. We were wondering if buying two cars at once would get a better deal on the second trade as we also are in a negative equity situation on the second car. Since we had both cars at the dealership the day we came in to negotiate the Costco price (August 2), we asked them to evaluate the newer of the two cars for a trade, for a possible second car purchase. The offer was ridiculously low so we indicated immediately that trading in the second car would not occur, unless they had some spectacular incentives on the particular model. The sales rep indicated that he would look into the incentives but again we stressed that we would not be trading in the second car unless some type of miracle occurred.We asked to demo the Ridgeline to make sure it was the car we wanted . This was no problem and we signed the necessary paperwork. We had our credit application ran and were given an interest rate, so the deal was basically done (we just had to decide and sign). Over the next day and a half , we tested itand after deciding on the car, we came back to Freeman Honda on Saturday, August 4. We called them before heading out to let them know we were going to go ahead with the purchase so that they could prepare the paperwork. When we arrived I knew almost immediately that there was a problem. James, our new sales rep, had worked with Mike to finalize the sale. He asked about the Trade and I said, “Yes, we are trading in the first car you evaluated as planned.” He looked confused but went back to the management area. He came back a few minutes later, “It appears some paperwork has been lost, please bear with us.” James then told us that his managers were confused, because they thought we were trading in the second car, and that the deal “doesn’t make any sense” if we are trading in the first car. We informed James that the plan was always to trade in the first car for this deal – that was the one they evaluated first, we just had them evaluate the second because it was there and to see if any deal existed . He said, “OK” and went back to the management area. A few minutes later,a manag