Nissan North America has had enough of being jerked around by one New Jersey Infiniti dealership and its floor lender, so now it is suing for damages and looking for an order allowing it to repossess all of the unsold vehicles the dealership hasn’t surrendered yet.
The federal lawsuit says that Infiniti of Englewood failed to pay Nissan NA over $3.4 million for 64 vehicles it delivered to the dealer last fall, according to Automotive News. If you know anything about New Jersey, you know you’ve got to kick up to the guy upstairs. That’s part of our thing. The dealership apparently sold 61 out of the 64 vehicles by the time the complaint was filed on March 27. In the lawsuit, the Japanese automaker said the store “failed to use the sales proceeds to repay Nissan.” It also alleges a breach of contract and unjust enrichment. It also alleges the dealership failed to pay the delinquency charges assessed for the nonpayment.
Nissan needs its money
Here’s more of what the lawsuit says, from Auto News:
“In the three months preceding delivery” Infiniti of Englewood “represented to Nissan in writing that it was financially sound and adequately capitalized, including maintaining sufficient net working capital and net worth and satisfactory floorplan financing arrangements,” the complaint said.
Nissan North America isn’t just going for the dealer, either. It also alleges the co-defendant — Keystone Auto Lending — is contractually liable for not paying Nissan. Well, as it turns out, both Infiniti of Englewood and Keystone Lending are owned by the same person, the complaint says. It describes Charles Caronia (a real New Jersey name if I’ve ever heard one) as the owner of the dealership and the sole principal of the lender.
For legal reasons I cannot understand, Caronia is not named personally as a defendant, but it does say he was “funding his own dealership and caused the breaches by both the dealer and Keystone,” Automotive News reports.
Man, there’s always something going on with Nissan dealers. We’ve told you about how a dealer owner was suing the Japanese automaker for opening a new store too close to it. We’ve also talked about North Carolina filing over 400 charges against Nissan dealership employees, and who can forget the time Nissan asked dealers to lose money on sales by using discounts? Never change Nissan, never change.
