I was re-reading my contract for my first car i purchased last December and noticed a $1,659 fee to “Protectus” for “Road Hazard” but cant really find any solid info on who that is. The dealership has refused to answer or return any calls the last several times i tried calling. I live in South Carolina but purchased the car in Georgia if that’s important.
EDIT: Thank you guys for the help, I’ll be trying to contact the dealership Monday morning and see what i can do from there !
What is Protectus Road Hazard?
byu/MilkyMommey inpersonalfinance
Posted by MilkyMommey
2 Comments
A simple Google search reveals the answer. It is a set of junk fees for services that you shouldn’t pay for when buying a car. And if for some weird reason you actually did want those things you should be able to negotiate at least 30-50% off the cost. They are high profits for the dealer. If the dealer charged you $1,600 they profited at least probably $1,000. I know because I used to be involved with car dealers – not as a salesperson but as a vendor to them. The number of scams/unethical things car dealers pull would shock you.
[https://www.toyotaofstroudsburg.com/finance/protectus-vehicle-protection-program/](https://www.toyotaofstroudsburg.com/finance/protectus-vehicle-protection-program/)
Sounds like you were sold some kind of protection plan. If you don’t want it, you can get a refund. If you’re within I think 60 days in Georgia you can probably get a full refund, but if you’re not within full refund territory you can get a pro-rated refund
You’ve just learned a valuable lesson: read each and every line on your car purchase agreement. Dealers love to stick these extras on there, and largely you can either get a better deal elsewhere on the specific product you’re buying, or, it’s not really that useful at all and you shouldn’t buy it
If the dealer won’t respond you can let them know you’ll be reaching out to the Georgia Attorney General’s office and that will probably get them moving