Where's the cat in this picture?

Wait wait wait. Did you use a picture of a racecar cake, post the story, then spend another 15 minutes looking for a better racecar cake picture to use?

Awesome, Ben. Awesome.

@WiglyWorm: The theme is yummy food and adorable kittens. You make the common mistake of thinking the world revolves around lolcats.

@WiglyWorm: It's cats or cake (or both).

No cat? Sad.

@Mackinstyle: Yes, yes he did. For some reason, I think that's fabulous.

You also failed to mention that you must first miss 3 payments (they'll make the payments for you but if you get a job between those 3 months you have to repay those 3 payments), then they will take the car back.

The cat is baked into the cake, silly.

@Mackinstyle: I liked the previous cake better. It had a cool font.

@eekfuh: I read it as you have to have been employed for 90 days before and after the effective date (date of purchase), but you must have been unemployed for 45 days before being able to claim.

It gets worse:

- It says that disabilities don't count. Except for a very tightly defined "Physical Disability" that does not include sickness, illness, disease, accident, injury, pregnancy, or "other cause."
- You're only covered up to $7500.
- Once approved, you must return the vehicle, have it appraised, and pay whatever is left of the balance after $7500 in full plus costs to repair determined by Hyundai.

I think it'd be safer to take a hit for a few months on car payments until you get back on your feet than to bother with this idiot program.

@eekfuh: so you have to make 2payments, then miss 3 (for a total of 5) so no one will be able to return it until May at the earliest? haha wow

@eekfuh: Sounds reasonable. The purpose is to let you take the car back if you have no job and cannot get one, not to make all cars easily returnable.

Posting too many pictures of cake today, now i gotta go get me some!

Yeah, damn it, I want cat pics in every post until at least noon Pacific time! Being baked into the cake isn't good enough unless I see a paw sticking out or something. At least photoshop on a paw.

Let's get our virtual pitchforks and EECB the Consumerist until we get our promised kitties!

::Sniff:: I brought it up as well, but I was stuck on the second page of comments. Once again I was too slow.
[consumerist.com]

@chrisjames: Well, that is certainly not as amazing as the the commercials and news hype would have people believing.

So it's basically a $7,500 emergency coupon, if you meet the requirements? That just puts a damper on what you owe, it doesn't cover it. Lame.

Maybe nobody is buying Hyundais in the first place?

Sorry...growing up, Hyundais were piles of crap with wheels. I'm sure they're better now.

@WiglyWorm: Layered in a fine mist across the windshield.

You dont have to miss 3 months of payments. You have to be current on the loan to qualify. You DO have to make atleast two payments before your qualify for the buy-back. - http://www.tuscaloosahyundai.com/exclusions.pdf for a PDF of some of the details.

@valueofaloonie: I think so too! Plus this is the cake my nephew had for his 3rd birthday.

No impact to your credit? BS, they are getting reported to my states AG office for misleading advertising.

Return with no impact to your credit. Umm- How about a 30,60 and 90 day late?

@downwithmonstercable:

LOL. Yes, they are wayyyyy better now. We both drive them and are extremely pleased.

@Julia789: Most likely it makes more sense to keep the car without paying and dodge the repomen. Since people usually need a car to work.

@wcnghj:

Doesn't the lending company decide whether or not to report delinquencies to the credit agencies? If so, then maybe if you work with their specified loan companies they can prevent it from showing up on your credit report.

@Thorny:

Heh, I have never heard of an auto loan co that does not report lates..

Check out creditboards.com.

@downwithmonstercable: It took until the late 90's, but they are much better now.

@wcnghj: It could be that the *return* won't impact your credit. What leads up to the return of the car could be separate.

If you read the contract, it isn't as easy as they want you to believe. Rule 3 and 4 should be read carefully.

(3) Your benefits specialist will determine the value of your vehicle based on the average of YOUR DEALER'S APPRAISAL and the VALUES FROM LEADING INDUSTRY GUIDES.
(4) Upon benefit approval, you return the vehicle to the selling dealer and pay any ADDITIONAL BALANCE AMOUNTS and the AMOUNT ABOVE THE $7,500 Hyundai Assurance benefit amount (if any).

YOUR DEALER'S APPRAISAL. Does the dealer get to set THEIR APPRAISED VALUE of the car? What LEADING INDUSTRY GUIDES are they using? The most you will get is $7,500 no matter how much you paid for the car.