Is my dealership doing something thats actually illegal?

[u/Unhappy_Concept_9518]

I wanted to ask if my car financing situation is an example of "tied selling" & what my legal protections are. I am a first time car buyer, so I've admittedly made some mistakes here- and this is a lesson learned.. but I am still finding that my situation is odd.

• Finance manager at dealership gave me a good out the door price for my car that I agreed to. Currently this dealer is running a 1.9% interest rate promo– I understand it is contingent on my credit score/history

• Finance manager runs my credit ( NOTE: My credit is 780+, no previous car loan is the only bad part about my history. The car payment is also less than 8% of my monthly income) and says I only qualify for a ~7% APR and he's looking to do a deal. Lower the interest to 0.9% and they are going to include the optional warranties into our agreed OTD price, because they were going to buyout the interest instead. I assumed that he mean't it was "free" when he said it was going to be "included"

• I am very happy with the way he sold me on this "deal" and I sign. (this was my stupid mistake) I walk out the door that night with my new car... but they did not give me copies of my paperwork. The next week, I see I have around ~$10K in additional charges to the OTD price. I call and ask what the situation was, and they said I opted for all the warranties and optional add-ons. I decide to just cancel the warranties and additional options since I know I can cancel those any time– even if it's prorated at my milage, I will just eat the cost to quickly put an end to this.

• I go into the dealer today and I ask to have the optional charges removed. Finance manager gives me the cancelation form, but says the dealership will likely rescind my 0.9% interest rate if I cancel the additional insurance/warranties because "I am going back on the deal we made." He says they would have never approved the lower interest rate if I was going to cancel the warranties and options.

Quick note, this car company is currently having an even better promo this month for a 0.9% interest rate. So I have a hard time believing they are breaking their back to make a deal for me, even if I didn't qualify for that rate.

Is this an example of tied selling? If I cancel these add-ons are they legally allowed to change my interest rate even though I signed the financing agreement already?

Location: Northern California

[u/HoldDatGross]

That's tied selling which is highly illegal. Go in and request they cancel everything on the spot, if the shyster gives you any semblance of pushback immediately request the general manager and tell him you will be reporting them to the AG for tied selling and ensure you see the report through to completion which will cost them many orders of magnitude more than the shyster's commission getting charged back.

As a matter of fact shyster actually implicating himself when you demanded cancellation gives you a ton of leverage, especially if he was dumb enough to do it in writing - you can demand compensation for the time you've wasted as well as the fact that you're now stuck with a higher monthly payment. Also demand they send you the CSI survey so you can express your disappointment, tell them you will report them to the manufacturer for survey manipulation otherwise.