We were asked the other day why a car dealer who lied to a customer should have to do anything more than merely take back the car and refund their money. Seems some car dealers and their attorneys think that's enough. Paying "more" means paying what the law calls "punitive damages" and there's a reason for them. I think it was my dad or older brother who first explained to me, years ago, why punitive damages are a necessary part of our society and legal system. It's because of Chuck. Let me explain.

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

The next day he drove up and said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died." Chuck replied, "Well, then, just give me my money back." The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already." Chuck said, "Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey."

The farmer asked, "What ya gonna do with him?" Chuck said, "I'm going to raffle him off." The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead donkey!" Chuck said, "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead."

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?" Chuck said, "I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00." The farmer said, "Didn't anyone complain?" Chuck said, "Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back." Chuck grew up and works for a car dealer now.

Punitive damages are necessary to punish those few business people who knowingly do something that's just plain wrong and is so bad that they need to be taught a lesson and made an example of. 499 people paid Chuck two dollars and never knew they were ripped off. When the one who found out complained, why Chuck just paid them off by refunding their two dollars.

Meanwhile, by lieing to everyone (okay, technically he just hid the truth) Chuck made $898 profit off the scheme.

That's why just making a con artist refund your money is not enough. You have to stop the scheme and as long as they make money off the scheme itself, simply making them refund your money won't be enough to make them stop what they are doing. You have to go deeper into their pocket because people like that only understand one thing: money. After all, if they understood right and wrong, they wouldn't be selling raffle tickets for dead donkeys.

Same thing is true of a thieving car dealer who you catch ripping you off. The average car dealer fights hard to keep from taking back a bad car. Why? Because there's an old saying in the business that goes like this "Once it goes over the curb, we don't take it back."

Nowadays, the smart car dealer will argue but then eventually give up and take it back. They argue hard at first to try to avoid taking back the defective car (that's probably a visceral reaction ingrained in the breed, frankly). But if you argue long enough, the smart car dealer will take the car back just to stop your complaining. After all, they know that they can just pawn off the dead donkey on some other guy or gal, who probably won't argue as long or as loud as you do.

And they get away with it. In fact, they make money off it.

Many courts have explained that punitive damages are intended "to discourage others from committing similar wrongful acts." They don't reward the victim for being a victim. They punish someone for being a thief. Why? Because punishment works.

Otherwise, they'll just keep selling raffle tickets for dead donkeys.

If you've bought a dead donkey from a rip off car dealer, we can help. Click here to email us right now, or call us, 1-888-331-6422 Toll Free. Helping consumers get their money back is what we do. Everyday since 1978. Oh yeah, lots of car dealers know who we are and what we do, and that doesn't bother us one bit.

Gallup has finished its latest survey poll of the perceived honesty and ethical standards of professions and, surprise, surprise, car salespeople are back at the very bottom of the list again.

The survey was completed last money and rated almost two dozen professions on a five pooint honesty and ethics scale. And at the top? Nurses.



The Honesty Poll

Gallup started this "honesty poll" almost 40 years ago and car salespeople have always been at the bottom.

Last year, though, members of Congress tied with them at the bottom of the list, as being among the most dishonest. This year they managed to climb one notch out of the pit, leaving car dealers behind all by themselves.

Car Dealers at bottom of "Honest and Ethical" Gallup Survey

While lawyers have always taken a beating too, this year they sit on the scale at about one third the way up the list, just behind state governors. But not all lawyers are thought of in a lowly way.

At a recent consumer rights conference, one lawyer stepped into an elevator with a vacationing family and when they saw his nametag ("NACA") they asked what the group was and when he told them it was the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the daughter said "Oh, you're one of the good guys."

NACA members do more good for consumers than any other professional group, advocating the protection of consumer rights before state and federal officials and regulators every day. And appearing in Courts all across the country, standing up for consumers who have been victimized by predatory mortgage lenders and dishonest merchants.

Not all car dealers are dishonest and not all lawyers are either. And NACA members are always on your side.

Once upon a time there was a mega-dealer in Columbus that sold more cars and made more money than anyone in the county. Then it was the region. Then it was Ohio. Where are they now and who’s #1? Well, apparently it isn’t the guy with the guitar anymore.

The new Ward’s Dealer 500 List is out, listing the top 500 dealers in the nation, and Jeff Mauk is smiling. He’s the guy who owns/runs Jack Maxton Chevrolet in Worthington, Ohio. His dealership hauled in over $122 million last year, putting him at #73 in the nation and the rough numbers from Ward's tell you a lot.

48% of the money came from new vehicle sales and 38% from used vehicle sales. But when you count the iron (that’s dealer talk for the vehicles themselves) 38% of vehicles sold were new and 62% of them were used. It takes a lot more used cars to make a buck apparently.

But over $3 million of gravy was cooked in the F&I office where the sales staff (they call it the business office - it’s where your financing is arranged and set up) sold soft add-on’s like service contracts, GAP insurance, credit life and disability, etc. You can take quite a few extra vacations on three million, folks. They’re called soft add-on’s because they don’t really add any “hard” value to the vehicle itself and a lot of folks doubt that they are worth the high prices most dealers charge. You can read about car dealer slang terms on this web site dictionary here.

