Car Dealer Did Not Pay-Off My Trade-in

[daflipzstayalz@gmail.com]

Hi there, I'm not quite sure if this is the proper section to post this, but I have a huge problem and am in need of some advice.

I am a military member who was previously stationed in Virginia. I had traded in a car to a used car dealership back in September 2009 who was supposed to pay off the car. About 20 days or so after the deal, I had found out that the I still had the loan to the traded-in vehicle and contacted the dealership. The car salesman and owner of the used car dealership assured me that it would be paid off and that they had 30 days from the deal to pay and that they still had time. That 30 days went by and they kept making excuses as to why it hasn't been paid, but it WILL BE as soon as they take care of some of their issues. They even agreed to reimburse me for the payments I had to make for the traded-in vehicle which occurred from October through January.

Everything seemed somewhat ok since I was still being reimbursed for the payments I was making until I had to go out to sea for 3 months and change home ports. I arrived in California in April to find out that the loan for the trade-in vehicle had not been paid off as was said by the owner and is still yet to be paid off to this date. I had made the payments on the vehicle from Feb through May in fear of ruining my credit and I would like to know if there is any chance at all that I could get my money back from this guy and possibly get him to finally pay off the loan. ANY kind of advice would be great and I'm getting a bit desperate here. Thanks in advance!

[Mr. Knowitall]

I would start by making a complaint with the Motor Vehicle Dealer Board.

How much is still owed on the vehicle. You can sue for up to $5,000 in small claims court; I'm not sure if that's sufficient, even assuming the dealership pays the judgment.