We Have A Vehicle Lease That The Dealership Has No Record Of And We Have Made Zero Monthly Payments.

Earlier this year, we decided to lease a Hyundai electric vehicle. They had a very attractive lease program: $0 down and low monthly payment. We found a dealership (almost 4 hour round trip) that had the one we wanted and started the process. They had trouble completing the lease due to an active recall that had to be corrected before Hyundai would accept the vehicle into their system. Three days later, the dealership corrected the recall with a software update and told us to come back in.

Unfortunately, they still couldn’t get the vehicle accepted into Hyundai’s lease system through the computer, so they did it manually, having us sign hard-copy paperwork and pay the first month's lease payment. They said we would be receiving the lease details from Hyundai, including links to set up automatic payments. Fast forward 30 days: nothing has been received, and nothing is on our credit report. We reached out to the dealership every week for a month, receiving promises of a call back, but no one returned our calls. We finally made the long drive back to the dealership with the car. The finance manager was out but the sales manager took our information (He was new) and said he would have the finance manager take care of it and told us to leave with the vehicle. Nobody contacted us

Finally, at the two-month mark, we refused to hang up the phone until someone helped us. The receptionist sent us a new temporary plate and said the finance manager would reach out. Again, there was no return call, no follow-up from the dealership, no communication from Hyundai regarding the lease, and nothing on our credit report. We started sending weekly emails, and at 90 days, a finance manager finally responded, saying that the previous manager was gone and they couldn’t find any records of this vehicle or lease purchase.

We told them we wanted the car and were ready to make our back payments. They said they would get it taken care of and sent us another temporary plate. We have continued to email the dealership every other week and have made regular calls, but have received no help. It’s been almost eight months, and we haven’t made a single payment beyond the first one; nothing is on either of our credit reports. We reached out to Hyundai, who said we had to contact the dealership to resolve this.

How should we handle this? We have a car with expired registration that we aren’t paying for. We want and need the vehicle.