Rich Morton Mazda

On 6 April my wife and I visited Rich Morton's Mazda with the intention of test driving a 2021 Passport. I believe it was priced on the website for $29k but had been listed on the lot for two years. We had found a similar vehicle in Frederick for $24k and we were hopeful that a motivated local seller and a similar price point would result in a sale of this Passport for $25k. We were upfront that we were looking for that price and had the cash to buy today. We test drove the vehicle with our salesman Joshua. With the sale price and our expected price differing so much, he had to confer with his manager. There were many back and forth conversations, but the outcome was an agreement of $25k, out the door, but we would need to finance it. The manager requested that we make payments for 3 months before paying off the vehicle in order for the dealership to get credit for financing. We were told that the vehicle needed to be reinspected after having sat so long, but we eventually were brought to the financing office to meet with Lenny. We were presented with a few pieces of paper, none of which were the loan agreement. We were told that the dealership would shop the loan and we would receive electronic agreements to sign. This was stated as a practice in place since COVID. We did sign a statement that Mazda had the right to negatively impact our credit in the event of loan non-payment, but we were never presented with a contract or a written price. We asked Lenny to check his system to be sure that the financing was still $25k and he did. He confirmed in the office that the price was $25k. We signed for the plates and were asked not to date the MVA paperwork, but nothing money related was given to us or signed. We left the office with nothing in writing with regard to the price or the loan, only assurances that electronic paperwork would be forthcoming. We were, of course, uneasy. We brought the Passport home that day and drove it until the 19th of April. We received a truth in lending notice from Mazda credit showing a total of $47,768 with interest of $13,267 which totaled a purchase price of $34,5001. After discussion between us, we drove to the dealership to deconflict the numbers, our expectation of financing $25k and Mazda's loan of $34,501. We spoke with the manager on duty and Lenny. Both initially thought that the difference could be explained by tax, title, and tags, but after discussion, we all concluded that the numbers were too far apart for that. My wife and I both agreed that even if we had misunderstood about taxes, title, and tags, we would have paid the difference, but the gap between the agreed upon price and financed price was too large to be explained. Tax, title and tag for $25k would have been, worst case, 25000 x 1.06 +100 title+ 225 tags + 500 dealer processing or $27,325. The manager on duty, and Lenny were unable to verify how much had been financed, explaining that they were unable to query the financing system without assistance of staff members that were not onsite. They recommended that we return on Monday to discuss with the appropriate staff members. This leaves us with a question. How was a loan taken out in our names for a dollar figure that was neither conveyed to us, agreed upon by us, or signed for by us? We are confident this is a mistake and look forward to clearing this up Monday, but the outcome remains; a loan was taken in our names that we did not agree to. Monday, we spook to the original manager that we had made the 25K agreement with, he simply stated they would be taking the car back and said nothing else. We returned the Car, signed a paper that stated it has been returned and nothing owed. My suspicion is that the only reason they took the car back is there was already a similar lawsuit being pursued another party.