Consumer complaint received 2024-10-25
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Lease
Issue: Getting a loan or lease — Changes in terms mid-deal or after closing
Company: Mercedes Benz Financial Services (CT)

I took delivery of a new car on XX/XX/XXXX. I am out of state, so the dealer was supposed to register the car for me. I provided them all the paperwork in a timely fashion, and they have still failed to get the car registered as of XX/XX/XXXX. My temporary NJ registration that was given to me at delivery expired on XX/XX/XXXX. I have explained to the dealership that I can not drive my car ( and have not been able to for 23 days ) because they have delayed this process. They blame it on the registry, their third party company who does it for them, but take no accountability. They told me the registry in my state has it marked as urgent and is working in it. I called the registry in my state- they said they do not mark things as urgent, that is not their protocol, and that " something is fishy. '' They told me they have no record of my vehicles ' VIN number in the system and their is no title pending. They told me that if they had the paperwork from the dealer or the third party company that those two items would show in their system. When confronted about this, the dealer told me " the registry is just lying to you. '' I have no idea why the registry would be lying. I have asked MB of XXXX to help mitigate the considerable damages that are being done by forcing my family to not have a car : I have asked them for an additional temp plate. They said they can't do that. I said I understood and asked for a dealer plate. They also said they can't do that. I understood. I asked if they could give me a loaner. They refused. I asked if they could call a Mercedes dealer in my state and ask them, as a courtesy from one dealer to another, to provide me a loaner -- they refused. I asked them to rent me a car -- they refused. I asked them to make my first payment or two on the lease -- a common practice that Mercedes dealers sometimes run as sales promotions -- since I can not drive my car. They refused. They finally told me that they were going to send me a letter ( last night- XX/XX/XXXX ) that says I can drive the car right now. I asked them on whose authority the letter was coming- they said the dealership. I explained that a letter from the dealer does not make driving an unregistered vehicle legal. They said, " Nobody is going to pull you over for having an expired temp plate. Just don't do anything to get pulled over and you will be fine. '' So, they are refusing to mitigate the problem that they ( and/or their third party vendor ) have created and they are encouraging me to engage in illegal activity as their only solution. I believe their has to be some sort of implied obligation on their part, when they sell me a vehicle that they tell me I can not register myself, that they will register the vehicle in a reasonable amount of time so as not to put me in a position of hardship because I ca n't drive my vehicle. My wife and I are juggling one car, we work about an hour and a half apart and we have XXXX small children who attend school half hour apart from each other because XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. This has created significant damages.