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When Nancy C. Comita and Donald F. Comita drove their 2003 Ford Windstar off the dealer's lot, they likely knew from specs on the van that it sat seven comfortably.
What the Northwest suburban couple didn't know, a lawsuit filed last week alleges, was that this particular Windstar had previously accommodated eight.
Eight corpses, that is.
The Niles couple's suit alleges that Golf Mill Ford in Niles rolled back the odometer on the van after it was returned by the previous owner, a funeral director.
The funeral director, who does not know the Comitas or stand to benefit financially from the lawsuit, told the Daily Herald he put at least 1,500 miles on the van and eight bodies in it after retrofitting it by removing the back seats and putting in a carpeted platform.
The Illinois secretary of state's office has turned the matter over to its police department for investigation.
Golf Mill Ford did not return repeated phone calls over several days. Lawyers for Golf Mill Ford either did not return phone calls or declined comment. A spokesman at Ford Motor Headquarters in Michigan also declined to comment.
The previous use of the van was discovered, said the Comitas' lawyer, Martin Y. Joseph of Chicago, when the Comitas applied to the secretary of state's office for the title.
They were told, the suit alleges and the secretary of state's office confirms, that the office already had received an application for the title from a Chicago funeral director.
That funeral director confirmed that he bought a van with the same vehicle identification number on Feb. 27, 2003, and returned it - without the carpeted platform - about two weeks later with more than 1,500 miles on it.
"I did take possession of it. I drove it off the lot," he said in a phone interview.
The Comitas bought their van - with a matching vehicle identification number and an odometer reading of 5 miles - for about $25,000 on Nov. 12, 2003.
The funeral director said he returned the van in mid-April of 2003 because he was in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings and the bankruptcy court wasn't going to let him keep the vehicle.
He said he was able to return the van and get his full down payment back. The funeral director spoke on the condition that his name not be used because he is embarrassed about his bankruptcy, which court records show was filed March 31, 2003.
When the Comitas got the letter from the state, they called the funeral director thinking it must be a mistake and found out about the previous use, said Joseph.
Beth Kaufman, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office, said Golf Mill Ford contacted the state to try to get a new title for the vehicle.
"In March of 2003, we issued what is called a 'C of O,' which is a certificate of origin to (the funeral director)," said Kaufman. "Then on 12/4/03, we get a request for a duplicate C of O for that car, the Windstar, which the dealership tells us that it's (the title) been lost at the dealership. And so we send them back correspondence saying no, it's not lost, we already have a title issued from this C of O."
In a letter dated March 31, a Golf Mill Ford office manager wrote a letter to the state saying the dealership had titled the van by accident, Kaufman said.
The state wrote back, telling the dealership that it would have to get a signed affidavit from the funeral director, affirming that he had never taken the van, Kaufman said.
The funeral director told the Daily Herald that the dealership contacted him and told him it was having problems with the title and that it needed him to sign a paper saying he no longer had the Windstar. He agreed.
But what it sent him was a two-sentence letter dated June 14, 2004, that read, "I ... did not take possession of the 2003 Ford Windstar with (VIN #). Nor did I take possession of any vehicle at Golf Mill Ford," the funeral director said.
He refused to sign.
"As I see it," said Joseph in a letter to the dealership, "my clients have paid dearly for a vehicle which they believed to be new, but in fact was used. Additionally, my clients ... suffered great mental anguish once they found out what their van was used for prior to their purchase of it."
Joseph said the Comitas still have the van and he's trying to negotiate a settlement with Golf Mill Ford, but the dealer has refused.
Van: Secretary of state's police are investigating
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Although this is beyond an extreme case, it is relevant to what's going on with me right now.
I just bought a used vehicle yesterday and although it was fairly easy, it still had it's hiccups. As a consumer that likes to be treated fairly I hate the car buying routine more than any shopping experience (I haven't purchased a house yet). They are always trying to low-ball you while keeping the price of the car you want as high as possible. Then there's the interest rates. This purchase was an exception. I was pre-approved through my bank and they needed to beat that offer by a lot for me to use their bank instead. In the past it's always been:
them: ok, we'll finance you at 10%
me: no
them: let me talk to my boss
*sit with my thumb up my ass for 20 min*
them: ok, I got them to go down to 9%
me: I can do better with my bank
them: let me talk to my boss
*sit with my thumb up my ass for another 20 min*
them: ok, I got them to go down to 8%
me: go fuck yourself
*goes home*
next day
phone call from salesman
them: I really want to sell you this car so we dropped the rate to 7%. Wow. You're getting one hell of a deal here
me: I can do better with my bank
them: let me see what I can do
later that day
them: wow, I can't believe we're doing this. I don't even think we're making any money on this deal. In fact we're probably taking a huge loss. When the owner finds out I think I'll probably lose my job. We can finance you at 6%
me: that's a nice rate, I'll take it.
Then you sit in the financing office. The same bs ensues while they try to sell you gap coverage, extended warranties, lojack, etc. I ended up getting gap coverage for about $1.50/mo (down from about $10/mo with a warranty but supposedly they couldn't do the warranty because it's a turbo).
In the end, I think I got a fair deal. I paid just a bit over retail blue book, but I owed $2k more than the wholesale blue book. They paid it off and didn't add anything on to the financed amount from the previous vehicle.
However, I only did ok because I was a bit of a dick and was able to tell when I was really getting screwed over. Overall, I probably got screwed a little bit, but I just wanted to be finished with it. I hate that you have to be so aggressive to keep yourself from being totally screwed over and it makes me feel bad for the people who aren't comfortable with doing that because they can get so screwed over.
What do you guys think about car salesman? Are there any here that would like to comment about the ethics of selling used cars? Do you think that you treat people with respect and try not to take advantage of them?