Dealer Fraud

Often a customer will not qualify for financing upon the terms on the first contract. The customer may be required to increase a down payment, higher APR, etc. in order to qualify for a loan. The dealership has the customer come to sign a second contract with the different terms but backdates the second contract with the date of the first contract. This affects the finance disclosure laws in that the customer is being charged interest for a time period in which the contract is not yet in effect, etc. In addition to making a material misrepresentation regarding when the customer takes the obligation of the new contract, a backdated contract often also violates the single document rule  because another form (usually called Acknowledgment of Rewritten Contract) has the actual date when the contract was signed. Further, many customers are not told that they do not have to sign a second contract, instead they can choose to cancel the contract and return the new vehicle and have the down payment and trade in vehicle refunded. Finally, a dealership only has 10 days to tell you they want to make changes to the contract or cancel the contract. After the 10 days, the dealership cannot change the deal.

You may not realize that the salesperson usually tells you that your trade-in vehicle is worth less than it really is and a lot less than you think it is. They may even tell you that it’s got what they call “negative equity“.
That’s a term car dealers invented when they had to come up with some way of explaining why your car wasn’t worth what you owed on it when you wanted to trade it in, but they didn’t think there was enough profit in it for them to take it off your hands. “Upside down” or “in the bucket” are similar terms.
These terms can be used to play games with the buyer in order to literally steal the trade-in vehicle, by taking it in for trade but taking the payoff amount and tacking it onto the price of the car that the customer is buying.
Tip: Defend yourself by knowing for sure what your trade-in is worth and finding out what your loan payoff really is. Don’t take the dealer’s word for it. Know before you go. Check trade-in values online. Look in newspapers to see what dealers are selling your kind of trade-in vehicle for. The more you know, the better prepared you are to keep from getting ripped off. And above all, be careful thru each step of the process.
Remember: the dealer’s objective is to get the money out of your pocket and into their’s. Your objective is to keep as much of your money as you can!

This arises in a transaction that includes a trade-in vehicle when more is owed on the trade-in vehicle than the actual cash value of the vehicle. Generally, a customer is led to believe that the dealership is valuing the trade-in vehicle at the same amount as what is owed (thus the customer won’t owe anything on the trade-in.) In reality, the secret actual cash value (the value the dealership is really giving the trade-in) is less than the amount owed. The difference is added to the cash price of the new vehicle (or the capitalization costs of a leased vehicle.) By inflating the cash price or cap costs of the vehicle, you the customer are illegally paying more in sales tax and registration. The dealership may also be violating the laws related to selling a vehicle for the advertised price (a dealership may not sell for more than advertised price.) A similar illegal practice may occur when a lease balance is paid off. These are still illegal practices even when the customer is told what is happening.

The purchase contract requires the car dealer to return to you all consideration (i.e., everything) given for the purchase. This includes your trade-in vehicle. If you gave a $2,000 down payment and a car as a trade-in, the car dealer must give you back both the $2,000 and the trade-in when you return the car you purchased.

Sometimes a car dealer may tell you that it already sold your trade-in, and will offer you the value of the trade-in as listed on the purchase contract. The language of the purchase contract does not appear to give the car dealer this option. It requires the return of the trade-in. However, if the car dealer does sell your trade-in, at the very least, you should tell the car dealer that it has to give you whatever is the highest value for your trade-in out of either (1) the value of the trade-in as listed on the purchase contract, (2) the fair market value, or (3) what the car dealer received when it sold your trade-in.

The following is a list of auto dealer activities which may signal possible auto fraud in your automobile transaction for either purchase or lease of a vehicle in California.

