False Odometer Statement

[Oracle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Oracle]

My DD, who lives in Texas, purchased a used car from a dealership. The salesman stated that the car had ~8000 miles on it. I don't know if DD test drove the car, if she did, she did not note the odometer reading at the time. The bill of sale states that the milage was ~8000 miles, but when they registered the car with the state, the milage was ~39,000.

Do I have a case against the dealer for odometer fraud?

Trying to sort things out long distance is not the easiest thing, so before I have to go down there, I need to have all my facts straight. She has sent me a copy of her bill of sale and it does state 8K miles, so it is not a case of her misreading the documentation. In essence, they have filled out a false federal milage statement. I have also seen the registration filed at the county DMV and it states a milage of 39K miles. There is a huge discrepancy in the documents. As far as we can tell, the odometer has not been tampered and does reflect the true milage of the car.

Anybody with experience in this area?

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Here's how I would handle it.

Go to http://www.kbb.com/ and http://www.nada.com and see what the dealer retail price of the car is with 39000 miles. Since she has in writing that the car is supposed to have 8000 miles, she has the right to return the car for a full refund if she wants. If she paid more that it is worth with 39000 miles, and she wants to keep the car, then she can ask for some money back, or an equivalent value in service or accessories.

But if you mean a legal case, then you are talking about an icky lawsuit that you would have to find some way to collect even if you got a judgement. I am talking about going back to the owner or General Manager of the dealership with a specific plan in mind~~~return the car outright, keep the car with a refund of money, etc.

When we bought our boat at Bass Pro, it had been used at Big Cedar Lodge for 3 months. The day we looked at it we weren't serious buyers, so didn't look at it seriously. When I checked used boat values, we got serious.

I wrote the salesman and asked him what type of engine it had. He wrote back a 150 O/S EFI. I never gave that another thought until we had it serviced the first time and another dealer talked about the carburetor.

Ooh!

At that point I checked the value of the engine between carbureted and EFI. It was about $1000. I contacted the General Manager of boat sales and asked for that amount of accessories to be added, explaining that they could give me $1000 value at their cost. They agreed and put on a 72 pound thrust trolling motor (and batteries), an onboard charger, and a fishfinder.

Another little example, I was getting tickets for Area Appreciation for Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater yesterday. A lady came in and wanted to return her retail tickets for Area Appreciation tickets ($39 compared to $5). For some reason it couldn't be done, but the manager handed her a complimentary pass for two for any show, and she was happy.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

The first people I would talk to would be the state department of motor vehicles. In some states they will pull a dealer's license for such misconduct.

[Oracle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Oracle]

Here is a point I left out of my original post: The dealership is a new car dealership with three stores that apparently heavily advertise (standing 2 hour infomercial on Saturday mornings). They have a large incentive to make this go away if I decide to push it. This is not some small time used car lot.

I know if there has been tampering with the odometer then she can demand a refund. I don't know if the same could be done if the paperwork was not correct.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Here is a point I left out of my original post: The dealership is a new car dealership with three stores that apparently heavily advertise (standing 2 hour infomercial on Saturday mornings). They have a large incentive to make this go away if I decide to push it. This is not some small time used car lot.

I know if there has been tampering with the odometer then she can demand a refund. I don't know if the same could be done if the paperwork was not correct.

I think Jim gave excellent advice.

I'm going to assume that DD is otherwise happy with the car, or else she wouldn't have bought it. So what she should do is try to be made whole. She should just go in and explain the situation and suggest a resolution. She should not threaten legal acito or going to DMV. That should only be done later, if she doesn't feel she is being made whole.

*******

You didn't ask for this advice, but I'm going to add it anyway.

You started the post by asking "Do I have a case against the dealer for odometer fraud?"

The answer to that is simple. "No, you do not. None whatsoever."

Your DD might, but you don't.

You need to offer advice to your DD, then butt out. You don't have the problem. She does. You should not offer to own the problem. If she asks you to own the problem you should refuse to own it.

If you've already taken ownership of the problem, and it sounds as if you might have done so because you're talking about handing the paperwork and going down there to straighten it out, you need to give ownership back to her.

If she's big enough to buy a car on her own, she's big enough to sort this out on her own. If she's big enough to buy a car but can't sort it out on her own, it's time she learned to do so. And the way she will learn is by taking ownership of the problem and resolving it herself.

[Oracle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Oracle]

You didn't ask for this advice, but I'm going to add it anyway.

You started the post by asking "Do I have a case against the dealer for odometer fraud?"

The answer to that is simple. "No, you do not. None whatsoever."

Your DD might, but you don't.

You need to offer advice to your DD, then butt out. You don't have the problem. She does. You should not offer to own the problem. If she asks you to own the problem you should refuse to own it.

If you've already taken ownership, and it sounds as if you might have done so because you're talking about handing the paperwork and going down there to straighten it out, you need to give ownership back to her.

If she's big enough to buy a car on her own, she's big enough to sort this out on her own.

That would be good advise, but I am a co-signer on the loan. So while you are technically correct, I do have a financial interest in seeing that she get the maximum value for her deal.

Car dealers can be a slimy lot, certainly not the majority but enough to show her that there are sharks out there. One Chevy dealer down there hid a woman's car and effectively locked her in the dealership (it was just after closing) to close the deal. She ended up calling 911 to get her car keys from the salesman and his manager.

Right now, she has the upper hand in the deal and she has asked for my help. I don't want her to squander it by getting a fast talking salesman to get her evidence against them. Now it is a lesson on how to assert your rights and how to play hardball. I already brushed back the dealer by letting her set the price of the trade-in and car based on their expectation to use their financing. When I stepped in, I cut the interest by 4% through USAA and the dealer couldn’t readjust the numbers.

Believe me, I am not happy about this and wanted no part of this when it began, but that would have not set well with DW to let our DD to twist in the wind.

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

If the odometer says 39,000 even though the paper works says 8,000, I think you're in trouble.

It was so easy for you to check the mileage when your DD into the car for a test drive, how can you call it odometer fraud? They can say that they had meant that it had about 38,000 miles on it when they got it and now the car has 39K. They had just made a small mistake when they wrote it down.

If thay had said the car had a radio, but it didn't. Don't you think they would say will it was a simple error but how could you not notice this for yourself?

Good Luck

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

We worked with dealers and conversion companies for several years.

The things I could tell you about odometers!!!!

I would not trust any of them and would assume the worst first.