PHOENIX (KTVK/KPHO/Gray News) – A woman in Phoenix says she was left with two car payments after a dealership failed to honor what she believed was a trade-in agreement for her broken-down vehicle.
Korissa Morgan said she brought her 2015 Honda to Bell Honda for repairs, but was offered their buy-back trade-in program instead. She said dealership staff convinced her to trade in the vehicle rather than repair it.
“They were like, let’s run some paperwork. And I was like, ‘I’m going to let you know right now, I don’t have a down payment, so I could use the car as a trade-in.’ And he said the car works as a trade-in,” Morgan said.
She said she spent several hours at the dealership before completing what she thought was a trade-in deal.
“When I signed the papers, it was on an iPad. He’s like, ‘We’re going paperless now, so that’s good for you.’ He’s like, ‘Just to let you know, you’re trading in a car. Yes. A 2015 Honda.’ Everything looked great,” Morgan said.
Loan company calls about missed payments
Several weeks later, Morgan received a call from her loan company about outstanding payments on the Honda.
“They’re like, ‘Hey, you’re kind of behind on payments; is everything ok?’ And I was like, ‘I traded in the car. You should be receiving a check from Bell Honda,’” she said. “I call Bell Honda, ‘Hey, can you send the contract over ‘cause I know everything is paperless. Email me the contract.’ They never emailed me the contract.”
The dealership had not paid off her existing loan. When Morgan returned to Bell Honda, she said she was shown a contract that differed from what she had agreed to.
“They bring out a contract. And they show me a contract that’s totally out of – I look at it like, whoa. It says no trade-in, when we agreed on a trade-in of the 2015 Honda. I wouldn’t have agreed to that,” she said. “What they told me doesn’t match what’s on the paper that I apparently signed.”
Contract discrepancies raise questions
The contract shows a transaction date of July 17, but Morgan said she actually purchased the car on July 12. Her insurance policy shows coverage beginning July 13, supporting her timeline.
When asked about the Honda, dealership staff told her they never took possession of the vehicle.
“They’re like, ‘We never took your car. We don’t have your car,’” Morgan said.
However, she said she left her keys with the dealership and no longer had access to the vehicle.
“The last time I saw it, it was when I picked up my stuff out of the car, and that was at the dealership,” she said.
AZFamily’s On Your Side convinced the dealership to look for the Honda on their lot. They located it there but sent Morgan a letter demanding she remove it from their property rather than working to resolve the situation.
Industry expert weighs in
Ray Shefska, who has worked in auto sales for decades and now runs car-buying service CarEdge, said the situation highlights problems in the industry.
“This is just one of those examples, when you aren’t 100% certain what it is that you’re signing, not only do you slow down the process, you stop the process,” Shefska said.
A recent CarEdge survey found 82% of Americans say they don’t trust car dealerships to treat them fairly.
“To me, it says the industry is so broken, yet so profitable that they can see that number and go, we don’t care. And our job is to figure out a way to make them care,” Shefska said.
Financial impact
Morgan couldn’t afford both car loans and owed more on the broken-down Honda than it was worth, so she surrendered it. It was a devastating financial blow.
“I feel like I’m in a hole right now. A hole that I was not aware of. And I think moving forward, I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” she said.
Bell Honda and its parent company, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, did not respond to repeated requests for comment over several weeks.
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