Grieco Auto Group Disputes Attorney General Neronha’s Claims
Wednesday, March 09, 2022
The Grieco Auto Group is firing back at Attorney General Peter Neronha’s claim that two of the company’s dealerships — Grieco Honda and Grieco Toyota — engaged in unfair consumer pricing practices in violation of Rhode Island’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).
Neronha’s office filed a lawsuit - it was announced on Tuesday.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTGeorge Smith, Grieco Automotive Group Chief Operating Officer, said that the company has not received any consumer complaints regarding pricing issues.
Smith said that the Attorney General’s office never contacted the company about any issues and was only notified when the lawsuit was filed.
“In 2021, Grieco Automotive Group sold over 8,700 new and pre-owned vehicles in RI. Grieco Automotive Group has over 300 employees in the State of RI and generates millions of dollars in employment taxes, sales taxes, income taxes and property taxes,” said Smith.
“Grieco Automotive Group has an excellent reputation among its customers and in the RI business community which we justly deserve, and we will do everything in our power to maintain that reputation,” said Smith.
Smith disputes almost every aspect of the charges in the suits filed by Neronha.
Regarding the Honda dealership, Smith said, “We list our new vehicles with the Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price ('MSRP') on our website for customer informational and comparison-shopping purposes only, as do most other dealers”
“Identifying MSRP on our dealer website is a Honda manufacturer requirement,” said Smith. “We sell many of our new vehicles at or below MSRP. We have never advertised a 'sale price' we didn’t honor.”
Neronha’s suit states, “For each motor vehicle listed on their website, Grieco Honda advertises a single price titled as the 'MSRP,' or the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. As demonstrated in Exhibit A, this price appears at the top of the online advertisement:
The suit goes on to state, “Grieco Honda’s online advertisements include a disclosure that the price shown does 'not include taxes, license, or doc fee.' [sic]. Grieco Honda’s advertisements do not disclose any other types of fees that may be added to the price of the motor vehicle, such as an 'addendum fee.' Based on Grieco Honda’s false advertising, customers are deceived into believing that they can purchase vehicles for a certain price when, in fact, Grieco Honda has no intention of honoring that price.”
Regarding the suit against the Toyota dealership, Smith says, "Due to market conditions and having an extremely low inventory of new vehicles, we decided rather than to sell many used vehicles and trade-ins at the wholesale auctions, we would instead keep them and sell them direct to the consumer, often at pricing similar to prices we would realize today at wholesale auctions."
"We spoke to our advertising company, which is based In Florida, to let them know that we would be retailing these used vehicles and trade-ins instead of bringing them to wholesale auctions. Our advertising company created the promotional campaign online, not realizing it wasn’t compliant with RI dealer advertising guidelines which do not allow certain pricing references in the auto industry even though it is allowed in virtually every other industry," adds Smith.
"Once we received the Complaint from the Attorney General’s Office, we took swift action and removed all language that wasn’t compliant with automotive advertising guidelines in RI," added Smith.
Smith said, "We deny all allegations of any kind of deceptive business practices. “
