The FTC recently singled out 5 dealerships for something that I suspect hundreds, if not thousands of dealerships has done. Essentially offer to  “pay off the trade no matter what you owe”

If we were to say in response to the FTC’s actions that we never meant to mislead anybody or mislead any consumer, that’s not who we are….. I say, that is exactly who we are.  If there was no validity to the claims of the FTC then why would we back down? In the instant case, who ultimately paid/pays off the trade?  It is that simple…….. The consumer, not the dealer…..We know full well that some will assume it comes out of the dealers pocket and that is why we choose those words. That is why we found ourselves targeted by the FTC.

Technically I suppose my girlfriend could say that she pays all my debts for me, but in doing so she would be misleading everyone she would tell that to.  She does write and mail the checks every month, she hands the debit card to the wait staff after dinner. She handles nearly all financial transactions in the household……while her statement would technically be true, there is,  “the rest of the story”, as Paul Harvey would say….” You can guess the rest of my story, suffice it to say, I am not a freeloader despite the FACT that my girlfriend pays all of my debts for me.

We railed on TrueCar, a vendor, for lack of transparency. We, the dealer body, must be transparent too.

We continue to whine how unfair it is that we can’t outrun our “old” reputations. The first step is for them to become old. This is my opinion. I represent no one other than myself. My opinion and a couple of bucks might get you a cup of coffee.  Tom