Dealership Seemingly Lied About Car's Condition To Undervalue Trade

Location: WI, USA

A few months back, my wife and I decided to replace her car for a few reasons, not the least of which being that her old car wasn't the most reliable.

We considered selling privately, even got offers for the car, sight unseen, for $1400. We decided that, since I'd have to drive to a dealership to buy a new car, we would accept the fact that we would have to trade it in for less instead. She would have come with, but subjecting ourselves to toddlers in a dealership would be torturous.

So I picked out a car and go to test drive and buy it (dealership is over an hour from home, so not planning to go twice). I get there, intending to trade in the car-- we make a deal for the new-to-me car and then they finally come back to me about the trade-in.

He says the bottom is completely rusted out and not worth the money to salvage. He offers $300 for scrap. I clarify that they aren't going to sell it, and he says it's not safe and he wouldn't want to sell it to a woman/mother or whatever. I agree because I'd already wasted such a huge portion of the day/weekend, but I would've declined had I been able to drive both home.

I just checked, and the car is for sale on their website for $2500. Do I have any recourse? I only agreed to such a low price because it was deemed unsellable by them-- they said they'd only drive it if it was to leave somewhere and pick ip another car, essentially abandoning it to save on labor hours, I guess.

I feel cheated