By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario — October 15, 2018 — A North York dealership that allegedly hired an unlicensed auto repairer to work on a vehicle it later sold have been charged by the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC). Accused of making false, misleading or deceptive representations of the car, Signature Motor Car now faces a $45,000 fine and ordered to pay an additional $17,313 in restitution to the customer.
In 2015, Tian Cheng Kuang had bought a 2013 Mercedes Benz C350 from Signature Motor Car, located in North York. The following year, Kuang was driving his vehicle on roads covered with freezing rain and slid into a stopped vehicle. After the collision, Kuang was surprised by the extent of the damage to his car.
“The front end almost fell off.”
When Kuang purchased the vehicle, he was told it had been in a previous accident, but the repairs were made and had passed the safety inspection. What he didn’t know was that the vehicle was nearly totaled and suffered an estimated $31,144 in damage in a collision that happened in 2014. It was then deemed as salvage and was then repaired and rebranded as rebuilt.
Evidence presented at trial demonstrated the vehicle was outright missing components, while some other components that should have been replaced were instead repaired. The court also heard there were open welds, a portion of the bumper was held on with a zip-tie and a frame rail and a sub-frame component had been welded even though that type of repair is not allowed.
The Ministry of Transportation Branding Officer who had taken part in the trial, compared the repairs to “a dog’s breakfast.”
The Structural Inspection Certificate stated that the vehicle could be driven again, which was not true and should not have been issued by the inspection station
“The consumer did not receive clear, comprehensible, and prominent disclosure of the vehicle’s past as required by the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act,” explained Don Cousens, manager of investigations for OMVIC. “Nor did he know that the Mercedes had been repaired so poorly after the 2014 collision, or by means completely outside of industry norms, as to be largely hazardous.”
Kuang told OMVIC that when he approached the dealer after his collision, explaining that the car was unrepairable; not because of the $8,185 damage he’d caused rear-ending the Hyundai, but because of the improper repairs done by signature’s repairer, he got nowhere.
“Once OMVIC became involved, we investigated the entire transaction,” stated John Carmichael, OMVIC CEO and registrar.
“This led to additional concerns about possible false representations made by the dealer in regards to financing and the fact the sales contract did not accurately reflect the true nature of the transaction. Negative equity from Kuang’s trade-in had been disguised on the bill-of-sale.”
