Originally posted by transio
Shawn,

Are you sure about that? Every legal document I've seen along these lines says something like "I guarantee that..." A guarantee is not to the best of one's knowledge. "To the best of your knowledge" wouldn't hold anyone to anything in court, because the burden is then placed on the dealer to prove that you knew about it. By simply making you guarantee a clean history, they make you liable whether you know about it or not, which is the way it should be, because they're buying the vehicle from you in good faith assuming that it's clean. They shouldn't have to pay for your ignorance.
Although it is certainly one way to look at it, I tend to disagree with the above. This situation is not due to my ignorance. What I had in my hand was a clear title with absolutely no indication that there is anything wrong with the car. I had a car with a clear title and this is why I signed the statement that the car is fine. It is not really “to the best of my knowledge” but rather according to an official state issued document at hand. I don't believe that anyone else would do anything differently. Are you suggesting that it was my responsibility to run the Carfax on my old car before the dealer took it? Taking into account the fact that the dealer had my VIN number three days before the transaction was completed I believe that it was the dealer's responsibility to run the carfax on the car that they are about to purchase. The manager told me that they had three previous cases like this before... this blows my mind... if something like this happened before, wouldn't you make sure that checking the car before the deal is done is the first thing you do? This has never happened to me before, so my "ignorance" can be explained as inexperience. I am not in a car selling business so I could not imagine it is possible. I learned my lesson now and it will never happen to me again. But I can not believe that the dealer did not check the car if this has happened to them before. I think the saying goes "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

With this said… the dealer did not return my repeated calls on Friday to get things straight. I left two voice messages asking to get back to me and discuss options. I will wait to hear back this week and in the mean time I will probably consult the attorney.

Thanks