Dealer Shenanigans, need advice

[eatpasta]

Ok, so this is a Toyota/Lexus Question. My wife wants a SUV with 3 rows. We have a 4Runner and a Rav4. We decided that the 4Runner stays so we are planning on selling/trading in the Rav4 (2014, Limited, 26K miles).

Friday night I found myself sitting in the local Lexus dealership looking at their used GX 460s since that what my wife down-selected to. The stealership asked if I was interested in trading in my Rav4, I told them not really, but told them they could take a look at it. I test from the GX460, they looked at my Rav4. I ended up leaving that evening because I wasn't ready to make a deal and I needed my wife to drive/eyeball the car. They never discussed trading in my Rav4 with me, but they gave me back the keys.

Saturday afternoon I was checking out the dealer's website and decided to see if they have any 4Runners in stock (because why not). I sorted by Toyota and was surprised to see they had a limited 2014 Rav4 in stock. More surprised that it had the same miles as mine and of course, the same VIN. :faint2:

So, I guess they really liked my Rav4 enough to list it for sale on their website. My Rav4 is sitting in my garage since we didn't even got close to make a deal Friday night - all I did was check out the GX460 and test drive it.

So, I don't know a lot about car laws, but is it illegal for a dealership to do what they did? Yes, I'm looking for a way to screw with them so I can get a better deal on the GX460, but I'm also pissed they listed my car, which I own (fully paid for, I might add) for sale on their website. Any ideas?

Thats sketchy as hell.... I would definitely fill out a yelp review.

Maybe you can use it as leverage on getting a new car

 

[Schrek]

So, here is how this ended up resolving.

I left extremely negative feedback for Lexus of Colorado Springs on every possible feedback forum. They are the definition of shady dealership.

I've filed a complaint with the State of Colorado - I'm waiting for them to let me know what the deposition is. They did tell me that they will let me know the outcome of the investigation.

Lexus of Colorado Springs took my car off their website March 9th. I appreciate the willingness to call them and be interested though, but I'm not interested in dealing with them at all.

A positive note out of this whole experience, I did end up selling my RAV4 to Mountain State Toyota for just a couple thousand less than I paid for it in 2015. If you're in Colorado and looking for a good dealership to work with, I can't recommend them enough. I've never sold a car to a dealership, but they were fair, honest, and paid me exactly what we agreed to over the phone (before they had ever even seen my RAV4).

 

[messeduprex]

i worked in sales and as a service advisor in a couple dealerships. what happened most likley has to do with how their CRM system is intergrated with their website. All this information is stored within theses systems and alot of times if a car is appraised it is entered in the system to generate an appraisal (at which point they generally run a carfax), this is probably what happened. the Toyota dealership i worked for if we got allocated a unit from Toyota our CRM would see this in our system and would auto generate the web listing. so people would come in on a car we were months from reaching us.