A Fridley used car dealership is under fire from the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office for allegedly misrepresenting the quality of vehicles it sold along with dishonest service contracts and high interest rates, according to a new lawsuit filed this week by Attorney General Keith Ellison.

The dealership, Midwest Car Search, and its owner, Scott Spiczka, were named in the lawsuit, which seeks to provide restitution for customers and to stop the alleged illegal business practices of the dealership.

“This is a long-term systematic pattern of deception targeting Minnesotans, often, but not always, with limited English language skills,” Ellison said at a Tuesday news conference at the state Capitol.

Spiczka and his business are accused of fraudulently selling more than 3,000 vehicles to Minnesotans from 2017 to 2022 that it claimed were certified. The lawsuit alleges the business illegally required customers to purchase service contracts up to $1,800. Those illegal contracts add up to about $4.5 million, according to the attorney general.

For a dealership to advertise a car as certified, the car must have been inspected for any deficiencies, must be sold with a warranty, and must not have sustained any damage that impairs safety, according to Minnesota statute. The investigation by Ellison’s office found that none of the 3,245 cars sold by Midwest Car Search were certified.

Henry Holmes, a man who purchased a vehicle from Midwest Car Search at a 22% interest rate, said he was told by the dealership that they would not be able to fix the myriad issues with the car, which included a bad exhaust manifold, exhaust gasket, tie rods and strut assemblies, despite Holmes purchasing a warranty from the dealer.

“I felt used, so I called the attorney general because I can’t see letting people get away with stuff like that and using the elderly people and the people that don’t understand what they are talking about,” Holmes, 77, of Minneapolis, said Tuesday.

The lawsuit is the attorney general’s first after the Legislature strengthened Minnesota’s Used Car Law last year, though the lawsuit targets the dealership’s business both before and after those changes.

The dealership is also accused of advertising in Spanish and presenting Spanish-speaking salespeople but giving people contracts in English to sign that did not represent the promises made during the negotiation.

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