Car Dealer Penalized in Sale of Used ‘New’ Autos

A Thousand Oaks car dealership has been fined $46,000 and will be shut down for two days next month for failing to tell customers their “new� cars had actually been used for driver education classes by the Conejo Valley Unified School District, authorities said Wednesday.

The action against Shaver Pontiac follows a two-year probe that began when one customer, a private detective, grew suspicious about his car’s problems. He discovered through a check of Department of Motor Vehicles records that the car had once been registered to the school district, according to the Ventura County district attorney’s office and the man’s attorney.

Santa Barbara attorney Robert L. Monk said that, like the other victims, the buyer had been told that the car showed thousands of miles on its odometer because it was a “demonstrator,� used to give test drives and driven by employees of the dealership.

“It’s embarrassing to feel like you’ve been had,� said Monk, who has filed five lawsuits against the dealership on behalf of five customers who allege they were lied to about their cars’ histories.

Lawrence Silver, an attorney for Shaver Pontiac, said that “one of the unfortunate consequences of this has been to discourage Shaver and other dealers from providing these cars to school districts.� He declined to comment further.

A suspension of its operating and sales license will close the dealership Nov. 25 and 26 as part of its penalties, said William Gengler, a spokesman for the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The DMV found the dealership failed to inform at least five customers that the cars they were purchasing had been used by the school district. The DMV gave Shaver Pontiac the choice of having its license suspended for five days, or facing a two-day suspension plus $20,000 in fines, said Gengler. The dealership chose the latter punishment. The DMV also fined Shaver Pontiac nearly $6,000 to cover investigation expenses, he said.

The dealership also was ordered to pay $20,000 in civil penalties as part of an out-of-court settlement with the Ventura County district attorney’s office, which had filed a consumer-protection lawsuit against the auto dealer.

The dealership admitted no wrongdoing in its settlement. Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda S. Groberg said criminal charges were not pursued because of the difficulty in proving that the dealership and its salesmen intended to defraud customers.

But a Simi Valley woman who also sued Shaver Pontiac said she was angered by the decision.

“The only way I can get my restitution is through my own private lawsuit,� said Jennifer Tarara. “I don’t think our justice system is working very well if they can defraud people like this . . . and have it not be viewed as a criminal matter.�

Tarara said she paid about $15,000 for a 1986 Grand Am and learned only last April, after many repairs and arguments with the dealership, that it had been used in driver education classes. She said the DMV contacted her during its investigation.