It’s difficult to buy a car these days.
Deciding what you want. Scraping up the money. Trudging through all the car lots in town. Dealing with rude, overbearing salesmen. Getting a no, no, no from the manager when you want to negotiate a price reduction.
All these are tough and stressful, but as the transaction goes down, you also need to be aware of scams the dealer, used car lot, or private seller may have up their sleeves.
The Utility Consumers’ Action Network, a public interest consumer advocacy organization, offers a listing of scams in its article “Top 10 Auto Scams.”
Scam 1. Negative equity/trade-in overestimate.
Scam 2. Inflated monthly payments called packing.
Scam 3. Rewritten contracts/backdating.
Scam 4. Obligations contained in more than one document.
Scam 5. The deferred down payment scam.
Scam 6. The advertised price is changed.
Scam 7. Not providing a contract in another language is the lease or purchase is primarily negotiated in it.
Scam 8. Not providing the whole truth about used cars.
Scam 9. Used cars sold as new cars.
Scam 10. “Certified” used cars don’t meet the standards the seller advertised.
See the article for details on each type of scam.
