When you purchase a used vehicle at a dealership, you trust that you will receive all the accurate information about the vehicle. Every feature of the vehicle, whether it’s the mileage, title, or owner history, matters when you’re making your purchasing decision. Unfortunately, dealerships aren’t always honest during used vehicle sales.
Dishonest Used Car Dealerships
In some unfortunate situations, a dealership’s sole purpose is their bottom line, and they will go through dishonest measures to make money. This ends up hurting car buyers who later find out that they purchased a lemon. Below we have put together a list of some of the most common things dealerships lie about when they are selling used vehicles:
- Check Engine Light: Dealerships may go through great lengths to hide a check engine light. If a used vehicle is having trouble, the check engine light is meant to alert the driver that there is an issue. Dealerships should not hide these issues from car buyers.
- Carfax: Another common thing dealerships lie about is a clean Carfax. The Carfax is a list of the previous owner’s reports to their insurance company about previous accidents. However, just because a claim was never made doesn’t mean the car was never in an accident.
- Odometer Reading: In some cases, dealerships change the odometer reading so that it won’t match the actual mileage.
- Vehicle’s Title: Dealers often hide the vehicle’s true title, whether salvage, junk, nonrepairable, etc.
What Should I Do If I Purchase a Lemon?
If you purchased a certified-used vehicle only to find out that you purchased a lemon, there are laws that protect you. Although you can’t return the vehicle to the dealership, you can file a lemon law claim to seek compensation for the dealership’s wrongdoing. You can demonstrate that after multiple repair attempts, your vehicle still isn’t functioning properly. Our team at O’Connor Law Group, P.C. can guide you through the process to help you obtain the best possible results for your case.
Contact our California lemon law attorneys today at (949) 390-9695 to schedule a consultation!