Buyer Beware

My current roommate works as an intern at the Volkswagen HQ and told me an interesting story today. One of their dealership closed down yesterday and my first reaction was - bad economy, shit happens. Then he kept saying how he felt sorry for the customers and employees so I asked him about it. Turns out at least one of the customers had just put a $1000 deposit and a trade-in on a car that she was supposed to receive yesterday. Somehow the dealership managed to go bankrupt the next day and walked off with her money, leaving Volkswagen to deal with the understandably upset customer. All Volkswagen received from the dealer tho was the woman's trade-in car, which they returned. She is still out of $1000 and new car though, and Volkswagen also has not received their cars, or payments for their cars, back. They had to go secure the premises of the dealership to see what they can salvage from the lot. Meanwhile, customers who had the car at the service station are also screwed because they are unable to retrieve their vehicles while Volkswagen tries to straighten out this mess. Apparently, while my roommate was standing at the entrance to the lot, someone showed up saying it was supposed to be his first day at work. My roommate had to tell him he was sorry, but he has no job. So not only did the dealership owner screw over his customers, he couldn't even be bothered to tell his employees what was happenning. As of the moment, it sounded like they don't know where this guy is, but I hope he can be held liable.

Anyhow, if you are a car manufacturer, you better check up on your dealerships' finances. If you're a car buyer, don't put any money down unless you can drive out of the lot in your new car. As a matter of fact, this probably isn't a good time to be prepaying for anything.....