When dealing with car salespeople, most buyers are looking for a deal, if not a steal. A Virginia man got the former, while the dealership that sold him the vehicle initially thought he illegally got the latter -- and had him arrested when he refused to pay more for their mistake. The buyer, Danny Sawyer, was taken into custody in his front yard and sat in jail for four hours before being released on bail.

The sales staff at Priority Chevrolet of Chesapeake inadvertently sold the Virginia man a Chevrolet Traverse for about $5,000 less than the vehicle’s actual price, and when Sawyer refused to sign a new, more expensive contract, a sales manager at the dealership called the police to report that Sawyer had stolen the vehicle. It turned out to be a clerical and communication error on the dealer’s part, and its president has since apologized and offered to forgive the $5,000-plus discount that Sawyer got on his SUV in error.

But now that Sawyer has decided to sue for $2.2 million in damages, it could end up costing the dealership much more than if it had just let the slip-up slide.

According to the lawsuit that attorney Rebecca Colaw filed on Sawyer’s behalf, the 40-year-old registered nurse test-drove a blue Chevrolet Traverse on May 7 that had a sticker price of about $39,000, but then decided to buy a black one instead that was priced at around $34,000. Sawyer signed a promissory note and left in his new vehicle. The next day, he returned to the dealership and asked to exchange the black Traverse for the blue one.

The lawsuit claims that sales manager Wib Davenport approved the trade without ever mentioning that the blue SUV had a higher price. The dealership’s vice president, Stacy Cummings, disputes this and says that Davenport told Sawyer about the additional $5,500 for the black Traverse and that Sawyer orally agreed to the higher price. But the final contract Sawyer signed didn’t reflect the higher price, and Cummings blamed a clerical error. "We definitely made a mistake," said the dealership’s president, Dennis Ellmer.

Sawyer returned from a vacation a week later and found numerous voice mails and a letter from the dealership, the suit says. Davenport said he explained in a phone conversation that the dealership made a mistake on the contract and asked Sawyer to return to the dealership and sign a new contract. The lawsuit claims Sawyer refused, although Cummings said Sawyer initially agreed but never followed through.

The dealership's staff persisted in trying to contact Sawyer by phone, text message and even hand-delivered letters. When Sawyer did not return to the dealership, they eventually contacted police. Ellmer and Cummings told the PilotOnline that their staff never reported the SUV stolen and never asked for Sawyer to be arrested, and called police only to help locate the vehicle while they pursued civil action.

But after speaking with police, Ellmer learned that one of his managers, Brad Anderson, said the SUV had been stolen. A police department representative said an officer told Anderson in advance that he was going to ask for a warrant for Sawyer's arrest.

The local district attorney dropped all charges against Sawyer on Aug. 23 after speaking with representatives of the dealership and deciding there was insufficient evidence to pursue the case. But Sawyer is moving ahead with the lawsuits.

“This shouldn't have happened," Ellmer said, describing it as an isolated incident and noting that his dealerships sells about 13,000 cars a year.

[Source: Autoblog]