Ulpianus

A good friend of mine (let’s call him Cazador[1]) wanted to buy a Porsche Cayenne because his wife’s Mini Cooper was not going to be helpful with the arrival of their first baby. After a good round of negotiations, he traded in the Mini and bought a V-8 Cayenne on credit.

A week later, Cazador got a call from the dealership: the bank they chose did not accept his credit application, and had to be retried. He went to the agency and signed a new application.

Two days passed when they asked Cazador to go back with them for a third credit application. He did it.

When Cazador received a phone call again from them a week later, he refused to go and sign yet another credit application. But he did go to the dealership for a carwash. When they cleaned the Cayenne, they refused to give it back to him, arguing that something was wrong with the engine. Instead, they gave him a rental car.

Another two weeks passed. My friend Cazador kept using the rental car they gave him at Porsche. Unable to reach an agreement, the salesperson from the dealership set an appointment with him. When he arrived, Porsche suggested him to buy a cheaper model: a V-6 instead of a V-8. He refused. Porsche told Cazador that they were not giving him his SUV back.

My friend offered to return the Cayenne –well, to sign the papers, because physically they were in possession of the SUV-, and Porsche would have to give the Mini back. But this was not possible, because it had been sold already. Cazador suggested them to sequester the Mini just as they had done with his Cayenne. Porsche obviously rejected the idea.

Porsche gave Cazador an ultimatum: he could either (1) buy a V-6 Cayenne-$20,000 cheaper- or, (2) sign the papers to return the V-8 Cayenne, and get a check for $3,000 for his Mini.

At this point, Cazador did not want to make any business with Porsche, so he rejected to get the V-6. He asked again to have his Mini back, since they were calling the deal quits. He could not reach any agreement, they refused to return him the Cayenne, asked for the rental car, and Cazador had to take a taxi to go home.

The next day, my friend called a number he found in the purchase agreement. He is not sure where he called. All he knows is that it is an Austin telephone number –maybe the Texas Attorney General’s office?-, and there he explained his story.

Two hours later, Cazador received an apologetic phone call from Porsche. They wanted to convince him to buy the V-6, but my friend refused once again. They asked him to go back to the dealership, and he did.

What happened there is hard to believe: he went there, resisted their tries to sell him a V-6, agreed on the fact that it was impossible to give him his Mini back, and Porsche consented to let Cazador keep his V-8 for the price of the V-6 model. That was the limit of the credit the bank had authorized after his third credit application: $20,000 less than the V-8 price.

Because my friend was tired of Porsche behavior, he did not sign the new credit with the bank Porsche did business. He instead chose his own bank’s representative, and obtained a lower APR.

Porsche ended up being the loser of the problem: they had to give up a great amount of money and, lost more than one client, because Cazador and his family are never going to do business with them.

As for Cazador, he got a great deal: a 2005 V-8 Porsche Cayenne for the price of a V-6 SUV.

Footnote:

[1] Cazador is the Spanish word for hunter. My friend is indeed a hunter. He kills deer, elk, moose, black bear and Kodia bear. His skills as a hunter permitted him to survive the aggressive behavior from the employees of Porsche.