Lawyers For Car Dealership Problems Near Me

Watch the Video Below: Too many car buyers in Maryland find themselves searching for lawyers for car dealership problems near me after encountering dishonest and deceptive dealers when shopping for a car.

If you are struggling with a car dealer’s damaging schemes,Whitney, LLP’s lawyers for car dealership problems may be able to represent you, fight back, unwind a bad deal, recover compensation, and protect your rights.

You may also file an MVA Complaint, however there are a limited number of investigators and an experienced attorney is often able to recover additional compensation beyond the relief the MVA is able to provide.

Whitney, LLP’s lawyers for car dealership problems deal with car dealerships for buyers who were lied to and need help. Our auto dealer fraud lawyers have successfully sued new and used dealers across Maryland to unwind bad deals and recover compensation. Click Here to Read about our Top 10 Most Common Types of Cases against Car Dealers.

We offer Legal Consultations. Call Whitney, LLP at 410 583 8000, or use our Quick Contact Form, to discuss your potential case.  Here is our YouTube Channel  for videos on car dealer legal issues.

Click Here to read reviews from our past clients.
Click Here to read about past car dealer fraud settlements.
Click Here to read blogs about our other car dealer cases, including settlements and other lawsuits we filed.

Lawyers for Problems with Car Dealerships

Transcript Below, Edited for the blog:

Hi, this is Dan Whitney with The Whitney Law Firm in Towson, Maryland. If you found this video, it’s probably because you’re looking for a lawyer for car dealership problems near me. So, I’m an attorney. I handle car dealership cases across the state of Maryland. Sued a lot of car dealerships, new and used.

Finance Managers are Trained to Scheme

And many people of course have problems with car dealerships. They have a bad reputation for a reason, and the reason is because a lot of them cheat their customers and do what they can to get as much money as possible out of a particular deal. Now, they’re able to do this because the finance managers and the salesmen and sales managers, many of them are highly trained and many customers have absolutely no idea what a finance contract is really getting them into.

So, in other words, the general public is dealing with highly trained individuals who are experts at dealing with numbers, and also convincing people to simply sign a piece of paper. Now, a lot of customers will end up signing paperwork that when they get home, they look at it and they realize, “Wow, this is not what I thought. I thought my payments were going to be 300, but now they’re 500,” or the price of the car was supposed to be $20,000 online, somehow it got bumped to $24,000. There’s an endless variety of problems that can happen.

Common Dealer Lies in Maryland

So, the most common problems that I deal with for my clients with car dealerships is spot delivery violations, where financing is not approved, but the car dealership, when they say, “Financing isn’t approved. Give us our car back.” They’ll say, “Well, thanks for the car, but we’re going to keep the down payment,” or “We’re going to keep half of your down payment because you’ve used our car and we want some money for that.” Well, in Maryland, there’s strict rules about that, and they’re essentially not allowed to keep the down payment when financing is not approved. It’s very clear. It’s a clear law. A lot of them do it anyway. It happens all the time.

The second biggest one is false online pricing. So, of course, everybody goes to cargurus.com or cars.com or Autotrader or TrueCar, whatever it is, to see what is the lowest possible price I can pay. Everybody does it. Now, the dirty secret, maybe it’s not much of a secret is that a lot dealers just put the lowest price on there and they do that to get the customer in the door.

And of course, once you take the time to find the car online that you like at the price you like, maybe you email or call the dealer. They say, “Of course, we have it. Come on in.” You get there, you test drive it. You look at it, it all looks good. Hours go by. And of course, by the time you make it into the finance manager’s office, you probably have had enough of this. And you’re hoping that what’s about to happen next doesn’t happen. But then of course it does.

Well, you get your contract and the paper says the price is 25,000. And you say, “Well, finance manager, the ad says 20,000. What are you doing?” And what will happen next is there’s talk about reconditioning fees. There’s talk about inspection fees. There’s talk about this rebate, that rebate. And you may say, “Well, wait a sec, the advertisement didn’t say anything about rebates.” And then you’ll hear some jibber-jabber about whatever. And the point is, finance managers and the salesmen are very good at saying what needs to be said to get you to sign that contract, whether or not you agree with it or not.

Even If You Signed the Contract You Can Fight Back

Well, the good news is even if you sign that contract and things are wrong on it, sometimes it doesn’t matter that you signed. And of course you can fight back and oftentimes you can get whatever you paid that was too much, you can get that back. And sometimes you can unwind the deal. That happens a lot too.

