Fraudulent Sales

[JBateman]

Jurisdiction

Rhode Island

I recently signed an agreement to purchase a truck from a dealership in Rhode Island. I called ahead to inform I'd be coming to view a truck and when I arrived things went smooth. We looked through the truck, took it for a drive, and while it ran well, there was a slight noise under the hood they assured me they'd take care of before I returned to pick it up. With it being a truck that's nearly 10 years old I took it with a grain of salt and said OK. We sign the finance agreement and I'm told they'll call when the truck is registered, fixed, and ready to pick up. When I get home I begin to research this truck a bit more and realize there are slight variations to the physical truck from what is represented by the post on their website. The main difference is the truck was marketed and sold as an FX4 which doesn't appear on the side of the truck in the original pictures. Upon further research into the Vin, carfax reports, and independent researching I realize the truck has also been in an accident and close to inactive for nearly 2 years (when I asked they assured me no accidents had occurred). To top it off the user reviews of this dealer say they're a shady bunch and scam artists, but at first glance they appear to have a good review rate due to 5 star ratings from anonymous google users. What are my legal rights here? Am I stuck with what could be a falsely advertised clunker and an auto loan?

 

[mightymoose]

Just because the FX4 doesn't appear on the vehicle doesn't mean it is not that model. Is it missing the features of the FX4? You should be able to verify this easily.

If it is marketed that way and missing those specific features you might have something to work with, however you really should have discovered all of this before making the purchase, including the prior accident.

I would assume at this point you have already paid at least a down payment if not more. You could will be stuck with the vehicle. The sooner you return and complain that the vehicle is not as advertised the better, but you had better be able to come up with something very significant and convincing to show they purposely misrepresented the vehicle.

I would assume the vehicle is not significantly different than what you expected since you looked it over and agreed to buy it. It seems more likely you are experiencing buyer's remorse after investigating the vehicle further after the fact. You got too far ahead of yourself.

 

[JBateman]

Well with the FX4, the label now appears on the truck whereas it didn't in the original pictures. My fear is that a sticker was placed on the truck and sold as is in turn leading me to believe I was getting a better deal. We didn't go into specific features

 

[mightymoose]

It's unlikely that has happened, but if it has it is the way out.
Often times the images in ads are not of the actual vehicle, and there is language in the ad saying so.
Regardless of a label or badge on the vehicle, if it is a specific model it will have specific features that you can verify.