Bipolar Made Me Do It: Buy a car
Well, this is an odd one. From Fox News:
TROY, Mich. — She went in for an oil change, but came out with a brand-new car.Now a Michigan woman is suing the auto dealer, saying it took advantage of her bipolar disorder to sell her the $32,000 vehicle.
Amy Berner tells the Detroit News she suffers from "impulsivity and difficulty in decision-making," and the dealer used that to get her to sign a $444 per month lease for a Mazda CX-9.
Berner says she had gone to the dealer for an oil change for her car, which she had bought just six months earlier.
Berner's husband says the dealer agreed to take the car back if it got a doctor's letter detailing Berner's condition. He says the letter was sent, but the dealer delivered the CX-9 anyway, and left the keys in the mailbox. Suburban Imports of Troy says it can't comment on the suit because it hasn't received any legal papers yet.
Unfortunately, this kind of impulsivity is a very real problem with bipolar disorder. How many of us owe money we shouldn't have spent in the first place? I doubt such a lawsuit is going to work, though.
Comments
I had something like that happen. Several years ago my uncle had a stroke and he was in intensive care. His prognosis was not good. My wife was at the hospital comforting my aunt.
During a mania, I decided I needed a new car, picked out the one I wanted, then call my wife at the ICU and argued with her about buying the car. Obviously, she did not want to deal with it. I bought the car.
My uncle survived but will be disabled for the rest of his life.
The only good part is that I kept the car for 9 years. I no longer have a wife, though.
Posted by: Jim Sibley | March 15, 2007 04:28 PM
I bought a 2001 RAV4 (new, in 2001) while manic. Turns out it was the best purchase I ever made. While I was with the finance officer working out all the details I agreed to every single addition he could come up with. I had talked them down from over $28k to $19k, but I ended up financing almost $24k after putting $7,500 cash down on it!
Funny thing was I had purchased an add on policy to cover me in the event I became unemployed. At the time I thought it just covered unemployment but it turned out to cover disability also. I fell into that catagory about 18 months after I purchased the car. That add on policy ended up paying the remaining 3½ years of payments on my car!!!!
Posted by: SallyT | March 16, 2007 04:10 AM