Dealer Fraud

This will be the first in a series of blogs explaining the procedural aspects of Certified Pre-Owned programs. I have written about Certifications scams before. You all know it is my experience and opinion that all Certification programs are scams. They are long on...

Readers of this blog will remember that I've spoken on this subject several times. Many dirty dealers, dirty banks and dirty corporations slip Forced Arbitration Clauses (FACs) into the fine print of their contracts. Among other things, bad Court decisions have...

Dirty dealers operate from the belief that most, almost all, disgruntled customers will eventually just give up and go away. They think if they string things out long enough, leave you on hold for long enough, let enough phone calls go unreturned, break enough...

Under Pennsylvania law, dealers must clearly itemize all charges and fees on the finance agreement. Dirty dealers often do not follow this law, because it enables them to inflate the charges and fees or to sneak in prohibited charges or fees. This is another telling...

I have been hearing reports from consumers and consumer protection attorney colleagues that some dealers and finance companies are moving to computer based contracts. The consumer is shown the contract on a computer screen and signs on the computer screen. This...

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...

Readers of this blog will remember that I have often stated that buying any "after-market" product at the place of sale is usually a mistake. The products are not worth it, and they can almost certainly be obtained cheaper from another source or over the Internet....

As any reader of this blog surely knows, I believe that all of the Certified programs are out and out scams. There is no real oversight or accountability. Therefore, there can be no real standards or value. But the dealers and manufacturers make billions of dollars...

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, "U.S. car sales hit an annual record, clearing a previous peak reached in 2000 as lower gas prices and interest rates spurred consumers to snap up vehicles from dealerships." As we all know, where there are car sales,...

Many dealers send out mailers that pretend to be contests and offer amazing prizes. I've seen them all. Large screen TVs. MP3s. Thousands of dollars. New cars.Often you have to scratch of an area just like an instant lottery ticket. If the number matches, then you are...