I am posting this semi - anonymously (sp?) due to the fact that the decision has been made to go forward with a lawsuit, therefore I will be leaving out some details (dealer name, model of car, etc.) I will otherwise give as much detail as possible.
A Chevrolet sports car was purchased by a member in my family (who we'll call John) in the mid to late '90's. It was a '95 model car and upon purchasing the car, it had slightly over 30k miles on the car. It was purchased with one prior owner before the dealership took hold of the car and title. %26quot;John%26quot; purchased this car at a reasonable price for these facts. %26quot;John%26quot; and my family live in a small town in the state of Texas and do not drive the sports car a lot, keeping the miles down on the car. In '05, John sold the car to my husband, his son (who we'll call Peter.) The title was changed over to reflect the new ownership. %26quot;Peter%26quot; and I have decided to start a family and in order to prepare, we came to the decision that it's necessary to sell the sports car. We listed the car on AutoTrader with all information possible (including the still low miles, under 60k at present time) and with the final price being not far above Blue Book value. Also, the posting had the VIN number for those wanting to look at the %26quot;Carfax%26quot; report. In nearly two months, there were three calls, only one being a serious offer.
After the last person to meet with %26quot;John%26quot; and %26quot;Peter%26quot; about buying the car gives a %26quot;not interested%26quot; excuse after seeing the car and was excited about it, %26quot;John%26quot; and %26quot;Peter%26quot; took the car to a different dealership to see how much a dealership would buy it for. The dealership informs them after researching the car, that the title has a red flag for the mileage being rolled back. It is shown on the title that the mileage was rolled back while at the dealership %26quot;John%26quot; bought it from. More specifically, the mileage stated on the title when the dealership took over the car from the first owner showed just over 50k miles. The title history then shows the dealership selling the car to %26quot;John%26quot; at just over 30k miles. So now this produces the red flag of %26quot;mileage unknown%26quot; or %26quot;AMU%26quot; on a Carfax report while searching the VIN number. Needless to say this was a complete surprise to both %26quot;John%26quot; and %26quot;Peter.%26quot; The dealership then informed %26quot;John%26quot; because of this information, they could only give him half of the Blue Book value which was $4k.
%26quot;John%26quot; has now decided to sue the dealership he originally bought the car from, however we are stuck. There are a few things we don't know how to approach:
First, are we within our statute of limitations considering we just learned this information?
Second, the dealership is no longer in business but, they had been bought out by a larger dealership. Would the purchasing dealership be liable for actions by the prior?
Third, what all could we logically sue for and win? Could we possibly sue for punitive damages? I know we could sue for the difference of the full blue book value, but what else?
Fourth, how do we go individually suing the dealership? Should we hire a lawyer?
Any other information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Victims of a corrupt companyWhat is the easiest to sue a car dealership for damaging my car title by rolling back the mileage?
I am not going to be your best answer but I will try to raise some points. First, carfax could be wrong. There could be an error. If you to court that might be brought up. It will depend on what the agreement with the dealers transfer of ownership entailed to know if the new owner is responsible. In many cases they are not. Possibly the old dealer still has other businesses and you can sue them or go through their insurance. I doubt you will get punitive damages.
If you live in the USA, what this dealer did is not only lawsuit worthy, but it is also ILLEGAL. You can actually bring the company up on charges. You may want to get a lawyer to speak to the former head officer of the company and try to get a settlement out of court in order to refrain from pressing charges. That would be your easiest way.
