My Father Has Alzheimer's and Dementia and Went In for Service and They Convinced Him to Trade In His Prius and Buy a RAV4

It is a sad but not uncommon story recently posted on a Reddit r/askcarsales forum: A son discovers too late that his father has dementia and may have been taken advantage of by someone. In this case, it appears to have been a car dealership.

Here is what occurred

The OP's father owned a 2008 Toyota Prius, which the father had recently spent several thousand dollars fixing.

According to the OP, "He went in for service, and they convinced him to trade in his Prius to get a RAV4. It's a 2022 XLE with 60k miles that they sold to him for 32k. It's got mismatched tires, smells like someone smoked in it, scratches down the side."

Depending on the exact trim, in 2022, the XLE MSRP was between $27K and $31K. However, actual car sales at that time would be expected to have been a few thousand higher.

A rough Kelley Blue Book approximation is that today, an XLE in good condition has a current resale value of $25K and trade-in value of $22K.

But wait, it gets worse, according to the OP.

"I was looking through his glove box and he has a bunch of prepaid services for the car and of course he doesn't know about it since he has dementia."

"I should have mentioned he purchased the car in February. Adult protective services visited him, and he got his driving license taken away 2 weeks ago, and he's been incapacitated. I'm his POA in a paper he had his lawyer draft a while ago so I can make decisions for him."

"What course should I take to refund the prepaid services? I can't ask him about it since he doesn't know anything about it. I tried calling the dealership, but they've been ignoring my calls."

From the paperwork found thus far by the OP, nothing shows that his father had received any trade-in value for the Prius.

He had a 2008 Prius he spent 7-8k on fixing up a month ago and I'm pretty sure they didn't give him anything for it according to the paperwork I found."

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The Forum Responds

We can't be given the entire picture of how the trade-in of the OP's father's Prius and the sale of the 2022 RAV4 went down.

Based on one interpretation of the events provided, it looks like a car salesman very likely took advantage of a customer and sold him a car for too much that he may or may not have needed.

Honestly, it's not difficult. I'm not a medical professional, but I work in sales and can easily tell if someone is all there. This dealership and the sales rep were just scumbags taking advantage of someone ―Zachmo182

Agreed. If the OP's story is factual, the dealer should be ashamed of themselves. It's despicable and reprehensible. Did the dealer need that car deal that badly? Pick up a phone and call family member or friend first ―strangestrategies

Another interpretation of the events provided, however, could possibly be that the salesman did only what he was paid to do, which is sell a car at the best price for a dealership he can, including add-ons that we've been warned to steer away from. He may or may not have recognized that the OP's father has Alzheimer's, a fact the OP admits he missed knowing for years.

Very hard to prove the person was unfit when said person was able to drive themselves into the dealership themselves. Car dealerships and salesmen are not medical professionals and have no training or expectation to pick up on nuanced mental ailments such as dementia ―nopenope12345678910

However, the most useful post responses come from thread post enderjaca, who identifies himself as a former BDC rep. A BDC rep (Business Development Center representative) is an employee at an auto dealership who handles customer inquiries and manages leads.

Here's what he had to say (slightly edited for brevity) about the situation:

"While this sucks for him & his heirs, there's very little chance you'll get the dealership to reverse this, unless you can get someone to convince the general manager otherwise.

As for cancelling the things that can be cancelled, someone needs to go with him in-person to the dealership and ask to speak with the GM about having them cancelled. That can be done pretty quickly, once you get to the right person. They're ignoring your calls because you're not the person that bought the car and since you have no legal right to know any details about this car purchase, why should they call back?

As others have said, it's not the salesperson's job to determine your father's level of cognitive abilities. If he's able to speak coherently about his interest in buying a car, and has the financial means to do so, it's their job to sell him a car. There's lots of people with disabilities such as downs, stuttering, partial paralysis, or just plain stupidity who have every right to buy a car. If I think someone is mentally weird but the bank approves them to buy a $70k Corvette at 24.99% even though it's a REALLY awful financial decision, so be it.

My uncle was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's in Indiana and continued to drive and use a bank and grocery shop and do other normal stuff until well into his diagnosis. Further than I personally considered safe, but that wasn't my judgement to make."

In short, as the thread post AdvilOfficial sums it up, the OP's best first move is to go to the dealership and speak to a manager in person. Phone calls are the black hole of communication, and scenarios like the OP presents are best handled face-to-face before deciding to lawyer up:

One Important Takeaway from This Story

As multiple posts pointed out, lack of power of attorney (POA) can complicate the situation when it comes to a parent having made a car purchase under questionable circumstances.

Basically, if someone becomes incapacitated due to dementia and doesn't have a valid POA, no one is legally authorized to make decisions on their behalf for financial matters, healthcare, or other life decisions.

The best protection for your parent and yourself is to have legal authorization for power of attorney ahead of time as your parent ages in case of an unexpected illness or decline in mental faculties.

It's a sad fact, but a discussion everyone should have with their parents.

Tell Us If This Has Happened In Your Family or To Someone You Know

Share your story in the comments section below, and let us know what happened and how it was resolved. If you are in car sales and can relate to the situation, we would like to hear from you as well.

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Timothy Boyer is an automotive reporter based in Cincinnati who currently researches and works on restoring older vehicles with engine modifications for improved performance. He also reports on modern cars (including EVs) with a focus on DIY mechanics, buying and using tools, and other related topical automotive repair news. Follow Tim on Twitter at @TimBoyerWrites as well as on Facebook and his automotive blog "Zen and the Art of DIY Car Repair" for useful daily news and topics related to new and used cars and trucks.

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