If a glossy flyer arrives in your mailbox from a car dealership in your area promoting a huge event for pre-owned car sales, beware. Many of these events have contests, or “bonus” vouchers, which consumers are advised to take advantage of to get thousands of dollars off of the price of a pre-owned car. One of these flyers came with a key that people were told to take to the sales event to discover if they had won a new vehicle.

“Blow-out” sales, such as these, will use the name of a local dealer, but other companies run them. Typically, these companies will charge more for the cars than the actual dealership. And according to investigations by state attorneys, often-deceptive tactics and high-pressure are used to achieve sales.

The state attorney general’s office of Washington announced early this year that they settled with a company such as this. This company was accused of not disclosing how many cars were available at the price advertised, making financing sound easier than it really is, and misrepresenting the value of the cars being sold by calling them “drastically discounted”.

Consumers should remember that if a car deal sounds to good to be true, it probably is. It is best to research such things as used cars and used car warranties before you actually go shopping. This way you will know what prices are reasonable to expect.