Car Dealer to Settle Suit on Sales Practices

A prominent Ventura car dealer has agreed to pay $70,000 to settle a district attorney’s lawsuit that accused two of his dealerships of false advertising and unfair business practices, prosecutors said Thursday.

Jack Weber Mazda and Jack Weber Nissan used a variety of unlawful sales practices, including misrepresenting the past use and ownership history of former rental vehicles, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael D. Schwartz said.

“They were failing to disclose that they were rental cars,” Schwartz said. Instead, sales personnel would tell customers that the former rental cars had been used only by manufacturers’ executives or secretaries, he said. Under the law, sellers must tell potential buyers that a car was previously a rental vehicle.

Although agreeing to settle the case--which included 47 separate allegations--the dealerships admitted no wrongdoing and accused prosecutors of insisting on an “excessive fine.”

The settlement comes one year after two other dealerships--Pacific Coast Ford and Pacific Coast Nissan--paid $30,000 to settle a similar action brought by the prosecutor’s office.

In that case, a lawsuit accused the dealerships of falsely promising customers they would not be turned down for financing even if they had bad credit.

In the Jack Weber case, prosecutors accused the dealerships of running newspaper ads for cars that had already been sold, and of failing to sell some vehicles at the prices advertised.

The Weber dealerships also were accused of showing pictures of a vehicle in advertisements that “gave the misleading appearance of being available for $4,900 rather than for the actual advertised price of $8,900.”

The improprieties were discovered following an audit of the dealerships’ records by the state Department of Motor Vehicles--which, along with the district attorney’s office, had received customer complaints about the Weber companies, Schwartz said.

In a brief interview Thursday, the companies’ president, Jack Weber, blamed any misconduct on two sales managers who have been fired.

Weber declined to comment further, but his office issued a statement responding to the charges.

“We have cooperated with the district attorney in settling to the customer’s benefit 1991 and 1992 alleged violations discovered by the DMV in an audit of our business,” it said. “The supervisory personnel responsible have long been terminated.

“We remained concerned, however, over the excessive fine imposed, as another cost of doing business in Ventura County, and its impact on further exodus of business from this area.”

Thursday’s settlement also prohibits future unlawful conduct by the Weber dealerships, Schwartz said. He agreed that Weber had cooperated in the investigation.

The fine will go to the county’s General Fund, Schwartz said. The dealership has made restitution to customers who were misled, Schwartz said.