But Maxton Chevrolet isn’t really trying apparently because they were #73 on the list and the dealership that was #72, just once notch higher, was The Andira-Winton Chevrolet dealership in San Antonio and their F&I staff processed a lot less sales, nearly a thousand fewer vehicles, but made over TWICE as much money selling those soft add-on’s.

It’s like we said before - selling cars is like selling movie tickets - the real money is at the refreshment stand. And in the car business, the extra profit (made with little real cost of what’s being sold) is in the F&I office. Not coincidentally, that happens to be where a lot car dealer sales fraud occurs too.

Smoking paperwork, packing deals, menu selling and other buzz words that basically mean ripping off the customer. Be careful you don’t become an auto sales fraud victim. You can learn how to buy a used car and not get ripped off by reading this Avvo.com Legal Guide here: http://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/how-to-buy-a-used-car-and-not-get-ripped-off

Remember: most car dealerships only has one goal and that’s to get as much of your money as possible. You should also have just one goal: to get the best deal you can without paying anymore than you have to.

Oh, and that guitar playing brother whose dealership used to be #1? They aren’t even on the Ward’s Dealer 500 list now.

If you think that car salesman ripped you off, you might be right. The dealership management might even know it because they caught the guy ripping them off before and thought he could do a good job for them too --- perhaps ripping you off?

Dealership embezzlers showing up working for other dealerships – sometimes even in the same town – it might be surprising but it actually is more common than you might think. But in this case, after conviction and while free on bail pending an appeal, apparently the dealer was so impressed that this convicted embezzler actually got his job back.

This story was detailed in the Sagit Valley Herald. In 2002, Frontier Ford in Anacortes, Washington (a small town north of Seattle) discovered that the general manager and the controller (the employee in charge of the financial books for the dealership) conspired to systematically steal $1.2 million of company money. That's called embezzlement, folks.

The newspaper reported that Kevin Dean had been working for the dealership for six years by the time he was charged with the theft and had risen to the General Manager position. Lisa Mullen served as the dealership controller and had worked at the dealership for 16 years. According to the newspaper, the theft of the $1.2 million took place over a six-year period.

After being convicted, both Dean and Mullen have been free on bail pending an appeal of their convictions. This February, their convictions will be three years old!

The Sagit Valley Herald reports that Kevin Dean was rehired back to his General Manager job at Frontier Ford. It just goes to show you. The dealer reportedly said “He was good at his job.”

Okay, so the guy is a thief and a really good one. And that's the guy they want running the place? We don't live in the Seattle area, but if you do and you need a good local auto sales fraud lawyer, just click here for help.

Meanwhile, remember, if you are out for a drive north of Seattle and you see a Ford dealership, you might want to keep right on driving.

A frustrated Volvo owner has been vindicated. Yes, Virginia, in America you do still have the right to say what you think. Heck, you can even sell bumper stickers that say it (available for $3.99 each).

In 2000, Seth Turok bought an Audi from Elk Mountain Motors in Aspen, Colorado. He became frustrated with the car's lemon tendencies and the dealer's inability to get it fixed. Feeling "enough is enough" he started posting signs that read "Friends don't let friends shop at Elk Mtn. Motors." That got their attention.

The service department, however, apparently didn't pay any more attention
to Mr. Turok, but the car dealer's management did. They hired lawyers and sued, asking the court to make him take the signs down, claiming that the signs implied the car dealership was dishonest or engaged in fraudulent sales tactics. That's not the way the court saw it.

In 2006 the trial judge ruled in favor of the consumer, calling it protected free speech under the First Amendment. No, No, cried the car dealer, so they appealed. Well, Yes, Yes, said the court of appeals.

The 3 judge panel on the court of appeals ruled in favor of the consumer also. "Read in context, the use of the language indicates that [Turok] was merely demonstrating his dissatisfaction and frustration" said the court.

It cost this consumer tens of thousands of dollars to defend himself (he may recoup a small amount of the cost from the sale of his bumper stickers that can be purchased by clicking here), but in the end he was vindicated and proven right. Americans have a long history of saying what they think and being allowed to do it. It's what the First Amendment is all about.

A short time back, when we learned that Hyundai was now sticking binding arbitration clauses in its warranty booklets, in an attempt to keep its customers from being able to sue them over lemon Hyundai cars and warranty fights (by the way, that tactic probably won't hold up). We wrote about that here and thought at the time about putting up a billboard that said "Friends don't let friends buy Hyundai" but, being lawyers, decided it would look too self-promoting. Maybe we should sell the bumper stickers instead?

If you've got a lemon, don't put up with it. And don't put up with a car dealer who doesn't care either. Bumper stickers and signs are a clever way to start out. But when you want the Truth to come out, when you want Justice to prevail, get even the American way: complain and complain and complain. You have a right to express your opinion, but be careful not to libel or slander anyone. How you say what it is you are saying, can make all the difference.

And if complaining doesn't work, call us. We sue car dealers and manufacturers every day over lemon cars and lemon trucks and fraudulent car dealer sales practices. It's what we do.

Contact us (click here) or call us 1-888-331-6422 Toll Free.