Jury awards punitive damages over used car sales tactic

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jenelle Dawson claimed deceptive pricing of a Jeep she bought, and won punitive damages from a jury last week, a first in the state. Her lawyer thinks it will convince other dealers to stop doing this.

A Milwaukee County jury has awarded what could be the first punitive damages in Wisconsin against a used car dealer over faking a sales price in a contract.

"We have a precedent now. It works," said Vince Megna, a veteran consumer lawyer who specializes in representing car buyers against dealers and manufacturers.

"I believe this happens all the time, and a case like this can stop it," he said. "All the dealers know me pretty well and that I sue them a lot, and that we've never lost a case on these misrepresentation cases. And now we've won punitive damages."

The verdict awards weren't large — $784 in actual damages and $1,875 in punitive damages, but Megna thinks the principle — and his yet-undetermined fees— will get the attention of more than just the defendant, Wyss Auto Sales in Oak Creek.

The practice at issue involved citing a false price in the sales contract to allow for a major "discount" that in fact merely brings the price to near the actual price.

When you visit the lot of a licensed used car dealer, you're supposed to be able to see a state-required form, the Wisconsin Buyer's Guide, in the window of every vehicle for sale. It lists the year, make and model, its use history, title type, mileage, conditions, equipment and the price.

In April 2017, Jenelle Dawson was looking for a used car. She saw a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee at Wyss. But according to her lawsuit, she didn't see the Buyer's Guide, which listed the price at $15,450. Instead, she says, Wyss Auto owner Bill Wyss told her the price was $19,500. Dawson says she didn't see the Buyer's Guide until she took delivery of the Jeep the next day.

There's another state form, the Used Motor Vehicle Purchase Contract, that dealers must use to consummate a sale. The law requires the price listed in the Buyer's Guide be reflected in the contract, but in Dawson's case, it was not.

Instead, Wyss put in $19,950 and then told Dawson, 42, he would give her a major discount — $5,050 — making the final "deal" price $14,900, $550 off the price listed on the Buyer's Guide, not the "thousands" Wyss said he was saving Dawson on the car.

She thought she was getting such a good deal, she tipped Wyss $20.

But the real price wasn't the only information Dawson didn't have. The Buyer's Guide also noted the car had been the subject of an insurance claim, and its history was not personal, business, rental or executive use, but an unexplained "other."

The lawsuit claimed the process was false, misleading and deceptive under Wisconsin's marketing and trade practices and auto sales laws. It claimed that Wyss's $5,050 "discount" was part of what induced Dawson to buy the Jeep.

The car immediately had problems.

Wyss fixed a detached cooling hose one day, but disputed her claim the transmission wasn't working properly. Megna says she amassed about a dozen estimates for suggested repairs from other shops, but could only afford some of the repairs, and her Jeep currently isn't running.

Megna believes less scrupulous used car dealers sense when someone isn't a very savvy consumer and might slip a false, higher price in the contract.

"Here, they just took her for a sucker," Megna said. "They thought, 'She wants a big discount? We'll give it to her, but this is how we're going to do it.' "

In other cases he's handled, Megna said, dealers will usually just claim it was a mistake and refund the difference. But in Dawson's, he said, Wyss said in his deposition that he's probably done it at least 100 times or more, basically since he's been in business.

Wyss also claimed in the deposition that Dawson asked why the Jeep was so inexpensive and that he told her it had been the subject of an insurance claim. Megna said she denies Wyss told her that.

Wyss also said he just wrote $19,950 on the contract because he didn't think Dawson would qualify for a loan anyway. She did, and is still paying it off.

"She's a scam artist," Wyss said last week. "She looked at the car on a Thursday, bought it Friday, was back on Monday, then Tuesday with a claimed transmission problem. I showed her it was fine, and she said she was going to sue me."

Wyss said it's the first time he's had to defend his business in court in 40 years.

"It cost me $10,000" he said. "It was a minor thing her lawyer turned into a whole big deal," in a quest for $40,000 in damages and $30,000 in fees.

"She thought she was in for a big payday or something," he said.

Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.