[End video transcript]

Maryland Law Prohibits Dealers From Fraudulent Acts

In Maryland, auto dealerships are actually mandated by state law to not commit fraud.

In other words, Maryland law specifically states dealers and their employees may not commit fraud or make misrepresentations – this is a very good law to use to fight back against dishonest dealerships. Maryland Transportation Code Ann., § 15-312(b)&(c):

(b)  Making material misrepresentations in obtaining vehicle sales contracts.- A dealer or an agent or employee of a dealer may not make any material misrepresentation in obtaining a vehicle sales contract.

(c)  Fraud.- A dealer or an agent or employee of a dealer may not commit any fraud in the execution of or any material alteration of a contract, power of attorney, or other document incident to a sales transaction.

Hiding Damage and Tricking Customers

Some dealers may try to cover up serious problems, including damage to the frame, major crash damage or even flooding.  As a result, customers may drive away with a defective vehicle that soon requires expensive and unexpected repairs. When the dealership knew it was selling damaged vehicles and passed them off to customers with false assurances, this is a form of fraud.

Other car dealers may try to get a sale by telling you that certain options are included on your car and adding those options to the bill, only for you to later learn that you never received those expensive additional features. You may not learn about this type of deception until you visit a mechanic and find out that you were overcharged for your vehicle. This can even pose a danger when safety features are among the falsely claimed benefits of a car.

Fraudulent auto dealers may claim that they are selling new cars when they are actually selling used cars that were previously sold and then returned.

They may roll back the odometers, committing odometer fraud, or they may claim that mileage showing on the car is from delivery, test drives and dealer use when there was actually a previous owner of the car.

If you paid too much or were tricked into buying due to a dealer’s misrepresentation, an attorney for car dealership problems can work with you to pursue the compensation you deserve.

Fraudulent Financing and Contract Schemes

On the other hand, the car itself may be in great shape. It may even seem to be a good deal when you first agree to the contract, but fraudulent financing schemes can shortly wipe away your joy in your new vehicle.

Spot delivery fraud is one common type of financing scheme. You may be allowed to drive off the lot with your new car as the dealer assures you that financing will be approved or has already been approved. The dealership may then call you and tell you that in order to keep the car, you have to put more money down or pay a higher interest rate. Many customers then feel pressured to keep the car and pay these high fees, which benefits the dealer.

In other cases, dealers may solicit customers with credit problems, knowing that financing applications are unlikely to succeed. They may then try to hold onto the down payment, even when you walk away without a vehicle after the financing plan does not work. If you are paying the price for a financing or contract scheme, contact the auto fraud attorneys at Whitney, LLP. We can work with you to fight aggressively for your rights.

Bogus Bank Fees and Reconditioning and Inspection Fees

Forcing customers to pay a “bank fee” on top of the advertised price is a common scheme, especially when a deal is financed through Credit Acceptance. Dealers may not not pass bank fees onto their customers – it is illegal, yet dealers often do it.

Bogus reconditioning fees and inspection fees are also common, and illegal, practices that many dealerships use to trick customers into paying more.

The Maryland law on advertising is here: Maryland Transportation Code Ann., § 15-313(c). Maryland has strict advertising requirements for the purchase price of a vehicle:

(c) Statement of purchase price. —

(1) A dealer or an agent or employee of a dealer:

• May not state the purchase price of a vehicle in an advertisement unless the price is the full delivered purchase price of the vehicle, excluding only taxes, title fees, and any freight or dealer processing charge disclosed in accordance with § 15-311.1 of this subtitle; and
• Shall print the full delivered purchase price in a vehicle advertisement in the largest font used in the advertisement to provide any information related to the price of the vehicle.

Whitney, LLP’s lawyers help car buyers fight back in all of these schemes across Maryland.

Daniel W. Whitney, Sr. and Daniel W. Whitney, Jr. of Whitney, LLP

Whitney, LLP’s Lawyers for Car Dealership Problems Near Me

Unfortunately, many car buyers in Maryland deal with dishonest or fraudulent car dealers when buying a vehicle, and the costs quickly begin to escalate. However, you are not condemned to suffer alone and pay the price for a dealer’s fraudulent conduct.   We sue car dealerships and help many car buyers unwind bad deals and recover compensation.

If you were lied to or are the victim of a dishonest car dealership, our lawyers for car dealership problems near me may be able to help you fight back, unwind a bad deal on a car contract, and/or recover your money.

Call Whitney, LLP at 410 583 8000, or use our Quick Contact Form, to discuss your potential case.