Dealers Told To Stop Misrepresenting Cars
Prosecutors have won a court order against two Oxnard car dealers, forbidding them from engaging in false advertising and unfair competition pending outcome of a civil trial on charges that they sold used cars as dealer demonstration models.
The order forbids the dealers, Mike Wallace and son Steve Wallace, from misrepresenting the ownership history of used vehicles, such as selling or leasing former rental cars without disclosing their status to customers--or by labeling such cars as “executive cars, demos and manufacturer’s cars.”
The Wallaces, president and vice president, respectively, of Mike Wallace Ford and Mike Wallace Nissan, will face a civil trial next summer, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Malone.
The allegedly false sales were uncovered by investigators for the district attorney and the Department of Motor Vehicles after car buyers complained that they had never received their registration papers in the mail, Malone said Monday.
“We have 13 consumers whom we verified were sold used cars based on misrepresentations, beginning in 1994 to the present,” Malone said. “The consumers that the DMV and our office interviewed said that they wouldn’t have purchased the cars had they known they were rentals. In the consumers’ minds, rental cars are not worth as much as used cars that have been owned by one prior person.”
Mike Wallace could not be reached Monday for comment but issued a statement saying: “I grew up in Ventura County and remain committed to providing this community with the highest level of customer service and satisfaction.” Steve Wallace declined to comment on the charges.
Their lawyers issued a statement, saying that the injunction was a weakened version of a July 10 restraining order that the district attorney staged as “an unnecessary media event.”
“Among the evidence presented to Judge [David] Long by Wallace were numerous unsolicited letters recently received by the dealerships thanking Wallace and his staff for the excellent service provided the customers,” it said.
