California car buyers have new protections from too-common bait and switch car dealer tactics in a newly passed law signed yesterday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Much of the law is modeled after the Federal Trade Commission’s Combating Auto Retail Scams (CARS) rule that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated in January.
The California CARS Act, SB 766, requires car dealers to disclose the “total price” up front. It also requires transparent advertising to help avoid delay tactics, and it prohibits the selling of worthless add-on products.
Newsom also applauded and signed legislation to strengthen the authority of the state’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation… “[f]illing in the consumer protection void left” since the crippling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
