Purchasing a new vehicle is a painstakingly time-consuming event. By the time you get the loan approved and finish with the paperwork, the only thing you want is to sign the agreement, hop into your new car and drive off.
Unfortunately, in this final step in the car buying process, a car dealership can take advantage of you.
Customers are usually drained when they finish the paperwork and can end up signing agreements without carefully reading the terms and conditions.
So, what would you do if you realized the car you purchased was not what the dealership had promised?
In this post, we will discuss some typical auto dealership lies and what to do when a car dealer lies to you.
How Often Are Car Dealerships Actually Untrustworthy?
According to a 2012 Gallup poll, car dealers are considered the least honest and least ethical professionals. They were the only group that ranked lower than members of Congress.
Another annual survey conducted by Cox Automotive showed that customer trust in car dealerships has reduced lately.
Based on this survey, only 61% of Americans believed they got the best price from their dealership, down from 65% in 2017. Almost a third of buyers are not satisfied with their car purchases. But are auto dealers really untrustworthy?
The answer is no. Most dealerships are honest in what they do. All they want is to sell cars. Very few dealers will outright lie to customers.
Often, they will mislead you so they can make a sale. But once you know their game and become vigilant, car dealerships cannot mislead you.
What Recourse Do I Have If I’ve Been Lied To?
It depends on what transpired between you and the dealer. You don’t have much recourse if you didn’t have any written agreement or if you signed something without reading through it.
The only thing you can do are to:
- Leave a negative review online
- Talk to the dealership management
- Spread the word
However, if the dealer committed a breach of contract, you can sue them. You are legally protected by consumer law and can file a lawsuit if a car dealer lied about down payment, sold you a defective car, or committed another form of auto fraud.
But you must prove specific facts to file a suit. You must demonstrate that the dealer omitted or misrepresented essential facts about the car and that you suffered a financial loss.
Additionally, you must prove that you would not have otherwise bought the vehicle had you known about the material facts.
Talk to an auto fraud attorney if you think you have a case against the auto dealer.
What Are the Common Points of Dishonesty?
It is crucial to know that most car dealerships are on the up and up. Very few will outright lie to you. Instead, they will often mislead you into making a sale.
Some of the ways through which car dealerships can mislead you include:
Non-disclosures
The law requires car dealerships to disclose all information about the car being sold. Some dealerships illegally fail to disclose information about a vehicle if that information impacts the car’s desirability.
For example, if a car was involved in an accident and the car dealership knowingly withholds this information from the buyer, the dealership is committing fraud.
Similarly, the dealership may conveniently forget to indicate a compulsory ‘document’ fee excluded from the marked price.
Such additional items not quoted in the monthly payment will significantly affect how much you will pay by the end of the day.
Never go for the sticker price when buying a car. Instead, always ask for the out-the-door rate, which includes all taxes and fees. Your dealer will calculate it for you.
They may not be so happy about it, but you will have a clearer picture of how much your monthly payments will be. Plus, you’ll have avoided a bait-and-switch maneuver.
Spot delivery (Yo-Yo financing)
This might be the most common way car dealerships try to milk more money from you.
Once done with the terms of your loan, the paperwork, and driven off, you don’t expect to hear from the dealership. However, the car dealership can call you weeks later, claiming that there is a glitch with financing your loan.
The auto dealership could give you numerous reasons why the loan was disapproved, only to request more money from you.
While at it, the car dealership may promise to toss incentives into the auto financing, like a maintenance plan, so that the loan can meet the requirements for approval. Such a lie is known as spot delivery or yo-yo financing, a form of auto fraud.
If a car dealer lied about financing, you could hold them liable.
Affirmative misrepresentation
Affirmative misrepresentation is more of an intentional process. Instead of withholding information, the dealership can add or change information to increase the car’s appeal.
For instance, a dealer can lie that routine maintenance was done or that the vehicle is new when it’s not.
Such auto fraud is an intentional tactic of altering information to make the car more desirable.
What To Do When a Car Dealership Lies to You?
If you found an auto dealership lying, you would be tempted to confront them. However, this should not be your first compulsion.
What can you do when a car dealer lies about a car sale to the customer?
1. Talk to the dealership management
When you realize something is fishy, don’t confront the salesperson. The salesperson cannot do anything to help, and they probably won’t if they lied to the customer.
You may want to talk to the sales manager or the general manager. Be calm and respectful when explaining the issue and ask them to make things right. You can also come prepared with what you think would be a fair solution to the problem.
2. Talk to the dealership owner
If taking the issue to the general manager doesn’t help, your next cause of action would be to contact the dealership owner, vice president, or dealer principal.
Usually, when a customer cannot resolve an issue at the managerial level, and the problem makes it up the ladder to someone of greater authority, they do everything possible to make the issue disappear.
Executives like vice presidents or dealership owners are busy people and have no time to deal with customers. Use that to your advantage!
So, if your car dealer lied about car features dealer and the issue wasn’t solved by the general manager, go to the next level of authority.
You can identify this person on the dealership’s website. If you don’t, you can call the receptionist and ask.
3. Legal and regulatory options
What if talking it out doesn’t work? Do you still have options if a car dealership lied to you?
The answer is yes. You can raise the issue with your state’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), or the Attorney General’s office.
These options might be time-consuming, but the BBB can try to broker a solution more promptly. The Attorney General and the Bureau of Consumer Protection have to establish a pattern of abuse by leadership before taking action.
That means you may have to wait for more complaints to be filed against the dealer before these agencies can take action.
4. Leverage social media
Social media is the court of last resort. There are numerous sites where you can post a review and share your experience with the dealership.
Once again, be respectful when doing so; no threats or name-calling. It would feel good to rant, but do your best to be concise and factual in your review.
That would be more likely to elicit a positive response from the dealer management and motivate them to make the situation right.
Every dealer wants to protect their online reputation because, for most, that is where they find and retain customers. That means they usually try to make amends for their wrongdoing to encourage more positive reviews from you.
Do I Have a Case If the Car Dealer Lied?
It would be best to consider pursuing legal action when you realize a car dealership lied to you. If they lied once, they would definitely do it again.
Rectifying the issue isn’t in their interest, and they usually overlook customer complaints. But they won’t dismiss a suit.
Legal Giant’s auto fraud partner lawyers can help you fight back and recover compensation if you fall victim to a fraudulent auto dealership. Contact us today to discuss your potential case.
