Ethics: New Cars Have Been Put on Hold by the Auto Maker. My Manager Says to Sell Them Anyway

A reader writes: I am the business manager in an automobile dealership when we received a notice from the manufacturer: several vehicles had been placed on the hold list. That meant one thing–those cars were not allowed to be delivered. Whether the issue was safety, software, or pending approval, the directive was clear: no delivery, no exceptions.

The sales manager came to me and told me to push the deliveries through anyway. He wanted the units delivered so the dealership could hit its monthly numbers. He told me things like: “Just print the paperwork.” “The factory is slow, nobody will know.” “We need these cars out today.”

I knew exactly what he was asking me to do: ignore the manufacturer’s restriction, bypass protocol, and put the dealership–and the customers–at risk. Delivering a hold-listed vehicle is not only unethical; it’s potentially illegal. I refused.

That refusal has sparked a full-blown conflict. What should I do now?

Minda Zetlin responds:

Your sales manager is being foolish and self-destructive. Does he not see how he’s put himself completely in your power? You could report him to the manufacturer and to your state’s attorney general. You could tell could tell customers or the local media, or post it to social media. His actions, if exposed would cause no end of trouble for both the sales manager and the dealership.

That’s especially true if he has already sold any of these cars without your agreement. If that’s happened, you have an ethical obligation to alert the purchasers. If you didn’t, and something bad happened, that would be very hard for you to live with. But it sounds like, in your role, you are able to prevent the sale of these cars.

Your next move depends on your relationship with the sales manager, and with the dealership as a whole. If you have a good relationship and generally trust him, you can gently let him know that if he doesn’t back down, you will expose him. You can try to make him understand the huge risk he’s taking. But from what you say, it doesn’t sound like you have a good relationship.

That being the case, if I were you I would document as much of this as possible. Has he put any of these instructions in writing? Make sure to keep copies. Has he given these same instructions to anyone else? I might try to find out.

I’m guessing you will have to report this to someone in your organization sooner or later. It might be the only way to get out of this difficult relationship. Ideally, you’ll have solid documentation in hand when you do that. Based on their response, you can decide what to do next.

Update:

The reader decided to quit. “I walked away,” they write. “I chose to protect the customer, the dealership’s legal exposure, and my own integrity–even if it meant losing my job.”

It turned out to be a good thing. For a long time, this reader had wanted to go back to school and pursue a law degree. But they’d hesitated, fearing they were too old to start a new career. Leaving the dealership was the push they needed to start on a path that would ultimately make them happier.

“The dealership owner asked me to come back.”

Before they left, they informed the dealership’s owner of what had happened. Because customers’ safety was potentially at risk, they also informed the auto maker. “After a few days, my representative from the auto maker, as well as the dealership’s owner called me, by conference call, to tell me they had fired the sales manager. The dealership owner asked me to come back, but I had already enrolled in university.”

The reader’s last paycheck from the dealership included pay for an extra two weeks of vacation time, they say. “I know I could have asked for more but, I just wanted to end that saga.”

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