Is contract valid?

[sajofal]

I signed a contract with a car dealer on 04/18/00 for a car. As part of the deal the dealer bought (and has already paid off)my trade in. However, the Credit Union I asked that the dealer go through (that is also listed as the Lien holder on the sales contrac) has since rejected the loan. Their reasoning was that the intial paperwork they received from the loan processing company that the dealer uses,listed the vehicle as one that is worth considerably more than the one I actually signed the contract for. The dealer has since "reworked" the numbers on the loan and again the Credit Union rejected it. I have spoken with the finance person at the dealership and he said that he was able to get an approval from another lender at a higher interest rate. I did not accept or decline his offer because in the next breath he stated that he would contact another bank on Monday and see we he could do.

I have been driving the car ever since they handed me the keys on the 18th and have put over 600 miles on it, approximately 100 of which were trips to the dealer.

Bearing all of this in mind, could you please let me know what my legal obligations are to the dealer, since in the end they or the processing company they went through were the ones who either made a mistake or intentionally falsified the document in order to obtain the approval because they were asking for too much money.

 

[ed]

Since, as I understand the facts, the loan from the Credit Union is embodied in the contract, the failure of that loan should absolve you from obligation under the contract. And this is particularly so in light of the "mistake" made by the dealership. You did not get what you bargained for due to their fault. This might be different if the dealership comes up with another loan on equally good terms. In that case, you would have, in substance, gotten what you bargained for. The dealership might also be able to salvage the contract by reducing the price so that price plus interest is what you bargained for.