When it comes to selling cars, there's no such thing as ethics

Boston Herald

Beverly Beckham

He's a very busy man - too busy buying cars and busy selling cars. He's busy answering the phone, talking to salespeople, filling out forms. He's busy running his very big, very successful local car dealership.

He's not too busy to explain the intricacies of his trade, however.

So my husband and I paid a visit to ask this very busy man some questions. Our mission was to determine if it is standard procedure for his dealership to pass off a previously owned car that had been in a major collision as "practically new."

Boy, did he educate

"There is no `practically new' car," he said, shaking his head at our naivete.

When we explained that it was one of his salesmen who had assured us that the 1989 Mitsubishi Gallant that we purchased in December 1988 with 2,300 miles on it was "practically new," and just repossessed, the dealer leaned back in his chair and laughed.

"It doesn't matter what a salesman says. Let me tell you what reality is."

I took out my notebook and a pen. I didn't want to get confused about reality the way I so obviously got confused about the "practically new" thing.

"A car is either new or used," this very busy man continued. "There is no gray area. I can have a new car with 100,000 miles on it, OK? I can have a used car with 1 mile on it.

"New and used is based on registration. If a car hasn't been registered before, it's a new car. If a car been registered, it isn't a new car. `Practically new,' `nearly new,' `program cars' is a term people use for cars that are real close to new but aren't, because technically they're used.

"Your car I would call a program car, a practically new car, but not a new car. A used car."

He can call it "used" all he wants, but on the title the Registry wrote "new," based on information provided by the dealership. In reality, the the car was preowned and had been involved in a crash.

"How should I have known that?" snapped the very busy man."I was not involved. How am I supposed to know if a car's been in an accident? There's no difference between your paperwork and all the other paperwork that comes through here," he said, gesturing at his paper-laden desk.

How we determined it had been in an accident is interesting. The electrical system, since the day we bought the car, has always been erratic. The doors, the alarm, the power windows work sometimes. And theysometimes don't.

I've lived with it. But about six months ago the horn went crazy at Logan Airport, so we cut the wires. A week later we took the car to be serviced and a technician called to ask if it had ever been in a wreck. I said no, it hadn’t. But he said yes, it had to have been, because the wiring was a mess.

Two other mechanics confirmed the car had, indeed, been in a major collision.

We then wrote to the dealer, suggesting that his mechanics had known the same thing.

A few weeks later the transmission began to slip. We called the dealership to ask if the transmission were covered under the warranty. First we were told it was, only to be told later that the car's previous owner was covered, but we were not.

We wrote to the dealership again.

The previous owner's warranty could have been sold to us for just $45 at the time we purchased the car. But no one mentioned this, just as no one mentioned that the car was damaged goods.

"We're absolutely under no obligation to transfer that warranty. None," the very busy man said.

The warranty turned out to be a moot point. The company that issued it went out of business, and in the words of the dealer, "If the company goes out of business, the warranty isn't worth the paper it's printed on."

The dealer, you see, does not stand behind its warranties. "I don't feel I'm under any obligation," he said.

So here's what I learned from my time with this very busy and very dishonest man:

1. "It doesn't matter what a salesman says." They'll say anything to sell a car.

2. New and used are terms having nothing to do with whether a car is new or used.

3. Customer extended-care warranties aren't "worth the paper (they're) printed on."

Our dealer is a busy man, but he didn't want us to walk away unhappy. He said he'd sell us any car on the lot for just $100 over factory price.

He didn't offer to fix the damaged car he'd already sold us. He insisted he wasn't responsible for that car. The "only" reason transmissions go, he told me is because "you've abused the synchros."

Abused. He hit on the perfect word. Abused is how he and his ethics make me feel.