Bowie DARCARS Dealership Deceived Customer, Says MD Attorney General

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — A Bowie car dealership has been charged by the state's attorney with unfair and deceptive sales practices that violate the Maryland Consumer Protection Act.

Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced Thursday that the Consumer Protection Division has filed charges against DARCARS of Bowie, Inc., doing business as DARCARS Honda, its parent company Mariam, Inc., and both companies’ owners John Rahmangholi Darvish and Jamshyd Darvish. DARCARS Honda operates a new and used vehicle dealership located at 2260 Crain Highway in Bowie.

According to the statement of charges, the respondents violated Maryland’s Consumer Protection Act through unfair or deceptive trade practices at nearly every stage of their dealership’s sale of new vehicles to consumers, including in the following ways:

• By deceptively charging consumers a fee equal to an extra 2% of the vehicle sales price that the respondents misleadingly called a “sales commission” and claim is “optional” when the fee is not a commission to a salesperson and consumers were unaware of their option to not pay the fee;
• By deceptively charging consumers more for their vehicles than the advertised price, including for significant charges for already installed equipment and dealer markup;
• By financing the sale of added products, such as their “DARCARS Assurance” and “DARCARS Protection Plan” in an unlawful manner;
• By deceptively packing consumer vehicle sales transactions with unwanted equipment and products; and
• By failing to disclose and itemize all goods and services that consumers are paying for when they purchase a new vehicle, and the cost of those services and products, as required under Maryland law.

The attorney general is seeking an injunction to stop the alleged violations as well as the payment of restitution, economic damages, penalties and costs for the alleged violations of Maryland’s Consumer Protection Act. A hearing on the charges has been set for Oct. 16-25.

According to Samantha Morash, spokesperson for Honda of Bowie, "Over the last two years, Honda of Bowie has cooperated fully with the Maryland Attorney General to respond to its request for information and address its concerns. This is an instance where the premise of the case is not supported by the record or the facts.

"We feel confident about our level of disclosure on this matter and proactively sought to partner with the attorney general to establish new industry best practices that could benefit all Maryland consumers. We are prepared to defend our company and our lawful practices in court against these baseless claims, while continuing to provide our customers with the industry’s best service in every market we serve," Morash said."