Will I be affected because my car dealership closed?

July 27, 2008 11:37 AM

My car dealership closed and filed for bankruptcy. Will this affect me or my year-old car?

I've tried Googling, but didn't see anything relevant...I am in MA, but bought the car in OH last year because my parents knew the owner of the dealership. I did end up getting a great deal, and love the car. I tried to contact the dealership last week (because I've been getting a lot of "your warantee is about to expire!" calls and cards, though it isn't), only to find their phone # and website gone. My stepfather did some research and found the linked article stating that they'd filed Chapter 11. So they went down big. Will this affect me or my loan? I now go to a local dealership for service, because obviously I'm not going to drive several states for that, but I'm just wondering about the financial and/or credit aspect of this. Thanks in advance.

posted by FlyByDay to work & money (9 comments total)

Did you get your financing through the dealership?
posted by roomwithaview at 11:52 AM on July 27

It probably won't affect you in the least, unless you had some "Free oil changes for life" deal or whatever. The warranty for the car is through the manufacturer, not the dealership. In other words, any Ford dealer will fix your Ford under warranty. The loan, again, is almost certainly not through the dealership. You're probably writing checks to a bank or the finance arm of some car company. In the later case, you'd be sending checks to some organization with a name like "Honda Motor Credit" or whatever. The dealership, if you financed through them, probably just arranged the deal between yourself and the actual finance company.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 11:55 AM on July 27

The loan is through Chase. Good point on the free oil changes deal. I'm glad I didn't have something like that, or I'd be sad now. I do wonder about these "your warantee is about to expire!!" calls I'm getting, but I'm fairly sure they're just phishing.
posted by FlyByDay at 11:59 AM on July 27

Do the callers actually identify themselves as representatives of the dealer or the manufacturer?
posted by winston at 12:11 PM on July 27

I do wonder about these "your warantee is about to expire!!" calls I'm getting, but I'm fairly sure they're just phishing.

Ignore them. It's a fairly recent scam.
posted by amyms at 12:17 PM on July 27

Do the callers actually identify themselves as representatives of the dealer or the manufacturer?

No. I actually hung on the phone the other day to talk to someone in person and he was very sketchy and full of attitude. Asked them remove me from their list.
posted by FlyByDay at 12:20 PM on July 27

I get a regular stream of 'Notices' trying to get me to buy an extended warranty. I'm lucky enough that a repair, even a large one, isn't going to bankrupt me or anything so I just ignore them. Statistically speaking, they wouldn't be trying to get you to buy a policy unless, on average, they end up making money on the deal. I think these companies must buy information from the government on new car registrations or something.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 12:20 PM on July 27

About half-way through my car loan another bank bought my lender's bank. They mailed me a new book of payment slips (and a new address to mail them to) but there was absolutely no other change to my loan or anything else relating to my car.

In your case I think absolutely nothing will change. It's also fortunate that this wasn't the closest, most convenient dealership to you -- otherwise the question would read "my local dealership just declared bankruptcy, do I really have to drive 45 minutes to have my oil changed?!?!"
posted by kate blank at 1:11 PM on July 27

It's also fortunate that this wasn't the closest, most convenient dealership to you -- otherwise the question would read "my local dealership just declared bankruptcy, do I really have to drive 45 minutes to have my oil changed?!?!"

Indeed! I do drive 30 mins, though!
posted by FlyByDay at 1:37 PM on July 27