NEW YORK – Two New York City car dealership companies, operating five locations in Brooklyn and Queens, are under investigation for allegedly engaging in deceptive and illegal business practices to mislead vulnerable buyers, the Department of Dealership announced Wednesday. Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP).
Cases against dealerships Kings Autoshow and JF Motors will be heard at the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH). Thousands of violations are alleged here, including some against laws designed to prevent predatory industry conduct.
On the one hand, Kings Autoshow, which operates two Mitsubishi locations in Brooklyn, is being indicted by DCWP for allegedly committing more than 7,000 violations and seeking more than $ 50,000 in restitution for 34 consumers, civil penalties and revocation of its two dealer licenses. of used cars.
On the other hand, in the case against JF Motors, which includes Automania, Luxury Automotive Club and the now-closed World Auto, all in Queens, DCWP indicts them for more than 9,000 violations and seeks more than $ 100,000 in restitution for nine consumers, penalties civil and revocation of your two remaining licenses. DCWP also seeks to hold the respective owners and Brooklyn Mitsubishi general manager personally responsible for the violations.
“These dealerships repeatedly victimized their customers and violated consumer protection laws,” said DCWP Commissioner Peter A. Hatch. “We are taking steps to end their exploitative practices, obtain restitution for the consumers they harmed, and revoke their licenses so they cannot do this again.”
Both companies allegedly carried out various illegal behaviors:
They used false advertising to entice consumers and charge more for the vehicles than advertised. For example, a consumer saw a Jeep 4W Grand Cherokee 2017, which was advertised by Brooklyn Mitsubishi on CarGurus.com for $ 27,994. When the victim visited the dealership and, after making the down payment, Brooklyn Mitsubishi allegedly rushed him to sign all the paperwork and in the end would have charged him $ 36,585 for the car, or $ 8,500 above the advertised price.
Also, the report says, Brooklyn Mitsubishi dealers had a practice of luring consumers with lower credit scores by promising “guaranteed approval” for financing and prior approval for financing from a bogus finance company. They also allegedly misled consumers about warranties, executed illegal contracts, failed to keep required records, failed to respond to DCWP subpoenas, and submitted false license applications to DCWP.
Additionally, JF Motors dealerships allegedly used illegal contracts, required consumers to purchase service contracts that did not exist or had less coverage than promised, overcharged out-of-state buyers for title and registration fees, and they did not provide contracts and other documents to consumers in Spanish even though the deal was negotiated in Spanish.
DCWP currently licenses 476 used car dealerships and has received more than 10,000 complaints about the industry since 2014.
DCWP encourages New Yorkers looking to buy a used car to read the used car consumer bill of rights, which dealers must publish and deliver to each consumer before signing a sales contract. The Bill of Rights must be delivered to the consumer in the language in which the contract was negotiated if the translation is available on the DCWP website.
Any consumer who has had a problem with a used car dealer should file a complaint by visiting nyc.gov/dcwp or by contacting 3-1-1.
New Yorkers trying to get their finances in order before buying a car or struggling with debt can make an appointment for free personalized financial counseling at one of the City’s Financial Empowerment Centers by calling 3-1- 1 or online at nyc.gov/TalkMoney.
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We can do so much better. Our industry cheered this man on. To keep tight lipped about what is costing dealers their very licenses, is plain stupid.
Perhaps we can start to have open conversations about sustainability and how we have notoriously chased not only our own customers, but also our own employees off with a degree of precision that will take very hard work that a only rare few will step up to the plate to be a part of. That is what will drive the future of our business.
This is the same person who claims to be a social media guru helping other dealers achieve his “success” but if you simply look at any of the many stores he’s been running you’ll see he has mastered only the art of review manipulation 101, and sadly most dealers have done the same sometimes knowingly or otherwise.
He’s seen in a Saturday morning meeting with his sales staff on YouTube talking about being “uncomfortable” (to achieve higher sales and profitability, presumably, among a room full of salesmen who didn’t seem particularly interested in anything he had to say, some visually expressing their boredom with their hands propping their heads up) “uncomfortable”… a word he uses exactly 15 times in less than 10 minutes might better describe how his sales team feels by knowingly being a part of false advertising and misleading consumers.