Urgent: Angry Dealership Owner Refuses To Return Money Paid For Returned Vehicle. What Are My Options?

Location: California

In July of last year, my family purchased a used car from a family-owned dealership in our hometown. When we purchased the car, the dealership owner failed to disclose that it was salvaged, despite my parent explicitly stating that they would not purchase a salvaged vehicle. At the time of purchase, we paid the full car price as well as an additional fee for the registration/plates to be processed by the dealer at the DMV. It was paid in cash. After taking the car home, my family noticed some significant issues with the car (undisclosed tracker in the car, TPMS light flashing, dysfunctional signal lights, etc.) We invested a significant amount of money into the car not only to improve functionality, but also improve safety and aesthetic. After a few months of having the car, I was still driving it with its temporary plates and the dealership owner only offered to print new ones, without providing an update on when the official plates would be received and the registration finalized. After 6 months of waiting, my family decided to visit the DMV to see if we could complete the process ourselves. It was there that we found out that the car had a salvaged classification and was not even under the dealer’s name (it was still under the name of the previous owner). As a result, the DMV employee was not able to provide more information, seeing as the car was not technically ours.

After this, we went back to the dealership to attempt to get our money back for the vehicle we bought. It was then that he offered to exchange the vehicle for another one on the lot. This time, he was able to verify its classification and assured us it would be a fair exchange. On paper, he noted that he sold us the second car for less than the first (about $2,000 less), despite him still having the full amount we gave him for the first. After driving it for a few weeks however, the second car started to make noises and pieces of the car frame began falling down. It turns out that the car chassis was completely rusted and pieces of metal had been welded over top to hold the frame together. This posed a significant risk, and we returned this car too.

Now we are demanding that he pay us back the full amount we gave him. At this time, he notes that his business is struggling to sell cars and he has a lot of health issues that have caused him to incur a lot of medical bills. After delaying his response and avoiding my parent and myself for weeks, he finally made a verbal agreement with my parent to pay $1,000 a week until the full amount is returned. However, today, when my parent and my sibling visited the dealership to collect the first payment, he refused to pay $1,000 and instead said he could only offer $500. After reminding him of the agreement, he became exceedingly agitated, raising his voice and saying he had nothing to lose and will file bankruptcy so that he doesn’t have to pay her at all.

How can I navigate this situation? I want to note that he has been incredibly avoidant, refusing to respond to emails or texts to avoid having a paper trail and only responding to calls and in-person visits. He said that because he is losing so much money and his health is deteriorating so rapidly, that he has nothing to lose and is technically doing us a favor for agreeing to pay us anything at all. His level of anger and carelessness frightens me a lot because he has all of our personal information (used when we purchased the vehicles). My family and I are afraid to return to the dealership but want our hard-earned money back. Because we paid in full, the purchase did impact us but we figured it was worth it in order to have a reliable vehicle. Now we have neither our money nor a car we can use to get to work. What options do we have?

I know this is time sensitive, so any advice would be incredibly appreciated. Thank you in advance to anyone who can offer help or guidance!!