Court finds Bristol used car dealer knowingly sold defective car — twice

By Christy Nadalin
Posted 3/31/23

It’s every used car buyer’s nightmare. You spend thousands on a vehicle, hoping you got a good deal for a car that will meet your needs for several years — then everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

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Court finds Bristol used car dealer knowingly sold defective car — twice

Posted

It’s every used car buyer’s nightmare. You spend thousands on a vehicle, hoping you got a good deal for a car that will meet your needs for several years — then everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

According to the Providence County Superior Court decision of Feb. 22 in the case of King Philip Motors v. Rhode Island Motor Vehicle Dealers’ License and Hearing Board, that is exactly what happened to not one, but two customers of King Philip Motors at 331 Metacom Ave., beginning with the Mitton family in April 2021. They purchased a 2010 GMC Acadia, paying a deposit of $495 and then an additional $8,500 at the time of purchase. The Acadia was sold with a thirty-day, 1,200 mile warranty.

The problems began immediately after the Mittons took possession of the vehicle, with the check engine light blinking within 10 minutes of leaving King Philip; several additional mechanical issues cropped up the following day, including the oil pressure light.

According to court records, efforts to rectify the issues with King Philip Motors went unresolved.Over the next month or so, both the Mittons and King Philip took the vehicle to other dealers for diagnosis, which created a trail of evidence. By all accounts (with the notable exception of Kind Philip Motors’ assertions) the car was in need of an engine replacement.

In May of 2021, the Mittons filed a complaint with the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles Dealers’ License and Regulations Office. King Philip refused to cooperate with state investigators and stated that the matter was a “total fraud,” though they agreed to purchase the vehicle back from the Mittons.

Rather than complete the needed repairs, they simply sold the vehicle to another party, Ashley Barr, in February of 2022. Barr paid $8,000 for the vehicle “as is” with no warranty.

Barr immediately began experiencing the same problems with the vehicle, with numerous warning lights and a knocking noise in the engine. In mid-February of 2022, Barr reported these issues to King Philip, but was told that King Philip could not look at the vehicle until the following week. She then brought the Acadia to a Valvoline service center in Seekonk for an oil change. A few days later, Barr contacted King Philip and informed them that the Acadia stalled while she was driving on the highway with her five children in the vehicle. She also reported that the Acadia displayed multiple warning lights and that there was a smell coming from the hood of the vehicle.

On or about Feb. 22, she brought the Acadia to King Philip, and was informed that there was no oil in the engine, that the engine was “fried,” and that the engine needed to be replaced. When Barr asked for a refund, King Philip refused, pointing to the fact that Barr purchased the vehicle “as is” and blamed the Valvoline service center, telling Barr that the technicians must have not put oil into the Acadia. However, Valvoline provided Barr with a video showing that the technicians filled the Acadia with oil. On or about February 24, Barr went to King Philip to retrieve the Acadia. Against King Philip’s advice, Barr drove the vehicle off the premises. It was smoking as if it were on fire, and “pouring oil” as Barr drove away.

In late February, Barr filed a complaint with the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles Dealers’ License and Regulations Office seeking a refund for the Acadia as well as a refund for taxes and registration fees. Noting that the Acadia’s title history showed that the vehicle was the same Acadia owned by the Mittons, the investigator brought the vehicle in for inspection. They discovered, among everything else, an upward-thrusting puncture hole in the Valvoline oil filter, which inspectors said was unlike anything they had ever seen. Throughout, Kind Philip continued to deny any wrongdoing, blaming the oil change at Valvoline for Barr’s problems with the car.

On or about August 15, 2022, the Board rendered a decision, which stated that that “all of the evidence points to the fact that [King Philip] knowingly sold a vehicle with a fatally defective engine to a young woman who was simply seeking a reliable car to transport her children.” The Board found that King Philip understood the Acadia needed a new motor and sold the vehicle anyway, and never disclosed the Acadia’s engine problems. The Board further chastised King Philip, stating that “[s]lapping the label ‘AS IS’ on the bill of sale does not absolve [King Philip] from what is simply an unconscionable business practice.” Further, while declining to opine on who caused damage to the Valvoline oil filter discovered during the inspection, they ruled that the damage “clearly appear[ed] to be a man-made puncture hole in the unit.”

Ultimately, the Board ordered King Philip to make full restitution for the purchase price of the Acadia because it found that the sale of a vehicle with a known defective motor “constituted an unconscionable business practice” in violation of R.I. general Laws. In October 2022, King Philip appealed.

Last month, RI Superior Court held that there was more than enough evidence to support the Board’s finding that King Philip knowingly sold a defective motor vehicle, not once, but twice.

“The Court finds that King Philip’s actions were decidedly unfair and duplicitous,” the Court wrote in their final decision. “The words ‘shock the conscience’ come to mind, considering the dangers to which Barr and her children were subjected by being anywhere near the Acadia, let alone in it. The Court believes that additional proceedings may be warranted if the Board so chooses. Ultimately, the Court concludes that the Board’s decision was overly generous, and that King Philip looks a gift-horse in the mouth even by filing this appeal.”

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