Car Dealer to Close for 4 Days, Pay Fine
A Santa Ana car dealership has agreed to close for four days and pay more than $75,000 in fines to settle charges that it falsified information about some of its used cars, investigators said Tuesday.
The Department of Motor Vehicle had charged that Santa Ana Lincoln Mercury bought rental cars at auction from such companies as Hertz and Avis and then sold the cars to unsuspecting buyers as little-used “executive cars.”
As part of a settlement reached with the DMV, the dealership will close from 8 a.m. Thursday through Sunday evening, will pay $75,000 in fines, $8,000 in investigative costs and will be on probation for 18 months, said DMV investigator Al Caruso. Under the settlement, the dealer denied any wrongdoing, Caruso said.
During the time the dealership is closed, DMV investigators will post signs of the suspension on the lot, Caruso said.
The company had previously agreed to pay $122,900 in fines, while also denying any wrongdoing, to settle a civil case brought by the Orange County district attorney’s office on the same charges.
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