Car Dealer Shuts Down for a Day to Settle DMV Charges : Business: Jack Weber Nissan Mazda of Ventura is closed temporarily after customers’ complaints about being misled. The company president denies wrongdoing but pays a $52,000 state fine.

One of west Ventura County’s major car dealers was shut down for a day Monday and fined $52,000 as part of a settlement with the state following charges by Department of Motor Vehicles investigators that sales staff had misled customers.

State investigators said Jack Weber Motors misled customers in 1991 and 1992 about the purchase prices of vehicles advertised for sale and failed to tell would-be buyers that certain used cars were former rentals.

The company runs three dealerships--Jack Weber Lincoln Mercury in Oxnard, and Jack Weber Infiniti and Jack Weber Nissan Mazda, both in Ventura.

The false-advertising case involves only the Nissan Mazda dealership, which is the lot that was closed for a day. And investigators said the allegations that sales personnel failed to tell customers that used cars were former rentals occurred at a Ventura dealership no longer operated by Jack Weber Motors.

Company President Jack Weber admitted no wrongdoing in the case, which was brought before an administrative law judge in Los Angeles.

The hearing was vacated when both parties agreed to the fine, the one-day office closure and three years probation, said DMV investigator William Forestelle.

“There were 20 counts at Nissan where they were not selling cars at the advertised price,” Forestelle said. In some cases, he said, the dealership continued to advertise the cars for 3 1/2 months after they were sold.

Forestelle also said sales personnel at the used-car dealership failed to tell 20 customers that the cars they bought were formerly rentals.

Weber, who said he signed the agreement only to avoid a more costly legal battle, called the DMV penalty “an exorbitant fine extracted in a kangaroo-court fashion. I didn’t have the money to fight them.”

Nonetheless, Weber said, at least two of his sales managers were fired after the allegations were brought by the DMV and Ventura County prosecutors.

“Some in-house advertising mistakes were corrected then [in 1991 and 1992] and the responsible managers terminated,” Weber said. “Restitution for alleged misunderstandings was made at that time.”

According to Weber, the advertisements, which ran in some local newspapers, mistakenly failed to tell customers that sale prices on certain cars expired after specific dates.

As for the allegation that salespeople failed to tell buyers that cars were previously used as rental vehicles, Weber said:

“People were told verbally that some of these cars were factory cars and some were rental cars. But if you don’t mark off the paperwork provided by the DMV, then you’re in violation.” Under the agreement negotiated by Weber and the DMV, the dealer also agreed to pay $500 restitution to each of 40 customers who were misled, Forestelle said. The $52,000 fine will go into a DMV consumer fraud protection division budget.

The announcement came one year after Ventura County prosecutors settled a similar case.

In that July, 1994, complaint, Weber’s Nissan Mazda dealership was accused of engaging in unlawful business practices and false advertising. The company admitted no wrongdoing in the case, but agreed to pay a $70,000 penalty.

Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael D. Schwartz said the DMV case against Jack Weber Nissan Mazda was a separate investigation from his 1994 civil complaint.

“The allegations were not identical,” Schwartz said. “They overlapped substantially. But there were incidents that we based our case on that the DMV did not include in its case, and vice versa.”

The district attorney’s office filed a similar lawsuit against another west county car dealer in September, 1993.

In that case, brought against Pacific Coast Ford and Pacific Coast Nissan, company officials admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to pay $30,000 in penalties after prosecutors charged them with false advertising.

State DMV investigators monitor more than 9,700 used-car sales offices and 1,785 new-car dealerships throughout California. Last year, they revoked 90 licenses and placed 140 other dealerships on probation or suspension, or both.

Investigator Richard Cathcart said most cases begin with customer dissatisfaction.

“People come in and complain, and if we see a pattern developing, we’ll ask for an audit,” he said.