Turn around is fair play in the car world. Take this incident, where an Ohio Kia dealer repossessed a customer’s car a month after she took delivery after a finance agreement allegedly fell through via some shoddy paperwork. The customer in question did a little digging and discovered that the dealer no longer had the legal right to use its own name. Now, both the buyer and the dealer are tangled in a legal battle regarding the arbitration of the vehicle sale and the rights to the dealer’s name.
Tiah McCreary went to Taylor Kia of Lima to purchase a brand-new Kia K5, according to Court News Ohio. After meeting with the finance manager she signed the paperwork. Within those sales documents was an arbitration agreement, where any disputes between the buyer and the dealer must be settled under arbitration. The car was supposed to by financed through Global Lending Services, but then the lender claimed there was not enough information to finalize the loan, and the dealer repossessed the car a month after Ms. McCreary took it home.
Dealer Takes Her Car, She Takes Their Name
McCreary was evaluating what legal options she had with the dealer after the repossession when she discovered that the dealer group Taylor Automotive no longer had ownership over the name “Taylor Kia of Lima” because the registration of that name was cancelled under the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office. In an act of exquisite pettiness, McCreary filed for ownership of the name “Taylor Kia of Lima.”
She also filed a complaint against Taylor Cadillac and GLS, alleging the companies violated the Consumer Sales Practices Act, and she claimed fraud, conversion, and unjust enrichment by the dealership. She also sought an injunction prohibiting Taylor Cadillac and the Taylor Automotive Group from transacting any business under the name Taylor Kia of Lima without her consent.
Arbitration and the battle over the name
The dealer argued that because McCreary signed an arbitration agreement upon purchasing the vehicle, the legal proceedings must first undergo that process before going to trial. McCreary appealed the decision and the Third District Court determined that while the vehicle purchase transaction may apply to the arbitration clause, McCreary’s ownership over the name “Taylor Kia of Lima,” does not apply, and that case can proceed to trial.
I know we are all shocked and dismayed that this happened a Kia dealer, a brand that is famous for a sales network that prides itself on transparency and fairness. McCreary’s legal battle with Taylor Automotive is still ongoing, but it’s hard not to be impressed by a customer’s impressive legal maneuvering over what she considered to be a bad deal. I hope she holds on to the name somehow, and opens a hardware store called Taylor Kia of Lima, so the name is forever associated with getting screws.
