CAPE GIRARDEAU – Capital One Auto Finance recently filed a lawsuit against a Toyota dealership in Cape Girardeau alleging fraud, breach of contract and breach of representations and warranties.
According to the suit filed Dec 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Coad Toyota allegedly represented that certain vehicles it sold had options and features that they do not have and that certain borrowers made down payments when, in fact, they did not, or that they paid a lower down payment than what it represented.
The suit, which seeks at least $619,690 in damages, claims that in at least 34 separate transactions, Coad Toyota misrepresented material facts, some relating to "power booking," which according to the suit, describes a dealership's practice of misrepresenting the features and options on a vehicle to inflate the purported value of the vehicle and manipulate the risk analysis that a lender performs when deciding whether to purchase the "receivable," or loan application.
Capital One claims that it relied on the dealership's statements because they were not "exaggerated or beyond belief." It claims that it was damaged by the misrepresentations because it was induced into purchasing receivables it otherwise would not have purchased at all or would not have purchased under the current terms.
"COAF (Capital One Auto Finance) was further damaged, because the vehicles, which are collateral for the receivables COAF purchased, are worth far less than what the dealership represented," the suit states.
Capital One claims that it had demanded that Coad repurchase the receivables at issue, but that it has failed to do so.
Capital One is represented by attorneys at Behr, McCarter & Potter in St. Louis.