Carma strikes
Lets start with a piece of good news, for once: A Mac Haik dealership in Flowood, MS sold a Demon 170 (the hyper-fast 1025 hp Challenger) to a service member at $50,000 over retail. Yeah, $50,000. Mac Haik’s chain is well known for gouging everyone, so this isn’t unusual by itself according to Jalopnik.
Mac Haik in Flowood took an order for a Demon 170 in F8 Green from an unnamed servicemember at a $50,000 markup.
The service member was deployed when the car came finally in.
At some point though, this same Mac Haik franchise allegedly promised another Demon 170 customer a car in Triple Nickel. But that car had allegedly been sold to someone else already, so when this customer showed up after driving eight hours to see the car, the dealer offered them the pending-delivery F8 Green car for more than what the servicemember agreed to pay.
Karma (pun intended) steps in. The happy new owner posted about his great new car on a Dodge owners’ Facebook site… where the original service member is a member. Oops…
When this story spread, it appears Mac Haik employees tried to do some damage control—poorly. Screenshots allegedly taken in the private Facebook group where much of this unfolded show William LaGrange, the general manager of a Mac Haik Chrysler franchise in Texas, denying many of these allegations. He claimed no such car was ever ordered in the servicemember’s name (even though a Monroney suggesting such has been shared online), and accused the F8 Green’s intended original recipient of lying about being in the military. The YouTuber who shared images of LaGrange’s comments says Mac Haik employees told them that they’ve been instructed to let this all blow over.
Well, this got to the attention of the Dodge CEO, Tim Kuniskis. The Mac Haik dealer tried to say it was all jake, everyone was happy, nothing to see here….and then Mr. Kuniskis talked to the service member in question. Not only did the dealer lie, by then the car was out of production.
No cars across the nation’s inventory matched the ordered spec, either. The customer who unknowingly bought the F8 Green car arranged to return it to Mac Haik, but with some miles now on it, it wasn’t the car the servicemember paid for.
Still, this story has a happy ending. Dodge held on to 40 Demon 170s to reward its top dealers with, but it plucked one Pitch Black example from the batch. It’ll be sent through Dodge’s Jailbreak program, repainted F8 Green in factory quality, and built to match the original spec the servicemember ordered. This will all be done at no charge, and the car will be sold at MSRP. On top of that, Jay Leno will handle the delivery ceremony at his garage.
Somehow I suspect that Mac Haik dealer might be in for some fun…in a perfect world they, or perhaps the Mac Haik chain, would lose access to any of those last 40 cars. Nice that the SM buyer saves $50,000, too.
FWIW, quick Google shows Mr. LaGrange is the GM of the Mac Haik Dodge dealership on the Katy Freeway (I-10W) just west of Houston… I’d stop by and show him some love. Spread some around if you’re near Flowood, too.
Category: Crime, Dick Stepping, None
A $50K markup? I would think a $50K car would be too expensive in the first place. . . and I’m a 51 year old with a great job and a military pension.
Motortrend.com says, “It starts at $100,361”. Crikey! I hope the “service member” in question is a constantly deployed, flight pay eligible 4 star!
https://www.motortrend.com/news/2023-dodge-challenger-srt-demon-170-first-look-review/
Most people would think that $50,000 is a lot of DM. However some premium vehicles commanded that in 2021 and 2022. Even into early 2023.
Even today for a C8-Z06, The markup is close to 100%. Yes, you read that right, a $125,000 car actually sells for well over $200,000. Some prices go higher at auction, Just for the right to buy the car. That is correct, there are auctions just for the right to order certain cars.
The high-end sports car market is not for everyone. But let’s say you’re a single master sergeant without any kids or child support, You deploy for a year and save all of your money. When you get back you can drop your cash on that.
TECHNICALLY the dealer agrees to sell for MSRP or they get in trouble… but on high-dollar limited cars, mark-ups (ie. “Dealer availability” etc. charges are frequent.) Generally the rule of thumb used to be “charge what you want as long as it doesn’t embarrass the brand”. The 50% charge is not the problem (and you note the SM is in the end getting his car at MSRP) but hopefully the shenanigans and lying will at minimum embarrass the Mac Haik chain, and cost them some cred with Dodge/Stellantis.
Popular and special edition vehicles almost always go for more than MSRP. It a suggested price, dealers can charge whatever they want. It pays to shop around and maybe you save a few dollars.
