You’ve probably been there. You see a great price on a car, fall in love with it during the test drive, and then spend the next two hours in a little room watching fees appear on paperwork like magic tricks you never asked for. Rust proofing. Tire protection. Documentation charges. By the time you sign, you’re paying a number that barely resembles what was on the window sticker.
That exact experience — on a large, documented scale — is what landed Honda of the Bronx in serious trouble with New York City regulators. The dealership has agreed to a $130,000 settlement after the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection found a pattern of violations that touched customers at virtually every stage of the car buying process. The case is a textbook example of what consumer advocates have been warning about for years: what you see is almost never what you pay.
The settlement breaks down into two buckets. Honda of the Bronx agreed to pay $61,500 in civil penalties directly to the city, plus $68,500 in consumer restitution — money that goes back into the pockets of customers who were overcharged. According to city records, investigators reviewed 35 vehicles and found that 24 of them were sold above the advertised price. The average gap between what was advertised and what customers actually paid? More than $2,800 per car…