We get a lot of calls from people who have been fraudulently sold cars with serious defects. When the buyer confronted the dealer about the problem and demanded her money back, the dealer insisted that the car was sold "as is," and so it's "not my problem." But the dealers don't understand the law--there are several reasons why a buyer has legal claims even when the car is sold as is. Let’s break down a few of them here:
The car was sold with a warranty or a service contract. Under federal law, a dealer can't disclaim "implied warranties" in a sale if it provided a warranty or a service contract.
The dealer lied about the vehicle’s condition. Under Minnesota law, a dealer can't sell a vehicle as-is if it makes a false statement about a serious defect.
A dealer can't get off the hook for specific statements it made about the car. A dealer’s verbal statements about the car, called express warranties, can never be disclaimed. This means that if the dealer said "the car has never been in an accident," or or "the check engine light is only on because the car needs a new oxygen sensor" when it actually needs a new engine, it can't squirm out of those untrue statements by hiding behind "as is."
There is a lot of nuance to these scenarios and a detailed legal analysis is required before it’s clear whether you’ll be able to defeat “as-is” in your case. But it’s important for buyers to know that just because their car was sold “as-is” doesn’t mean that they’re out of luck.