What 5JC said – supply vs demand. One-offs and limited edition vehicles/long lead times will always command a premium. The service member most likely knew the mark-up and was not, in reality, being “gouged”. Getting screwed over by a dealership selling the car out from under him when he most likely already placed a hefty deposit – THAT will get you on the naughty list in a hurry. Glad Corporate saw and took decisive action on that part.
Yeah, that was some b******* there. And then waving it all out there is going to hurt their business bigly.
Hey, kid, 36% interest is normal– you won’t even miss it with those allotments spread out over 96 months with all those pay raises you’ll get!
Hey asshole. You lie your ass off, and then you call the deployed service member a liar.
Eat shit and die dickweed.
I hope Mr Kuniskis remembers your name when it comes to ordering the most popular vehicles and gives you the middle finger.
The only thing lower than a car dealership is a Military Phony.
Ouch
“Guaranteed financing and approval for E-1’s and up! Just bring us your LES!”
(Hell yeah!)
First car – 49 Pontiac – 1963 when purchased
Dumb E4 walks onto a used car lot, tells the sales men I have $75 in my pocket, what do you have?
Drive away with above mentioned car. It lasted the rest of my first enlistment and sold at a profit to a recently appointed mustang Ensign.
Just goes to prove that a lot of people are not good negotiators
That’s about $800 today. I can’t think of any place you can get a running car for $800.
After Obama crushed up millions of used cars when he was president the used car market has been chaos. The virus shut down made things a lot worse.
Yeah, the “Cash for Klunkers” program, and it screwed the lower income class, just like about every D-rat proposal.
In 1988 I got a 1978 Pontiac Bonneville. Drove it to a smoking crater (which didn’t take too long for a car built in the 70s and was 10 yo when I got it). It was a tank though. . . .
Really ought to pull the franchise, but with the volume Haik moves, that won’t happen. What they could do is provide the car free of charge to the servicemember and charge it against the dealer floor plan.
Now when does Janet Mello get hers?
Who is Janet Mello, and why should she get one?
She stole $100 million from the Army, under the guise of helping Army families.
Talk about a rare 1 of 1 car with factory documentation. These things were hard to get normally so this is money in the bank. Keep the mileage low and off to barret Jackson. Fund his retirement.
And screw that dealer and all sales folks involved. I hope they get a very unpleasant visit from dodge.
I told Dodge to fuck off long ago. I’d had work done on my truck at a dealership in El Paso while on a road trip. The same issue cropped up while it was still under the warranty period of the repair.
My home hometown dealership goes “They used parts from a parts store, not Mopar. We won’t fix it under the warranty. You’ll have to call the dealership in El Paso”.
El Paso dealership: Yeah just drive it here and we’ll fix it”.
Me: It’s not drivable. How about you and this dealership work out the details.
El Paso: We can’t do that.
Me: (insert every compound 4 letter word) AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON!!!
Fuck that gave me a rage stroke remembering that.
TL/DR: Fuck Dodge and the whole Chrysler franchise. I hope they go bankrupt.
I’m so glad I quit renewing my driver’s license in 2007.
The Dodge brand…LOLZ.
Look up F150 sleeper. Impressive.
Bessemer ford in Alabama offers sleeper F150s. With a factory warranty too. And cheaper than nearly the same package ford offers through select dealers.
F150 GT (gas and tires).
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.alabamaford.com/f150sleeper/&ved=2ahUKEwj13NDZztaDAxXNjIkEHUObCW8QmuEJegQIEhAD&usg=AOvVaw2RjwmVvByg4zknZCBAGhZc
Must have been a heckuva enlistment bonus; MSRP is about $100,000 (before extras like passenger seats). Just as well he didn’t get it since the poor, underpaid serviceman probably couldn’t afford a place to park it when he deploys again.
In 2007 on average Ford dealerships across the country only ‘gouged’ customers $25k over MSRP for a Shelby GT500. And then Ford kept the production line open and produced more GT500s than planned for 2007.
That Houston dealership needs to be yanked out of that slum lord’s hands and awarded to the almost jilted service member.
But Brazo Zulu to Dodge’s CEO in his handling of this situation. Boeing should take notes.
By the time he hits 60, that car will be worth a million dollars !!!
Good for him and good for Dodge, Chrysler corporation.
Mac Haik can go take a rolling fu*& and then go piss up a rope…