'01 Proton Abandoned

[biju]

Went with MSHardeman today to the dealership to take a peek after lunch... well, taking a *peek* is relative... We could only see it from a distance as they wouldn't let us get close to it in the back lot cage. (bizzare...)

I'll let Mark give more details on the situation - but I need to say this:

A terrible sight it was - seeing this beautiful VX caged, aging, dirty, and surrounded by a knee high jungle of weeds. Just sad...

-biju.

[MSHardeman]

biju is right, it was quite a sad site.

This is what I have found out so far....
The Proton is caught in the middle of some kind of divorce/separation. I think the owner brought it in for service TWO YEARS ago, and has yet to pick it up. He/she is paying a storage fee while the Proton sits in the dealers back lot. The manager that we talked to said that it wasn't for sale so we couldn't go see it.

I'm going to call the service tech that originally told me about it to see if I can get any more information out of him. Maybe we could call the owner and talk to them directly. It's costing them $35 a day to store it, so maybe they'll want to get rid of it. We'll see.

The only problem, as stated above, is that it's been sitting there for two years. Not good.

I'll update when I get more info.

[E-ZooZoo One]

...It's costing them $35 a day to store it

$35 x 365 days x 2 years = $25,550 (and counting!)

That sounds like one very nasty divorce, with an innocent Proton VX caught in the middle

[Zorak]

$35 A DAY to store it? No wonder the stealership doesn't want to sell it! Two years at that rate would be over $25K!

[MSHardeman]

Update

First off, the sales people have no clue what's going on. When I was there Saturday I was first told that the Proton had been picked up. While we (myself and the salesperson) where walking out to take a look at the silver '99 that they have, the Proton caught the corner of my eye at the back of the lot. She quickly changed her story and said that yes, it was there but it wasn't for sale. Gotta love sales people.

When biju and I talked to the floor manager he said that the car was in the middle of some separation thing and that they where just holding the car....for $35 a day (that should have been a red flag that something was amiss)

The service tech that I've been dealing with said that the sales floor has no idea what is going on with the Proton. As far as he knows the guy who dropped it off is a little off his rocker and just stopped making payments on the car. Isuzu of North America is the lien holder on the vehicle, and would probably want to get rid of it for what is owed plus part of the storage fee (up to about $2000 now). The tech is going to find out as much as he can about the VX, what's owed on it, and what the whole deal is in general. He's supposed to call me back Wednesday (06-07-06). I'll post up what I find out.

[mbeach]

Pull the VIN and we could do a CarFax on it.

If something is hokey, it'll show up -as will a transfer of ownership/registration.

[2K1 1K2]

hi, all. if the dealer has a '99, it's most likely they would like to sell that model, prior to the coveted Proton. add to that the fact that they are getting paid storage on it, the dealer is probably enticed to keep it longer. i may be wrong, but the longer a dealer has a car sitting out on its lot, the more $$ they gain to lose. so the Proton seems to be making $$ for 'em.

-just my probably misinformed $.02


-jose

[Zorak]

So whatever happened with this Proton? Still generating a $35/day storage bill?

[Andrey]

just called them (303) 404-6500 and he said they are trying to buy it from Isuzu (not yet). It has 70K on odometer which is too much for my taste.

Somebody selling Proton ?

[kpaske]

Isuzu (if that is in fact the leinholder -which I doubt) only has one option if someone doesn't pick it up.

They'll be forced to drop it at an auction, for whatever they can get. I suppose they'll try to go after the original purchaser for the difference afterwards.
By abandoning the vehicle, he's lost all right to demand a fair price. The leinholder could sell it for a dollar if they wanted to. It's still his responsibility to pay for it.

Laws may vary a bit from state to state, but you've summed it up correctly. When someone stops making payments on a vehicle, normally it goes into repossession. When someone drops a vehicle off for service and fails to pay for that service, the mechanic can put an additional lien on the vehicle, and charge storage until the account is paid in full and the vehicle is picked up. If this vehicle falls into both categories, it will make for a sticky situation for both the financer and the dealership, who both want to collect their money.

Normally what happens, as you mentioned, is the car gets put up for auction, the finance company takes the sale price, and deducts it from what the ex-owner owes. Because the dealership/mechanic is the secondary lien holder, they'll probably never see a dime, which is why they don't want to release the vehicle to the financing company to be auctioned off. Right now they still have some grounds on which to negotiate (they have possession of the vehicle).

Once the vehicle does finally get auctioned off (which may be the only legal way to sell the vehicle at this point), the ex-owner will still owe the balance of the loan as well as the charges for service and storage. Most of the time an ex-owner in this situation will never pay the fees and they'll go down as negative events on his/her credit report.

So to make a long story short, if someone really wants this vehicle, it would behoove them to find out who is ultimately in charge of handling these types of issues for the dealership. Give them your name/phone number/email and keep checking back every so often. If you are patient (and the VX is still in their possession), I'm sure they'll be happy to let you know who will be auctioning it off when the time comes, but right now it sounds like nobody you've talked to really knows what the heck is going on. It's all about finding the guy who will ultimately be responsible for cleaning up the mess.

[biju]

I stopped by there the other day and didn't see it anywhere on the lot...

-biju.

[nfpgasmask]

...when my Xterra broke down in MO last may, the Nissan Dealership in Rolla kept my truck there for about 45 days, and they didn't charge me one red cent for storage. I think they felt bad for me....

Whew.

Bart

[Titus]

wow theres a lot of colorado owners on here!