NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — An Eastern Shore couple was sold after seeing an advertisement from Beach Auto Brokers.
The ad described a 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe, with only around 63,000 miles, Carfax and Autocheck certified, according to lawsuit documents.
“They did what they thought they were supposed to do when buying a car, research, they checked online,” said the couple’s attorney, Leonard Bennett.
Now, they think it was too good to be true.
The couple’s attorney says shortly after buying the SUV, it had multiple mechanical problems.
One stop at a repair shop revealed there was a possible discrepancy in the mileage.
A Carfax report ran by the mechanics showed the Tahoe had been brought into a car dealer back in 2013 with more than 200,000 miles on it.
Now they’re filing a lawsuit, claiming the dealership tampered with the car’s odometer.
“Either this dealer lied about the mileage or it lied about the Carfax, and with respect to the Carfax that’s almost a bigger problem, likely it lied to all of its customers,” added Bennett.
Beach Auto Brokers’ attorney, Johan Conrad, admits the dealership didn’t pull the Carfax as advertised.
However, he says the couple did sign off on AutoCheck documents, which didn’t show the mileage discrepancy.
He says the dealership has offered to buy back the SUV at purchase price and pay for some legal expenses.
He explained they got the Tahoe at an auction with papers that said it had the low mileage they later advertised.
Conrad says Beach Auto Brokers has great reviews, has been in business for over three decades, and would never do anything intentionally to misrepresent mileage to a customer.
In addition, he says they are investigating when and if the mileage was tampered with.
Meanwhile, Bennett says the couple wants a promise that the dealer will provide Carfax reports to every customer so that this never happens again.
