The office of Attorney General Maura Healey on Tuesday warned auto dealerships not to engage in “bait and switch” sale tactics as auto prices surge nationally due to extremely low inventory.
In a two-page, online “advisory,” Healey’s office said dealerships can’t legally refuse to sell vehicles to consumers who offer to pay the advertised price.
The advisory cites the state’s consumer protection law, known as Chapter 93A, as prohibiting dealerships from jacking up prices between the time they advertise on their websites and when consumers show up on their lots looking to pay the advertised price.
Healey’s advisory comes at a time when new vehicles in the Boston area are being snapped up by eager buyers almost three times faster than two years ago even as prices for new vehicles are 10 percent higher than they were in 2019, according to iSeeCars.com, a Woburn-based national car search engine company.
iSeeCars.com also found that used vehicles in the Boston area are selling at a whopping 28 percent higher than two years ago, before the pandemic and chip shortages caused a worldwide slowdown in auto production.
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Healey’s advisory also called illegal the refusal of dealerships to honor the terms of a lease contract. Some consumers have reported that dealerships attempted to require them to return leased vehicles at the end of the lease, rather than allow them to purchase those vehicles at a previously agreed upon price, the attorney general’s office said.
Dealerships trying to take advantage of the surge in prices apparently want leased vehicles returned to their lots in order to sell them at a premium price, the attorney general’s office said.
The advisory also said that it was illegal for dealerships to “make misrepresentations about the value of a vehicle” and that dealerships “must clearly and conspicuously disclose all included and excluded charges in any advertised price of a vehicle as well as the expiration date of any advertised prices.”
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The advisory is also intended to apprise consumers of their rights.
“After a surge in complaints to my office, we’re making sure consumers are aware of their rights under the law, and that auto dealerships know our office will take action against these deceptive sales tactics,” Healey said, according to a press release.
The attorney general’s office did not cite specific violations or dealerships. Nor did it quantify the number of complaints it has received.
Phil Greenstein, executive director of the Massachusetts Independent Auto Dealers Association, which represents used car dealerships, said, “We expect all of our members to abide by our code of ethics.”
That code says members “have a general duty of integrity, honor, and fair dealing toward the general public” and to comply with all legal obligations.
The code, posted on its website, goes on to say, “We will employ truth and accuracy in advertising and selling. We will stand behind any guarantee given with the sale of a motor vehicle. We will not perform any act which would bring disrepute to the motor vehicle industry.”
One person who complained to the attorney general’s office, an attorney, said he showed up at a dealership with a copy of an advertisement the dealership had sent him by e-mail the day before that included the price for a leased 2021 vehicle, according to the attorney’s July 2 complaint.
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But the salesman told him the vehicle was sold the day before. “I asked him to show proof of the sale and he was unable to,” he wrote.
In an interview, the attorney said that he was contacted by the attorney general’s office after filing his complaint but that he did not know the status of his complaint.
Consumers who believe that an auto dealership has violated the law may file a complaint with the attorney general’s office at this site, or by calling 617-727-8400.
Got a problem? Send your consumer issue to sean.murphy@globe.com. Follow him @spmurphyboston.