Used Car Dealer Scammed My Niece

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

He fairly suggested that if she was to rent a car that she would need to pay per day, and it had been ten days, so he asked for $250. I said that it sounded like a fair compromise, so both parties feel good about the deal.

That's probably the best you could have gotten out of this mess, but that won't change the dealer's ways. He just earned $250 and had one extra parking space on his lot for 10 days. He'll sell this car for the same amount to the next sucker and will come out ahead anyway. And considering that probably 80% of his customers don't come back to complain, 19% do and would be fine with returning the car and paying a "rent/restock" fee, and only 1% will drag him to court, he has no incentive for doing honest business.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by Kaotic Lazagna

Oh dang, straight up "pot lot" dealership. Well, at least she wasn't dinged on what ever credit score she may have at her age. Although, it would be a good time for her to start building her credit (she would need a co-signer in order to not get super high rates). I would stay away from dealerships like the ones she went to. Stick with either manufacturer's used car inventory, or places like CarMax. Yeah, will pay more for the car, but more likely than not, the cars will be in better shape, and there will be less sketchy things going on. Just look up reviews on the dealership first since we all know how shady some are (looking at you, the now gone Momentum Auto Group).

I plan to have her save a few more grand then she will give me some collateral that I’ll give back to here when she completes the payments, and I’ll cosign for the small difference. We will go to a real dealership next time and get something more reasonable with 60-80% down of the out-the-door price.

[vh_supra26]

Are cars just stupidity expensive in CA? A 08 Malibu w/ 200k, leather or not in our neck of the woods is a $2k-$3k cash car on Craigslist.

Anyways, best of luck with your situation.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by vh_supra26

Are cars just stupidity expensive in CA? A 08 Malibu w/ 200k, leather or not in our neck of the woods is a $2k-$3k cash car on Craigslist.

Anyways, best of luck with your situation.

Exactly. $3.5k max. With the issues that one had, $1500-2k. He was gouging a young girl who assumed the asking price was fair market value.

[vh_supra26]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

Exactly. $3.5k max. With the issues that one had, $1500-2k. He was gouging a young girl who assumed the asking price was fair market value.

That sucks, sorry that happened. I remember my dad always went with my sister and I when we were younger (17-24 yo) to look at cars. I also didn't hurt that he went to mechanic school for a period amount of time.

[e30cabrio]

Thanks for a happy ending. I was afraid this was going to end up bad.

I''m glad you got it fixed!

[Atmo]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

I’m pretty pissed she never called me to help her shop for a car.

Tell me about it. Somehow I got the family rep as the car guru, maybe because I have different iron in the driveway every few months. But they still go off and act like your niece then wind up looking to me for a bailout.

Glad you got it resolved amicably and ethically. Would you mind talking with my financial advisor?

[AnalogMan]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

***UPDATE***

Pretty stoked the guy was nice and that we were able to civilly resolve the problem.

You are VERY lucky that it worked out that way. I'd bet that 99% of the time it doesn't. I've heard so many stories and had friends go through similar situations where the dealer basically says 'screw you, sue me if you don't like it'.

While we do live in a highly litigious society and anyone can (and does) sue anyone for anything, the reality is that it costs money and time. You probably had legal recourse, but would you have been willing to put up thousands of dollars and months to years of time for an uncertain outcome? Most people wouldn't (or couldn't) and dealers know that, which is why they usually tell buyers to go pound sand.

As it is, it fortunately turned out to be a very effective life lesson for her, one she hopefully won't ever forget, and will learn from for the rest of her life.

[p1l0t]

Originally Posted by AnalogMan

You are VERY lucky that it worked out that way. I'd bet that 99% of the time it doesn't. I've heard so many stories and had friends go through similar situations where the dealer basically says 'screw you, sue me if you don't like it'.



While we do live in a highly litigious society and anyone can (and does) sue anyone for anything, the reality is that it costs money and time. You probably had legal recourse, but would you have been willing to put up thousands of dollars and months to years of time for an uncertain outcome? Most people wouldn't (or couldn't) and dealers know that, which is why they usually tell buyers to go pound sand.



As it is, it fortunately turned out to be a very effective life lesson for her, one she hopefully won't ever forget, and will learn from for the rest of her life.

True but most states have a 3 day buyers remorse law anyway.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by p1l0t

True but most states have a 3 day buyers remorse law anyway.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

She was past that.

I think he knew the transaction was sketchy. I think he also saw my niece, an 18 year old mixed and struggling young mother, and figured he could make a quick buck, but then he saw me, a white healthcare professional who doesn’t appear to be struggling, and he heard what I had to say and realized he would cut his losses because he wasn’t talking to a sucker.

I expected him to blow us off and take a chance on us taking him to small claims, but this wasn’t a great looking situation for him, and I had the means to follow this through.

The reality is I have the means of taking the car to a mechanic and having the car brought to smog specs, which could have costed a lot. The transmission may have needed major service or replacement; whatever is cheaper. The EGR needs service. The cat probably needed replacement and possibly the o2 sensors and maybe spark plugs if they fouled. On top of that, he would have needed to pay the smog fee. There could have been recourse for charging a smog fee without providing a smog certificate or not completely disclosing the problems of the car.

There is that, and he said he doesn’t advertise, so he relies on word of mouth and 17 years of business. He said they don’t do shady business, and he is not some crook like he was trying to convince me.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by Irace86.2.0

He said they don’t do shady business, and he is not some crook like he was trying to convince me.

I think I'd be more willing to get a car from a lot where the owner acknowledges that he's doing shady business vs. one who swears up and down he's honest .

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast

I think I'd be more willing to get a car from a lot where the owner acknowledges that he's doing shady business vs. one who swears up and down he's honest .

Agreed.

A mechanic there asked if we were getting our money back, as the owner was checking out the car, and when I said yes he raised his eyebrows with surprise and said we were lucky because normally he tells people to go f off.

Based on the nature of his auction lot, it is clear he buys cheap and patches them up and flips them in probably less than an honest manner. He wasn’t fooling me, but he was playing honest nice guy versus what I assume is more of a hustler mode.

[gravitylover]

Originally Posted by soundman98

great to hear the guy actually worked with you on it all!

the even better news is that there's now reports that the used vehicle market is starting to cool off(initial-covid, used car prices were skyrocketing), so moving forward, it's going to be easier to get something a little more reasonably priced..

good luck car hunting!

I'm looking for something used because I'm still not sure I'm going to put a new motor in my car. I'm finding some outrageously good deals on vehicles that were definitely not sensibly priced a few months ago. Some categories are lower than they've been for years, I'm seeing really nice Landcruisers and 4Runners for thousands less than this time last year and even some classics at surprisingly low prices.

I think people are hurting...