New Jersey has specific regulations prohibiting bait and switch advertising as applied to car salesmen: advertising a car with no intention of selling it at the advertised price, which is shown by the refusal to show, sell or display the car as advertised; or taking a deposit on the advertised car while switching the customer to a higher-priced car.


In short,when a car is advertised at a specific price you must sell the car at that price or have written permission switching the consumer to another car.  

The point of these regulations is to address the volumes of advertisements you see in every newspaper, each advertisement being bigger and containing grander promises (e.g., $99 down and $99 per month).

If you look carefully at these newspaper advertisements you will see many times that they are for one specific car, and not on all cars. Maybe the special deal is only for customers who have 50% to put down on a car or have fantastic credit, all probably disclosed in small print on the bottom of the page with an asterisk or some other insignificant notation.

The dealer’s intention is to drive traffic to the dealership at any cost before you go to another dealership and buy a car from somebody else. They assume that once they get you down to the store they can get you into any car. This is part of the sales process.


Consumer Lawyer Carton and Rudnick
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