Odometer tampering

[carleesmom0701]

What is the name of your state?
Arkansas

My husband and I as well as my sister and her husband just purchased two 1995 Honda Accords from a dealer. He advertised them as 98K miles and 86K miles. Today, we started noticing problems with the one we purchased (98K) and the check engine light came on. Because I was uneasy, I did a carfax report (which we should have done from the beginning, but trusted the guy). It came back that it actually had 225K miles (as of 7/14/05) and that it had a salvage title - the dealer did not give us the title yesterday, he said he would mail it to us. The other vehicle actually had 180K miles. The dealer attached warrenty sheet to each car writing in the mileage he told us and giving a 1,000 mile drivetrane warrenty. He also sent emails to us with pictures of the vehicles stating the lower mileage.

The dealer says that he was not aware that the odometers were rolled back. He said that since they were over 10 years old, an odometer statement is not required. We asked to return the vehciles and get money back and he refused. He wants us to let him list the vehciles on ebay and then use our home as the "pick up" location, then let us "keep the cash". Of course this is absolutley NOT an option - we do not want to get involved in his fradulent activities.

Is there anything at all that we can do in this situation??

[fronty]

Do you know his EBay username? If so, do a search on his recent purchases and see if he purchased two instrument panels for the same vehicle recently. You can also contact the consumer protection division of you state (see below).

Arkansas Attorney General

Consumer Protection Division
501-682-2341
800-482-8982 (statewide)
501-682-8118 (fax)
[email]consumer@ag.state.ar.us[/email]

[carleesmom0701]

I looked up his ebay account - i assumed that his ebay account was the same as his username on his email account....and it was...He has 2 negative feedbacks (out of 3) and no longer has an ebay account. However, I'm sure he still does but is just using another name b/c of the negative feedback. I emailed one of the people who gave him negative feedback, but it was another dealer and only said that he was dishonest, but didn't have any proof that he is rolling back odometers.

He only sells Hondas and is still listing them in the local newspaper - I'm sure doing this to every consumer who is trusting enough to believe all of his lies. He suggested to us that he could say that he is selling the vehicles for less that what he is so that we won't have to pay sales tax on them. Of course we didn't go for this. I called the state revenue office and they advised that we report him to both the attorney general and the state police. If both of us do that, he should be audited and will have to come up with bills of sale and names/addresses of everyone he has sold a vehicle to for the past 4 years.

My next call is to the attorney generals office

[jcnoernberg]

Doesn't carfax buy back for odometer fraud?

[cjbrown929]

You might also google "Civil Resource Manual 175 Eppes Declaration". It appears to have resources directly applicable to your situation.

Oh, and if this was a new car dealer, making a stink with the manufacturer (even if its a Chevy dealership) will almost certainly help. One unhappy customer will cause untold grief for their reputation.