• Selling you a vehicle that was previously repurchased from a prior owner as a lemon without full disclosure to you
• Selling you a vehicle that was previously salvaged as a total wreck without full disclosure to you
• Selling you a vehicle that had previously been used as a rental vehicle without full disclosure to you
• Failing to provide you with a written contract in the language in which you negotiated the transaction, specifically in Spanish, Vietnamese or Tagalog as well as certain other languages specific,
• Prematurely selling your trade-in vehicle and then later trying to undo the transaction
• Improperly calculating the negative equity on your trade-in
• Switching you from a sale to a lease without full disclosure
• Charging more than the advertised price for the vehicle
• Failing to disclose to you the vehicle history including records of all substantial accidents causing considerable damage

There may be many other improper acts committed by the dealer, which may not constitute fraud by themselves. Nevertheless, if one or more of these types of behaviors occur they may indicate that there is something improper about the transaction and you should be very wary about signing any documents without further review and understanding of the transaction

The purchase contract requires the car dealer to return to you all consideration (i.e., everything) given for the purchase. This includes your trade-in vehicle. If you gave a $2,000 down payment and a car as a trade-in, the car dealer must give you back both the $2,000 and the trade-in when you return the car you purchased.

Sometimes a car dealer may tell you that it already sold your trade-in, and will offer you the value of the trade-in as listed on the purchase contract. The language of the purchase contract does not appear to give the car dealer this option. It requires the return of the trade-in. However, if the car dealer does sell your trade-in, at the very least, you should tell the car dealer that it has to give you whatever is the highest value for your trade-in out of either (1) the value of the trade-in as listed on the purchase contract, (2) the fair market value, or (3) what the car dealer received when it sold your trade-in.

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[ To Learn more our services and areas of practice, please visit our website at www.DealerFraud.org]

Often a customer won’t qualify for financing under the terms of the first purchase contract and may be required to increase a down payment, APR, etc. to quality for a loan. The dealership then has the customer sign a second contract with the new terms but backdates it with the date of the first contract, sticking the customer with financing charges for a period during which the contract wasn’t yet in effect. In addition to making a material misrepresentation of when the customer takes the obligation of the new contract, a backdated contract often violates the single document rule because another form, usually called “Acknowledgment of the Rewritten Contract,” has the actual date when the contract was signed. In addition, many customers aren’t informed that they can opt to cancel the contract and return the new vehicle and have the down payment and trade-in vehicle refunded, rather than signing a second contract with less favorable financing terms.

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[ To Learn more our services and areas of practice, please visit our website at www.DealerFraud.org]

The Automobile Sales Finance Act (AFSA) provides that all obligations of both parties in a transaction must be contained in a single document (which explains why purchase agreements are so long in the auto industry). Often, however, dealerships will have customers sign additional documents, such as trade-in forms stating that the customer agrees to pay any difference between the value of their trade-in vehicle and the amount owed on that vehicle. Or, the dealership will agree to make payments on a trade-in vehicle but not include the trade-in vehicle in the purchase agreement. Another example is a “hold check agreement” whereby the customer agrees to pay additional money towards the down payment on a later date. Each of these documents violates the one document rule.

Negative Equity/Over-Allowance arises in a transaction that includes a trade-in vehicle. Generally, the customer is led to believe that the dealership is valuing the trade-in vehicle at the same amount that’s owed (so that the customer doesn’t appear to owe anything on the trade-in). In reality, however, the actual cash value given by the dealership is less than the amount owed, and the difference is added to the cash price of the vehicle being purchased. If this is done it is illegal, even if the customer knows and agrees to it.

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[ To Learn more our services and areas of practice, please visit our website at www.DealerFraud.org]

Also be cautious of the trade-in price being offered to you inasmuch as this represents a dealer’s greatest potential profit on the transaction. Because it is difficult to determine the value of the trade in vehicle, even by resorting to such things as the Kelly Blue Book and web sites and information to help you determine the price of your used vehicle, most consumers will be willing to accept a lower trade-in than what the vehicle is actually worth. Psychologically, once you are tempted to buy that new car your resistance has pretty well been lowered and you are more likely to accept a bad deal in your trade. The dealer will lead you to believe that they are actually providing a service to you by taking your old car off your hands. One way to get around this is to agree on the trade in price before negotiate for that new car so as to avoid getting caught in such a trap.

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[ To Learn more our services and areas of practice, please visit our website at www.DealerFraud.org]