The sleazy used car salesman might be a tired trope in Hollywood, but scammers still abound in California’s automobile industry. The California CARS Act, which went into effect on Oct. 1, implements new consumer protections designed to safeguard against those unethical practices.
An acronym that stands for Combating Auto Retail Scams, the CARS Act includes new regulations that encourage transparency in pricing, prohibiting misrepresentations in costs for those purchasing, financing, or leasing a vehicle.
According to this breakdown by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the law requires that dealers of new or used cars under 10,000 pounds include the total price of a vehicle clearly and conspicuously in any ad or written communication about said vehicle. The total price must appear in any first communication about a car for sale, whether email, text, document, or a form mentioning the vehicle or financing.
That total price must be honored as the end price, with remedies built into the law to provide relief to consumers if that’s found not to be the case within two years of the sale.
Optional products like warranties or theft protection must be clearly disclosed and explicitly stated as optional in writing before signing any deal, according to the DMV. There’s also a new prohibition against add-ons that are considered “worthless,” such as oil-change plans for electric vehicles.
The CARS Act provides buyers with a “cooling-off period” comprising three days after the sale in which the buyer retains the right to cancel the deal for any reason, with conditions including mileage limits and restocking fees.
In a release, state Sen. Ben Allen, who introduced the CARS Act (Senate Bill 766), shared the story of California resident David Lappen, who recently saw the advertised price on an electric vehicle he was purchasing shoot up by $5,000 due to dealer “options” such as catalytic converter etching and free oil changes, which do not apply to EVs.
Allen also cited the experience of Anthony Vento, whose life was endangered by a Kia dealership that sold him a used car with a defective airbag system.
“For years, car shoppers have been mistreated and duped into purchasing unsafe vehicles or vehicles with add-ons and features they didn’t know about, saddling them with unnecessary debt and risking their lives on the road,” Allen wrote. “These practices will finally come to an end in California.”
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