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Dealership sold car to father just before Alzheimer diagnosis

dbeswe01
dbeswe01 Member Posts: 1 Member
in Caring for a Parent
He lived a couple hours away when this occurred, we were still working towards an understanding on what was causing the repetition in conversation. At the same time he had been making his rounds around a few dealerships, picked out a blazer at one to purchase and showed up at a Hyundai dealer with that blazer flyer only for the Hyundai dealer to help him complete an application for a vehicle he never sat in. Attempted to get them to rescind the contract when we found out (before the car was picked up) and they refused. Shortly after he was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I had thought I would then be able to return the car since the diagnosis meant his POA was in effect but the dealership is now requiring a nice chunk of money in order for the car to be returned. Can they really get away with this or is this reportable?

Comments

  • H1235
    H1235 Member Posts: 1,670
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    Welcome. It’s my understanding that even if the DPOA is in effect the person still has a legal right to make decisions for themselves. The DPOA just allows someone else to make decisions as well. Even if that is true it does on the surface seem very unethical of this car dealership. On the flip side to that, how is the car dealership to know he was not capable of making this kind of decision? I assume you didn’t know how bad his issues were, how was the dealership supposed to know. Buying a new car without a test drive does seem unusual, they may have assumed he did a test drive an another dealership, or had driven a friends. You might want to talk with a lawyer.

  • ARIL
    ARIL Member Posts: 333
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    My understanding of the DPOA is the same as the previous commenter’s: the presence of a DPOA does not prevent the principal person from acting independently. So the contract was likely legal. But talking to a lawyer might be helpful, perhaps in negotiating reduced costs—especially if the car was never picked up. This sounds unfortunate but not necessarily nefarious.

    BTW, I did not do a test drive of the last car I bought; I had driven the same model in another color at a different dealership. So that fact alone isn’t that odd.

  • April23
    April23 Member Posts: 64
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    Member
    edited December 2025

    My hubby took my dad to buy a new car the year of his MCI diagnosis. At the time, we thought he would still be driving for awhile. My dad did not want to sit in the car (it was a model he had owned many times) and was confused the whole time even though he bought cars every 2-3 years his whole life. My hubby said the dealership was borderline criminal in their tactics even with him right there and clearly the one negotiating. If hubby had not been there, dad would have been completely taken advantage of.

    I'm just posting this to say it's not surprising and you will probably need a lawyer to assist you. Best of luck, it's a terrible situation.

  • harshedbuzz
    harshedbuzz Member Posts: 6,250
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    @dbeswe01—
    Hi and welcome. I am sorry for your reason to be here but pleased you found this place.

    Whether the POA was active at the time will depend on the wording of the document and may depend on whether dad was actually diagnosed at the time. You may be stuck with the car. If you are, you may do better than the dealer when selling. I got 3x more from webuyanycar.com that the local Ford dealer offered. A private sale might be a better option. I'd consider a different dealer even. Personally, I wouldn't let the dealer screw your family a second time.

    FWIW, my dad did this. Dad wasn't diagnosed until well into the middle-stages of dementia in part because of my mother's intractable denial. FWIW, I spent a decade begging her to have him evaluated. When she had her knee replaced at a specialty hospital about 50 miles from their home in FL, dad became fretful as she was "his person". He couldn't find the hotel where mom had reserved a room for him (spoiler alert— it was directly across the street from the main entrance of the hospital. I tried giving him directions over the phone from PA using google maps) He slept in his car instead which wasn't very comfortable, so he decided to find a Ford dealer and buy a more comfortable one. Buying cars was how he self-soothed. He traded his 3-year-old Taurus in on a shiny new one. He paid full MSRP and bought some sort of packages. Mom was livid.

    Now is the time to lock down dad's credit before you have a repeat or suffer a scam.
    HB

  • JJ401
    JJ401 Member Posts: 398
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    harshedbuzz gave good advice. Lock down his credit with the three major credit bureaus. Get Mom on board with lowering the limit on his credit card. Remove the Medicare card from his possession so that he can’t give the number to the telephone scammers. You are going to have to watch the accounts closely from now on. Vigilance is key.

Commonly Used Abbreviations


DH = Dear Husband
DW= Dear Wife, Darling Wife
LO = Loved One
ES = Early Stage
EO = Early Onset
FTD = Frontotemporal Dementia
VD = Vascular Dementia
MC = Memory Care
AL = Assisted Living
POA = Power of Attorney
Read more

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