Warning!

[YarisOwnersDad]

Our local Chevrolet dealership went out of business on April 20th, but they stopped paying-off the loans on the trade-in vehicles for a while prior to closing their doors.

This hurts the person who traded-in the vehicle AND the person who came along and bought the trade-in vehicle. The person who traded-in the vehicle is still legally responsible for making the payments, even though the car has been traded-in. This happened to a guy whom I used to work with. In his case, the dealership finally came through and paid-off his trade-in, but that was several weeks before they actually shut the place down. Those who bought cars and traded-in their old cars in the last days of the dealership were left holding the bag.

The person who comes along and buys the trade-in vehicle finds that he cannot get the title changed to his name, because the lien from the previous owner has not been satisfied.

What a mess!

I would be VERY careful about this, if I were trading cars now. I'm not sure how this situation could be avoided, but I would sure be finding out, if I were going to buy at this time. Maybe this situation is extremely unusual, but with the shape many care dealers are in, this may become more prevalent.

Tom