The Price was Wrong on the Price is Right

So you think when you win a brand new car on a tv game show, you'd actually get a brand new car, huh? Well not according to Donna Tillman. What she says she actually got was a wrecked and repaired car.

Court papers filed in L.A. claim that she thought she won a new Pontiac GTO worth $33,495 and wasn't suspicious when delivery of the car took a little longer than usual because the car got "bounced around" from Australia to San Francisco to Pasadena before she got the keys in her hand to her shiny new car.

It was the first new car she had ever owned and the single mother of two was thrilled to win it on the big game show formerly hosted by her life long idol Bob Barker. But a year later the trouble started.


She noticed that when you got up to freeway speed the car "felt like it was windy outside" according to the New York Post newspaper. After a fender bender a year later she took it into the shop and mechanics told her that the car "had existing front end and structural frame damage" and had been repaired in a way to hide the damage. At that point, she was more than a little "bent out of shape" about her bent outta shape car, no doubt.

Worse yet she paid taxes based on the full value of the car and not the wrecked value of the car. Talk about irritating! No wonder she feels cheated. Meanwhile, the car dealer who delivered it to her is claiming Tillman damaged the vehicle herself.

Was your vehicle wrecked before you bought it? Every year thousands of vehicles are totalled out by insurance companies after accidents or a flood. A total loss usuallymeans the vehicle can not be repaired cost effectively up to mechanical or safety standards. Such vehicles are supposed to be junked and used for parts only but it doesn't always happen.

If someone sticks you with a wrecked car and you didn't know it when you bought it, you've got rights so don't put up with it. If they won't take care of it, email us or call for a free case conference, toll free 888.331.6422.

Helping consumers protect themselves is what we do every day. Suing car dealers and manufacturers for consumers is also what we do every day.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Known nationwide as a leading Lemon Law attorney, Ronald L. Burdge has represented literally thousands of consumers in "lemon" lawsuits and actively co-counsels and coaches other Consumer Law attorneys. From 2005 through 2018, attorney Ronald L. Burdge has been named as the only Lemon Law Ohio Super Lawyer by Law and Politics magazine and Thomson Reuters Corp., Professional Division. Burdge restricts his practice to Lemon Law and Consumer Law cases. The Ohio Super Lawyer results are published annually in the January issue of Cincinnati Magazine. Ronald L. Burdge was named Consumer Law Trial Lawyer of the Year 2004 by the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the nation's largest organization of consumer law private and government attorneys. "Your impact on the auto industry has been magnified many times over because of the trail you blazed for others," stated NACA's Executive Director, Will Ogburn. Burdge has represented thousands of consumers in Ohio, Kentucky and elsewhere since 1978 and is a frequent lecturer to national, state and local Bar Associations and Judicial organizations. Burdge is admitted to Ohio's state and federal courts, Kentucky's state courts, and Indiana's federal courts. Other court admissions are on a "pro hac" temporary, case by cases basis.