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After Wrong Sales Price, Chevy Dealer Has Customer Arrested

By Andrew Lu on October 10, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Danny Sawyer got such a great deal on a new car that the Virginia Chevy dealer that made the sale tried to have him arrested. Literally.

Sawyer had traded in his old car and purchased a black Chevrolet Traverse. The next day, Sawyer had second thoughts about the color and returned to the car dealer to get a blue Traverse.

The sales manager at the time okayed the trade-in, and Sawyer went home with the blue Traverse. Later on, the manager realized that he made mistake in pricing. The blue Traverse should have sold for $5,000 more, reports NBC.

Usually, you read stories about car dealerships fleecing customers. So it's always fun to read a story about a customer fleecing a car dealer.

The dealership tried to get Sawyer to return the car by calling him and writing him letters. Sawyer had a fortuitously timed cruise vacation and missed almost all the calls. But when he returned home, he realized that he was dealing with a desperate dealer.

Sawyer refused to pay the difference saying that the sale was final. After all, there was a purchase agreement signed off by the car dealer, reports NBC.

Stymied by their efforts, the car dealers called the cops and accused Sawyer of theft. Perhaps, the car dealers should have consulted a lawyer and looked up what theft meant before bringing the criminal charges. The two sides had negotiated a deal, and while the dealer may have made an error in price, there was no theft. Not surprisingly, the criminal charges were dropped.

As a result of the car dealer's efforts to get the $5,000 back through criminal prosecution, the dealership may have just invited multi-million dollar civil liability. Sawyer has brought a $2.2 million lawsuit against the car dealer and claims that he was a target of malicious prosecution, slander, defamation, abuse of process, negligence, and fraud, reports NBC. He claims that he suffers emotional distress and other injuries.

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