"in your comparision of ethics, in the first example, you have an agreed upon commitment to purchase a vehicle from the dealer. Whether it is legally enforceable is besides the point - you obligated yourself, and in theory, the dealer obligated themselves, to consummate the deal." I totally see where you're coming from, but don't think of it that way, because the law hasn't been written that way since the Eighties. The purchase agreement governs the TERMS of the deal, not the FACT of the deal. They can and do get rewritten on-the-fly all the time; you'd be amazed (or maybe not!) by the changes-of-heart regarding financing, aftersale equipment, and even CAR people have during the process. During my time in the business, I'd say that only about two out of three ordered units actually got bought by the people who ordered them. Sometimes it was as simple as them changing their minds; other times, people would order a car, sign the agreement based on an appraisal of their car, then put 11,000 miles on it in 75 days. The "not sold until rolled" laws have helped a lot of people over the past five decades. Now, the dealers can be numbered among the list of people they've helped 🙂
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