This Florida Honda dealership wants its $500 College rebate back from a new Civic owner because medical school isn’t a real college.
Update 9/13- Manager took back his words. Apologizes for the misunderstanding. Medical School counts. He keeps his Civic. All is right with the world.
This Florida Honda dealership is really hurting for revenue if they’re seriously asking for a $500 rebate back from one of its new Honda Civic owners. As per this new 2018 Honda Civic owner on CivicX.com earlier today (Sept. 11, 2018) who goes by Goseki, the dealership where he purchased his 2018 Honda Civic Touring from called him five days after receiving his Civic telling him that his monthly payment would be increasing ever so slightly because her $500 college rebate was now void, they wanted their $500 back.
To be fair, Honda’s financial service agreement when it comes to the college rebate program is very clear. Your graduation must result in either a…
Master’s, Bachelor’s or
Associate degree from U.S.-accredited college or registered nursing school.
Ironically they allow nursing school as a possibility for the rebate program but don’t include medical school. That’s right. Goseki already graduated with a bachelor’s degree years ago but JUST graduated from medical school, which he thought was good enough for the rebate. Apparently not for Honda Financial services.
Consider that Goseki just didn’t get a base model Honda Civic, he got the top of the line Honda Civic Touring trim, starting MSRP of $26,800. Keep in mind that’s close to $8,000 more than the Civic LX. Who knows, her final selling price was probably a bit higher if he wanted nicer wheels or floor mats.
He said that since I graduated medical school instead of bachelor’s that it wouldn’t count so I would have to pay another $500. This basically makes my “great deal” nearly the same as other dealerships. Kind of pissing me off since they ran through a similar routine when I bought the car and tried making me finance $10000 instead of the $7500 which would’ve made the interest a lot higher.
Unfortunately for this new Civic owner, the dealership has the right to cancel her deal altogether, if, for any reason, the rebate isn’t valid. Not my words, her lawyer’s since she considered returning her Civic altogether.
So there’s a separate section on the receipt/contract that I signed that talks about “Seller’s right to cancel”. Specifically they are allowed to cancel if “seller is unable to assign a retail installment sale contract.” After going over the contract with my lawyer, it looks like in the states, dealerships are allowed to ask for the car back and undo the sale if their financing rebates falls through or ask the buy to pay up the extra cost which is what’s happened in the situation. It’s just unusual since they didn’t bother to file the rebates over the weekend and it wasn’t done until yesterday or today it looks like.
Essentially, a dealership can sell you a car with what your final payment will be but not file the paperwork until AFTER you drive the car off the lot. From there, they can increase your final sale price by taking back the void rebates or threaten to take your car back. It’s a win-win situation for the dealership, not for you.
According to the latest update on this thread, this particular Honda dealership already contacted Honda Financial services on the issue and are awaiting their response.
Goseki’s response to their letting him now they’re waiting is epic.
They said they would let me know. I told them if I have to drive back, it would be to return the car.
Goseki might be buying a Civic but that doesn’t mean she’s not in the position to “clap back” at Honda.
I’ll be monitoring this thread closely.
