Tennessee Consumer Protection Act: What is a "New" Car?
It is an unfortunate fact in the world of commerce that many businesses can make more money by acting deceptively toward consumers than they can by being honest, at least as far as short term profits are concerned. For instance, car dealerships could make a lot more money on a vehicle if they were allowed to pass it off as a “new” car when it was actually a used vehicle. Tennessee has long recognized that such practices would inevitably take place in the absence of legislation designed to protect consumers. Thus, the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977 (TCPA) was adopted in order to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive practices.
Recently, the Tennessee Court of Appeals was confronted with the question of when a car could be considered “new” for purposes of application of the TCPA. A plaintiff had sued an automobile dealer, alleging fraudulent misrepresentation, negligence, and violations of the TCPA because the dealer had advertised the car sold to plaintiff as “new” although the car had 756 miles on the odometer at the time of sale and had suffered minor damage to the trunk while in transit to the dealer which had subsequently been retouched. The car had also been sold from one dealer to another dealer before eventually being sold to plaintiff.
The court determined that the car still met the definition of “new” as defined in the TCPA. The court held that TCA section 47-18-119 dictated that any passenger vehicle that meets the criteria of a “new” passenger vehicle under TCA section 55-5-106(e)(5) should be construed as “new” for the purposes of the TCPA. TCA 55-5106(e)(5) states that a new passenger car is any car that has not been subject of sale at retail to the general public. Thus, since the car in question had only been sold from dealer to dealer and not to the general public, the car was still “new” under the applicable definition. The dealer was thus not liable for any violations under the TCPA that would have arisen out of the representation that the car was “new.”
The TCPA contains important protections for consumers to ensure that they do not fall victim to deceptive practices. Some situations, like that of buying a new car, would leave the consumer in a very vulnerable position, and subject the consumer to serious financial injury, if deceptive business practices were allowed to go unchecked. The TCPA helps level what would otherwise be an uneven playing field between consumers and producers.
Sources: (Timoshchuk v. Long of Chattanooga Mercedes-Benz, 34 TAM 44-6, 10/8/09, ES, McClarty, 15 pages.)
