Last year in December Jonathan Negron drove from Long County to Savannah to purchase a used, 2010 Nissan Versa from Quezon Auto Sales.
“The AC was broken, but it wasn’t a deal breaker,” he said about the car, which he intended to give to his daughter, “It had really low mileage and, you know, as long as the car was safe to drive, that’s all that mattered for my girl’s first car.”
Yet 45 days later, Negron realized that the deal was too good to be true. When he took the car from the lot off Stephenson Avenue, the dealer provided Negron a temporary plate, also known as a temp tag, and told him that the title would be mailed to him. More than one year — and one lawsuit — later, Negron still has no title — and no recourse to recoup the almost $3,000 that he spent for a car that he can’t legally drive in Georgia.
There are 7,000 used car dealers in Georgia. Negron’s experience is part of a wider trend in unscrupulous sales that has made the industry unreliable, according to Richard Barber, a veteran police officer who trains local law enforcement on auto crimes. According to Barber, two of the reasons that illegal car sales flourish in Georgia are the state’s loose rules for temporary car tags – a tool by which car dealers can convince consumers that a sale is legitimate – and a lack of enforcement.
Lawmakers this last spring updated Georgia’s laws governing temporary vehicle tags, something expected to help the state recoup millions of dollars each year in uncollected taxes related to the issue. But the new law doesn’t address the needs of individual Georgians like Negron who are victims of a system that doesn’t punish fraudulent car sales.
Tyrus Watts, co-owner of Quezon Auto Sales, told The Current that in the last eight years, he has sold approximately 20 cars with temporary tags but no title. Watts, who appears on the list of licensed used car dealers in the state, says his operations are not illegal.
This pattern of behavior is something that consumers should be protected from, according to Barber.
“We want to prevent people who have worked hard and saved their hard earned money from being scammed because the car they bought never actually belonged to them in the first place,” Barber said.
Attempts at justice
When Negron approached Quezon Auto Sales last December, he didn’t know anything about this history.
He drove away after signing an “as is” contract with Watts that included his temp tag information about when he could expect the car title.
After 45 days, when the temp tag had expired, Watts told Negron that he didn’t have the title ready.
Negron, the 31-year-old Army veteran, then drove back to Chatham County to get his temporary tag extended.
TEMP TAG VS FAKES
Real Temporary Operating Permits tags begin with the letters P (issued for in-state), S (issued for out-of-state), C (issued by county), and E (if the system that prints temporary tags is down, it will automatically print an E tag).
Fake tags are printed using any other first letter, and dealers who know this system may print off out-of-state temp tags when they don’t have a valid car title, since they can be printed as many times as someone wants for the same car. In-state temporary tags can only be printed once, according to investigator Richard Barber.
Through the spring he was still able to reach the dealer, but Watts wouldn’t commit to a time frame that he would deliver a title to the Nissan.
Negron sought a resolution by asking to trade the Nissan in for another car that had a title. Watts only had one other vehicle available, a 2001 Cavalier that was worth a third of the price he had paid for the Nissan, and so Negron refused that deal.
He asked for his money back, but the dealer refused.
Meanwhile, Negron successfully got the temporary tag extended multiple times through the tag office. But in April, he said the dealer scrubbed details off the sale from the state motor vehicle database, leaving the single father of five with a $2,980 hole in his pocket, and a Nissan Versa sitting unregistered in his driveway.
Over the summer, Negron refused to let the matter go. He went to the police and they told him that they couldn’t investigate because the issue would be considered a civil issue, rather than a criminal one.
He then consulted a lawyer, who advised the Long County man to send a letter to the dealership asking for a clean and clear vehicle title or a full refund within seven days.
Quezon never replied.
In September, Negron sued Quezon Auto Sales. He wasn’t the only one.
Court documents show that a Savannah woman also filed a lawsuit against the dealer, too, complaining that she had not received the title to the car that Watts sold her.
Negron’s lawsuit faltered when the sheriff’s department tried to serve the court papers at the dealership address listed on his contract. Quezon, however, was no longer located there.
Watts, when he spoke to The Current, said that his business was temporarily closed due to financial pressures. He felt bad for his customers, but he denied that his business practices were illegal.
On Oct. 20, Negron went back to the tag office trying to find out who actually held the title to his Nissan. A document there revealed that Watts was the owner of the Versa — but that the car had a lien on it held by TitleMax.
Watts hadn’t paid off that loan before selling the car to Negron, something that raises further questions about his business practices. Legally, the lien means that TitleMax could repossess the car from Negron, and he couldn’t do anything about it.
Watts confirmed to The Current the existence of the lien, and said he was trying to scrape up enough cash to pay the remaining $785 to TitleMax.
Negron next tried to sue the insurance company that had Quezon Auto Sales as their client to receive the cash amount of the surety bond, in lieu of his vehicle’s title. He was advised by officials at the county tag office that he should file a lawsuit against Watts’ insurance company, but Negron couldn’t afford to go through with another lawsuit.
Negron also got into contact with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, which registers businesses in the state and shows that Watts’ business is still active. Officials there advised him to mail in a complaint that could start a formal claim against the dealership’s surety bond. However, due to the government shutdown, the office told Negron it could take them up to 90 days to respond due to a smaller staff.
He has also emailed the State Board of registration of Used Motor Vehicle Dealers and Used Motor Vehicle Parts Dealers, set up under the state’s new law regulating used car dealers.
What’s next?
The board was created in hopes of revamping government systems to protect the public and keep dealers accountable, according to state Rep. John Corbett, the chair of the House Motor Vehicle Committee and the chair of the House Study Committee on the new motor vehicle board. Corbett represents rural District 174, which includes Brantley, Charlton, Clinch and Echols counties and parts of Lowndes and Ware counties.
Corbett said the board’s priority is to merge with the Department of Revenue to allow the board, which issues dealers licenses, and the regulatory branch to better communicate.
The agency, meanwhile, is also pursuing specialized inspectors for independent and e-commerce auto dealers, he said. Inspectors currently are shared across five to six different industries, making it hard to properly train them for dealership inspections.
“When they walk in, they don’t really know what they’re looking for,” said Corbett, “We want to make sure our inspectors are properly trained and know not only when there’s a fraudulent dealership, but when dealerships are doing the right thing, too.”
There is no timeline for the board to address the rules and procedures that have allowed Negon or others to be caught in this tangled web.
Meanwhile, other Georgians, like Sabrina Joyner, didn’t have the time or the resources to fight against the broken system of used car dealers.
The mother of five children from Alma paid $3,000 in cash last January for an Acura from Renrick Auto Sales in Brunswick. After her temp tag expired she reached out to ask why she hadn’t received her title in the mail.
A representative of Renrick Auto Sales said their vehicles are registered through the state of Georgia and once a car is sold, the title should be mailed to the buyer from the state after paying the title and tag fee.
She said that the tag fee was included in her contract. Renrick said that wasn’t the case.
Joyner gave the car to a friend who tried to gain a title through the tag office in Brunswick, but failed. Joyner never received the title, and the owner of Renrick Auto Sales stopped answering her calls.
She said she doesn’t have the money to sue the dealership, so for now the vehicle remains unused.
Now, nearly a year since his automobile purchase, Negron doesn’t have a court date scheduled. He doesn’t believe the issue will be solved any time soon.
“Right now, the law is protecting criminals instead of the community,” said Negron, “It’s disgusting.”
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