Don't renegotiate new car contract

I bought a new car with a trade in. The dealer contacted me more than two weeks later, saying I owe more on the car I traded in, and apparently, I do, and wants me to pay the difference. The dealer has already sold the car I traded in, so do I have to renegotiate a new deal?

I am going to assume here that because they sold your car, you have a signed contract that covers the entire transaction. If so, you can decide if you are going to be a nice guy and let virtue be its own reward, or play hardball.

That is a bit of soul-searching you will have to do.

Here's the good news: A contract is a contract. Unless you misrepresented the trade-in or the loan in some way, you are under no legal obligation to sign a new contract. Of course the dealer can always try to have a court step in if it feels you misrepresented something, but otherwise you can simply refuse to renegotiate and the original contract should stand.

We live in a society where suing one another has replaced baseball as the national pastime, so it's anyone's guess as to whether the dealership will pursue it further or simply eat the loss. Obviously, the greater the amount of the shortfall, the greater chance the dealer will attempt to recover its loss from you. It's up to you to decide first if the amount of money involved is worth the continued hassle and, secondly, if you are truly blameless in the error.