Believe it or not, dealers, and manufacturers, want to obtain an exception to common sense – and fraud and unfairness. Dealers and manufacturers want to be able to represent (misrepresent) vehicles as carefully inspected and certified, even though they know that critical safety recall work remains to be done. This type of Dealer Fraud must not be permitted to become law.
Dealers and manufacturers are asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to permit them to sell vehicles as certified without first completing critical safety recall work. This would violate existing law. There are many statutes with broad applicability that apply to car dealers, just like other licensed and regulated entities that engage in commerce. So the FTC is considering allowing dealers to engage in practices that are ILLEGAL under various state and federal laws.
Among those laws are: Consumer Protection statutes, the UCC, Mag Moss /express and implied warranties, and common law fraud. The danger and potential harm is not trivial or theoretical.
Letting dealers sell unsafe vehicles (and we know that they’re unsafe, because there is an outstanding safety recall) with “disclosure” + a “Certified” stamp will make the roads more dangerous for everyone, not only those who buy the cars.
Consumers have NO IDEA about individual safety recalls. This means it will be easy for unscrupulous dealers to profit more by not doing the right thing than by doing it.
Bottom line: The average consumer already thinks that the AVERAGE used car can’t be sold without required recalls being done — and legally, that’s absolutely false. At least we should make it true for these so called “premium” used cars.
The good news is that you can be heard. You can submit your comments in opposition to this non-sense. Here’s the link for sending your two cents:
https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/generalmotorsconsent/
If you think you have been the victim of Dealer Fraud, or any fraud, then you should contact a qualified attorney right away.