One of the biggest schemes used car dealers employ on unsuspecting buyers is failing to disclose that a vehicle had previously been a rental car. Often, dealers will either hide this fact from the customer or spring it on the customer in the finance office. After being on the car lot for hours and hours, a customer stuck in the finance office has no energy to fight off a team of professional car salesman. Is this right? Of course not!
The Law
California law requires a dealer to clearly identify a vehicle’s prior rental status if it knows of the status. A California consumer has the right to know a vehicle’s history in order to make a fully informed decision about buying the vehicle. Many of us have driven a rental vehicle and know the abuse rental cars are put through. Don’t believe us? Just Google “rental car abuse” and you’ll find close to 30 million search results, many of which are videos of drivers abusing their rental cars.
Yet dealers don’t tell you about this abuse. Instead, they tout the benefits of a “one owner vehicle.” There may have only been one owner, but definitely more than one driver.
The Cars
These vehicles can seem attractive because they tend to be late model year vehicles at a reasonable price. Many are of big brands. The LA Times lists the top 10 rental car brands:
- Chevrolet
- Ford
- Chrysler
- Dodge
- Pontiac
- Toyota
- Hyundai
- Nissan
- Jeep
- Buick
The Problems
But the late model year can be deceptive. Many will have exceeded the manufacturer’s warranty mileage in less than two years. This means you won’t have warranty coverage for the problems that will inevitably occur. From bad struts to accident damage, our clients have had a wide range of extensive problems. This sort of fraud is detrimental to the consumer, yet helps pad the dealers’ pocketbooks.
Is your recently purchased used vehicle giving you mechanical trouble? Is it one of these brands? It could be due to the dozens of drivers who put thousands of miles on the “one owner” vehicle.
The Solution
Want to know if it is a rental car? Call the Auto Fraud Legal Center at 1-800-4NOLEMON to speak with one of our experienced Consumer Attorneys. We can run a free Carfax and AutoCheck history report for you to get to the bottom of the mystery.