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Is it fraud for dealers to overestimate a vehicle’s gas mileage?

On Behalf of | Apr 26, 2022 | Dealer Fraud

Dealerships typically post the details of each vehicle on their lots for prospective buyers. Knowing what your vehicle is capable of will influence how much you will pay for it. Many drivers will happily pay a little extra for a vehicle with good gas mileage, as it will have lower operational costs than a vehicle with poor gas mileage.

The rating estimating a vehicle’s miles per gallon (MPG) is a figure generated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Manufacturers have historically fought legal liability related to that figure. You may not be able to hold a manufacturer accountable for poor gas mileage, but a dealership lying about the mpg a vehicle offers might constitute dealership fraud.

Vehicle dealerships must honestly represent the cars for sale

It is not legal for a dealership to intentionally misrepresent the details about the vehicles it sells. Lying about the MPG could impact the sale price as much as lying about the current mileage the vehicle has on it.

The figures for fuel efficiency are easily verifiable, and dealerships should make certain that they provide buyers with accurate information. If a dealership misrepresented the vehicle to you by claiming it got substantially more MPG than the EPA says it does, their misrepresentation of the vehicle could provide you with grounds to bring a claim against them.

Buyers could show that they lost money because of the lower resale value than they expected or the higher fuel costs for using the vehicle. Lying about a vehicle in Pennsylvania could give rise to the dealership fraud claims from the dissatisfied buyer

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