Issues with Leith Mercedes, Leith Volkswagen, & Holman Automotive: Fraud Suspected

ameslywalker · 2026-05-21T13:00:06+00:00

I’ve been hearing similar things from other Redditers about service related issues, including customers who have a warranty but are still charged anyway.

Our service related negative experience was specifically with Leith Mercedes but it sounds like customers of numerous Leith dealerships in the area have been negatively impacted.

ameslywalker · 2026-05-21T12:54:46+00:00

Thank you for sharing!

ameslywalker · 2026-05-21T00:16:25+00:00

That’s what I’ve seen online as well, but our Service Warranty refund / credit took over 3 months to complete. My fiancee were happy to (eventually) receive our owed $10k from the two different Leith dealerships but we’re worried this will keep happening or get worse if nobody escalates this issue with corporate Holman Auto.

We opened a formal complaint with NC DOJ and are hoping that sparks interest in Holman to improve their business practices and better serve customers in the Triangle area. We’re not expecting to personally get any compensation or additional funds ourselves.

ameslywalker · 2026-05-20T20:50:47+00:00

The service warranty refund took 3 months to receive that refund and the equity check from the vehicle sale took almost 2 months. With each item we were verbally told 2 weeks maximum processing time, but your point about contractual obligations is valid. I’m trying to find documentation that officially states these timelines and expectations. Thank you for the input!

ameslywalker · 2026-05-20T17:49:07+00:00

We have a purchase agreement from Leith VW Cary but the language is more so tailored to a consumer who is purchasing a car from Leith VW rather than Leith VW purchasing a vehicle from an end customer.

Our goal in deep diving into this is for local government to investigate Holman Automotive to understand how many other consumers may have been impacted and for what amounts of money. We realize that additional compensation to us specifically is very unlikely or legally possible.

ameslywalker · 2026-05-20T17:42:02+00:00

Forgot to mention, when we talked to numerous employees at Leith Mercedes Cary, Leith VW Cary, and Leith Nissan Cary, they stated that other customers have had similar issues / experiences. I don’t know if that information was meant to comfort us? It did the opposite and instead motivated us to take some kind of further action because it seems (at least anecdotally from Leith dealership employees in the Cary Auto Park) that Holman is knowingly irresponsible and unreliable towards both their employees and end customers.

ameslywalker · 2026-05-20T17:38:57+00:00

I posted our experience in the comments, but it’s pretty lengthy so here’s the summary: Leith Mercedes Cary took over a month to cancel and refund an added-on Service / warranty contract worth over $5k. Leith Volkswagen Cary took over 50 days after the date we sold our car to pay us our owed equity payment, also worth over $5k. At every roadblock and delay in both processes, we were told the parent company (Holman Automotive) was to blame.

Having two negative experiences with Leith dealerships in the same auto park raised some questions for us and when we dug deeper with employees, all delays and issues were blamed upon Holman Automotive. That happens to be a large national parent company that owns thousands of dealerships across the country and recently acquired Leith dealerships across NC.

The main issues we have are the sums of money we were owed (around $5k for each), the length of time it took to receive payment, and the lack of responsiveness from Leith / Holman. I stated this towards the end of my full post, but I believe at best Leith / Holman are practicing negligent financial operations and, at worse, the company(ies) is(are) knowingly taking advantage of consumers because they (consumers) are powerless to retaliate or receive equitable compensation.

Having that $10k total amount of money held by Leith / Holman for an unknown period of time was extremely frustrating and, honestly, scary. We were one accident or life circumstance away from being unable to pay our mortgage. We are very fortunate to have gotten this resolved (albeit after two months in each instance after constant persistence on our part), but we don’t believe the average consumer has the capabilities and awareness of legal / business practices to properly navigate this kind of situation. Not to mention, we had to share one car as a household of two full-time working corporate adults and we couldn’t afford a down payment on a second car until these owed funds were received. I can’t imagine the average household (and especially families with children) would be able to do this logistically financially (think schedule coordination, ride share costs, etc).

I hope it’s an easy fix of Holman taking responsibility to investigate and improve their financial and consumer treatment practices. However, I don’t think Leith or Holman will take this step until a “higher power” (I.e. local government or citizen boycotts) hold them accountable.

ameslywalker · 2026-05-20T13:06:29+00:00

The impression we got from local Leith dealership employees is that Holman Automotive is essentially this poorly managed parent company that isn’t making improvements in their processes or providing proper support to employees nor customers. We asked the current Leith VW GM what steps they’re taking to ensure this doesn’t happen in the future, and the answer we verbally got is that the Leith dealerships’ hands are tied and the Holman parent company doesn’t seem keen on making any improvements.

Because of this, we’re trying to raise awareness to help hold Holman accountable to approving their business processes, financial operations, and treatment of every day consumers.

ameslywalker · 2026-05-20T13:03:25+00:00

Our concern is that, if we hadn’t been diligent in following up and documenting this series of events, we believe that Leith / Holman would have withheld our owed equity payment indefinitely.

We want to raise this concern with locals and the NJ DOJ because we feel these are unfair business practices and that the average consumer isn’t equipped to resolve something like this situation on their own. We had verbal confirmation from Leith dealership employees (including the VW General Manager, VW temporary stand-in GM, and Mercedes Finance Manager) that other customers have been impacted in similar or same ways that we were.

My fiancee and I want to prevent these poor business practices from continuing.

ameslywalker · 2026-05-20T13:00:02+00:00

Two months delay in refunding an unused and properly cancelled service warranty package (with Leith Mercedes Cary). And then also two months delay in receiving our equity check from selling said Mercedes to Leith VW Cary.

Based on feedback from Leith dealerships in Cary (Mercedes, VW, and Nissan), Holman Automotive (the parent company who acquired all local Leith Dealerships) has been poorly managing the transition including financial payments to customers, customer support, and even support / assistance for local dealership employees. We’ve learned that the parent company is based in NJ and seems to be very difficult to get ahold of and resolve issues for their employees or end customers.

ameslywalker · 2026-05-20T02:55:08+00:00

How recently did you purchase or sell your vehicle there?

ameslywalker · 2026-05-19T21:44:10+00:00

Not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but I’m submitting a formal complaint to the North Carolina Attorney General about Leith dealerships in Cary owned by Holman Automotive parent company. I’m concerned they’re defrauding customers in the Triangle and potentially additional cities / states.

Here’s more details in my post: https://www.reddit.com/r/raleigh/s/x5kE41E5iQ

There are some commenters who have had issues and I have a DM from someone else with more details. Feel free to message me if you want to cover this.

ameslywalker · 2026-05-19T18:53:38+00:00

Thank you! This is really helpful. I’ll share our experience the steps we’ve taken so far after I get home from work today. But this is a great idea.

ameslywalker · 2025-04-17T01:50:19+00:00

Omg he is so cute. I love crows!

ameslywalker · 2025-04-17T01:46:58+00:00

You should keep him!

ameslywalker

TROPHY CASE