Last year, actor Dennis Singletary appeared in Honda’s The Really Big Thing ad campaign, a promotional event for the auto giant. Looking to keep his fuel bills low, Singletary tried to buy a Honda car under the same terms that he advertised. However, actually getting those terms turned out to not be so easy.
The first dealership he visited didn’t have the car he wanted — no harm, no foul. The second dealership he visited did have the car, but refused to give it to him under the terms advertised with the Really Big Thing. They claimed that his credit score was too low to qualify, which raised his monthly lease payments. This was interesting, since the first dealership had told Singletary that not only did he qualify but that his credit score was 100 points higher than the second dealer claimed. Singletary went to so far as to call the first dealer and quote him the figure again in front of the second dealership’s manager, but to no avail.
It turns out that the second dealership was playing silly buggers with his credit score, using a higher quote in order to extract higher lease payments. Singletary ended up with a Honda at a good rate from a different dealership, but has been unable to bring down punitive measures against the people that tried to swindle him. His open letter to Honda has been circulating around the web, and paints a schizophrenic picture of Honda dealerships. One, helpful and forthright, the other deceitful despite staring into the face of the man that shilled their cars on TV.
(TMZ via The Consumerist)
