It Just Got Harder For Car Dealers To Scam You

New FTC regulations, called the Combating Auto Retail Scams Rule, are supposed to make life easier for car buyers.

By Andy Kalmowitz

The Federal Trade Commission has announced new regulations, called the Combating Auto Retail Scams Rule, that are meant to stop car dealers from screwing customers with hidden fees and other bait-and-switch pricing tactics. Oh, happy days!

The agency says these predatory fees and tactics cost auto consumers in the U.S. $3.4 billion per year, and they add 72 million hours to their time spent shopping for vehicles, according to NBC News. The new rule bans misrepresentations about price, cost and other important information when shopping for a car. It’ll also require dealers to provide the actual price consumers have to pay for vehicles, tell them that additional items like extended warranties aren’t mandatory and state the full monthly payments consumers will be paying upfront.

It also bans add-on items that the FTC described as “providing no value to consumers” like duplicative warranties, software and auto subscriptions for vehicles that don’t have the tech, or service contracts for oil changes on EVs that don’t need motor oil. It’s really shitty stuff, NBC News reports. Another provision in the new rule will prohibit dealers from trying to trick members of the military by falsely suggesting that dealerships are affiliated with the military – something that is super shitty.

(Sources : jalopnik.com)