AN AUTO DEALERSHIP SIGNED A FOUR-YEAR LEASE TO A 92-YEAR-OLD. WAS SHE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF?

After a minor car accident in April, Grace Gangemi, 92, resolved to stop driving, much to the relief of her family.

At the time, Gangemi had less than a month remaining on her four-year lease of a 2019 Nissan Sentra. The accident prompted her to tell her family she planned to return the Sentra to the dealership when the lease ended and never drive again.

But on May 15, Gangemi did something else entirely. At a meeting with a salesman at the dealership, she signed a new, four-year lease on a 2024 Nissan Versa.

For the next two weeks, Gangemi told no family about her new lease. Then she confided in her stepson, Michael Gangemi, who is her legal representative.

“I did something I shouldn’t have done,” she told her stepson, Michael Gangemi recalled.

It was shocking because Gangemi’s health seemed to be rapidly deteriorating, and the lease she signed — with its $420 monthly payments — would run past her 96th birthday.

In her discussion with her stepson, a contrite Grace Gangemi once again vowed to stop driving and told him she wanted the Versa, now parked outside her home in Canton, returned to the dealership, Michael Gangemi said.

A couple days later, he met with the salesman who leased the new Versa to his stepmother at Nucar Nissan in Norwood. The salesman offered few details other than to say Grace Gangemi willingly signed the lease and never mentioned her intention to stop driving.

Michael Gangemi asked the dealership to void the lease and take the vehicle back in recognition of Grace’s age and faltering health.

“I thought it was the right thing to do, under the circumstances, and I told them that,” he told me.

The salesman said it would cost $4,587 to buy back the car, in effect a 20 percent termination fee imposed on an elderly woman in declining health. (Late last month, Grace died after doctors, treating her for injuries sustained in a fall, discovered a brain tumor; it is unclear what effect her death will have on the lease. Ordinarily, the death of someone leasing a vehicle does not change the terms of the lease or cause it to automatically terminate, unless there’s a provision allowing for early termination due to death. It would become the responsibility of the estate to fulfill the terms of the lease or to negotiate a settlement.)

In his meeting with the salesman, Michael Gangemi said the Versa had been driven by his stepmother only once, from the dealership to her home, about four miles.

But the dealership insisted on payment of $4,587, which Michael Gangemi has not paid; the car remains parked in Canton. Michael Gangemi filed a consumer complaint with the attorney general’s office, where it is pending. Later, he emailed me, asking, “Can a car dealer lease a car for 48 months to a 92-year-old?”

Michael Gangemi told me there was obvious cause for Nucar to be wary of Gangemi’s ability to drive: She arrived at the dealership wearing a plastic boot on her right foot (needed for braking and accelerating) due to a ruptured Achilles tendon sustained in an earlier fall.

In addition, Nucar had other reasons to question the appropriateness of a lease: It knew her age and that she had recently been in an accident, Michael Gangemi said.

He said his stepmother, who lived in an assisted living retirement community in Canton, had to use a walker to get around at home.

“Shouldn’t the dealership have asked her: ‘Are you capable of driving?’ and ‘Can we just check with a family member?’” Michael Gangemi asked.

Kristopher Kinosian, a Nucar manager, said it wasn’t the dealership’s place to question Grace Gangemi, even while acknowledging the salesman saw her wearing the protective boot. (He said the salesman didn’t see a walker and that she never mentioned her intention to stop driving.)

“Who are we to question her ability to drive?” he told me. “If the customer is comfortable driving, then we are not going to question it.”

Kinosian said Grace Gangemi appeared to be an informed shopper because she volunteered that her earlier accident was due in part to the size of the Sentra and asked for a smaller vehicle.

He said all new vehicles significantly depreciate when driven off the lot, and that the $4,587 fee was attributable to that loss in value plus a disposition fee, which is supposed to cover the cost of preparing a vehicle for resale.

Kinosian said if there was any indication the transaction “wasn’t on the up-and-up,” the dealership would have called a time-out.

Did Nucar take advantage of Grace Gangemi and, if so, should the fee be waived?

A dealership is under no obligation to lease a vehicle to every customer who walks in the door, according to Edgar Dworsky, founder and editor of the website ConsumerWorld.org and a former assistant attorney general in consumer protection.

“This senior came into the showroom apparently with the intention of turning in her car and not driving again, but something changed at the dealership,” he said. “The dealership could have suggested that she think over the proposed deal and perhaps come back later with a family member.”

Michael Gangemi described his stepmother as independent and in possession of her mental faculties. But he also said the lease was a “totally one-sided” transaction between a dealership in the business of making sales and a 92-year-old alone and in compromised health.

“I think all dealerships need to take responsibility in those circumstances,” he said. “They could have said, ‘Come back when your foot is healed,’ rather than let her drive off with a boot on her right foot.”

Massachusetts does not impose a responsibility on others to stop a driver thought to be impacted by an apparent medical condition. It is a so-called “self-reporting” state, meaning that “if you have a medical condition or are taking any medication that affects your driving, you must self-report to the [Registry of Motor Vehicles] when renewing your driver’s license,” according to the RMV.

Martin Flax, a lawyer who specializes in elder and consumer law, said “there are legal obligations and then there are moral obligations.”

“Maybe there was a moral obligation on the part of the dealer not to put a 92-year-old in her condition in a new lease without family or a friend being there and without making inquiries about her abilities.”

I agree.

2024-07-02T09:59:16Z dg43tfdfdgfd