A dealership group in Dallas has been ordered to pay $85,000 after violating a consent order prohibiting it from using deceptive advertising practices, reports Autonews.
Southwest Kia signed an agreement in 2014 restricting it from implementing deceptive advertising practices for 20 years. However, the Federal Trade Commission says that multiple television and online advertisements since then have misrepresented monthly payments, hidden limitations about certain terms for customers and not listed a number of necessary disclosures.
The group, which operates three dealerships across Dallas, is said to have breached the agreement just months after signing it, with the FTC pinpointing a July 2014 commercial where it is claimed that a customer can get two new vehicles for less than $200 per month.
What that commercial failed to reveal was that the monthly payments advertised were for leases with $1,999 down payments, not for the sale of the vehicles themselves.
Additionally, the FTC said that a selection of advertisements from Southwest Kia had hard-to-understand fine print describing key financial disclosures.
In one case, the group advertised a 2015 Kia Rio for just $179 per month, but only in the fine print, which the FTC says was “too small to read without magnification” did it reveal that a $1,999 upfront payment was needed ,as was a further $8,271 after the 38-month financing term finished. In another case, the FTC said the dealers aired a TV ad offering two cars for “under $200 per month,” but in fine print that appeared for two seconds, “disclosed that the offer applied only to leases, not sales, and required a $1,999 payment at lease signing”.
Opening photo via Autonews
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