Selling a car has always been a pain, but using a consignment lot to sell one man’s car, has turned into a lawsuit against the now defunct dealership for pocketing his money and creating a repossession headache.
Orem, UT – 30 August 2018 – For Brady Barlow, his car-selling-nightmare all began when he turned to an Orem car dealership to help him sell a 2013 Chevrolet Camaro.
He signed a contract with Cobalt Motorcars to sell the car on consignment. A few weeks later, the car sold for $18,000 and was driven off the lot by its new owner.
But, when Barlow tried to collect his money from the dealership, he said he was told they didn’t have his money. Barlow said he never got a dime and the dealership has since gone out of business.
Barlow still had the car’s title and used it to repossess the car from the man who bought it. Now, he’s being hounded by the credit union for the purchaser to either hand over the car and the title or face a lawsuit.
Barlow is not alone in his frustrations with Cobalt. Get Gephardt tracked down others who said they are owed money by Cobalt Motorcars also, including a man who used to work for the dealership: Steven Shepherd.
In a letter written to the state’s Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division, which he also provided to Get Gephardt, Shepherd wrote that he witnessed, “fraudulent signatures,” “sales tax fraud,” and other, “unethical if not illegal actions” taking place at the dealership.
According to state records, the dealership was owned by a man named Edgar Ruiz. Ruiz told Get Gephardt that he doesn’t know what happened to the money that is owed to Barlow or others.
“We just need to find out where those funds went,” he said.
Ruiz is currently suing several of his former business partners who, he said, were the ones who handled the finances. He said those partners cut him out.
“So basically, they took over the administration of the business,” Ruiz said. “They made it clear they didn’t want me involved in the day to day operations.”
Several of those partners are still in the car business. State records showed they opened up a new dealership just a couple miles down the road from where Cobalt used to be called ARL Auto Group.
Nobody from the new dealership would talk on camera, but by phone told Get Gephardt that answers about what happened at Cobalt would need to come from Ruiz stating it was, “Edgar’s show,” and calling him the “Puppet Master.”
Utah’s Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division investigate deals that go bad between car dealers and their customers. Spokesperson Charlie Roberts said such complaints are “very common” and that all complaints are investigated.
Barlow has filed a complaint but Roberts said he is forbidden from commenting on whether or not Cobalt is currently under investigation. Roberts did say that MVED has the authority to investigate the people who run dealerships and recommend criminal charges, even after a dealership has closed.
Cobalt Motorcars was bonded so people who are owed money can file a claim with MVED, Roberts said. The trouble with a bond is that it’s basically a pile of money, and once that pile is gone – it’s gone. There is no guarantee it will be enough to cover everyone who is owed.
Barlow has filed a claim with the bond, which won’t pay out for a minimum of six months. In the meantime, he and others are now forced to wait and hope that a state investigation is able to help track down their missing money.
Source: KUTV
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