Mazda mania!
Car salesman sells new car to woman with bipolar disorder who only came in to have the oil changed in the other, six-month-old, car she bought from them. But she was in a manic state, and easily persuaded to buy a whole new car she totally didn’t need.
Hilarity, and a lawsuit, ensue.
There’s some pretty good discussion board fodder for the Capitalistas and the Weenies right there, eh?
(And let’s not forget the burgeoning population of people who decide they must be mentally ill because that’ll make them cool and important. They’re usually well represented in Internet discussions concerning any of the diseases they wish they had.)
I was going to post this as a comment on the Jalopnik page, but it grew into something post-worthy by itself, at least according to the low standards of the Department of Unwelcome Education.
I am, in brief, on the side of the unfortunate purchaser. But not for the simple weenie-ish reasons you might think.
Very, and uncharacteristically, unwise financial decisions are almost diagnostic of a manic state.
A person suffering from full mania is quite likely to feel like the king of the world. Able to take on any project, tackle any problem, speak wisely on any subject. And, of course, pay back any debt. So “suffering” is often not really the appropriate word - you’re high as a kite, and it doesn’t cost you a penny or involve any illegal drugs.
Until you start buying new cars, having unprotected sex with strangers, buying illegal drugs, et cetera.
(Traditional mania-driven car purchases lean more towards the red-convertible end of the market than the seven seat Mazda SUV in this story, but I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.)
If you can avoid the believing-you-can-fly kinds of behaviours, and the more obnoxious stuff that’s likely to lead to people locking you up somewhere, full-blown mania is arguably the best drug in the world. It’s a shame that, in bipolar disorder, mania is usually followed by full-blown clinical depression. But what can I say. God’s a bastard.
OK, sure, say the Capitalistas. Crazy lady bought car for crazy reason. But lady’s craziness is not the car dealer’s fault.
And, indeed, car salesmen are not expected to be able to tell whether the bright and bubbly individual who just decided to buy a car on the spur of the moment is entirely in their right mind or not. Let’s face it, buying a new car is seldom a very sane act in the first place.
Salesmen also shouldn’t - and, generally, don’t - sell cars to people who’re obviously in a severely mentally compromised state.
(The mildly compromised are still welcome, and may be the mainstay of the pickup truck market.)
But there’s seldom any way for an average Joe to tell the difference between someone who’s in a manic state and someone who really is just a very (I might go so far as to say insufferably) positive person, who is well able to afford what they’re buying.
The sparse Associated Press version of this story doesn’t give many facts to go on. There’s a bigger version in the Detroit News, here. Assuming it’s correct, after the buyer sobered up (as it were), her husband took back the car and the dealer agreed to rip up the contract, on receipt of a doctor’s letter confirming the buyer’s condition.
Said letter was then delivered. And then the dealer changed its mind, and “redelivered” the car.
If this is accurate, then the dealer is pretty clearly in the wrong, although they were not necessarily in the wrong - legally or ethically - for selling the car in the first place.
Now let’s see how long it takes for this case to end up in one of those “Stella Awards” lists.
