Last week’s issue of Open Road included a special column by George Koons with the law firm of Hall & Evans, L.L.C., regarding litigation risks inherent when selling to non-English speaking consumers. CLICK HERE to review that article, “How to Overcome the Language Barrier and Use it to Your Advantage.”  As a complement to that article, below is a reminder
of federal requirements under the FTC Used Car Rule for transactions conducted in Spanish, excerpted from the October, 2006 CADA Bulletin: 

Important Reminder about the FTC Used Car Rule:

The Federal Trade Commission’s Used Car Rule requires dealers to affix a properly completed Buyers Guide window form to used vehicles and to cross-reference the window form in
the consumer sales contracts. The cross-reference must read: “The information you see on the window form for this vehicle is part of this contract. Information on the window form overrides
any contrary provisions in the contract of sale.”

Additionally, when dealers conduct a used vehicle sale in Spanish, the window form
and the cross reference to it in the sales contract must also be in Spanish.   

The following illustration appears in the FTC guide: 

Illustration 3.10: You are a dealer who makes a substantial number, but not
a majority, of your sales to Spanish speaking customers. Your staff is trained
to conduct sales in both Spanish and English. Should you display both a Spanish
and English version of the Buyers Guide on all your vehicles?

Yes. To ensure your compliance with the Rule, it is a good idea to post both versions
of the Buyers Guide if you expect that a sale could be conducted in either Spanish or English. A Spanish language Buyers Guide must be posted on a used vehicle before you begin to discuss, in Spanish, that vehicle with a customer. Therefore, as a practical way to ensure compliance, you should post both English and Spanish Buyers Guides
if you make a large number of sales

For more information visit www.nada.org/regulations (requires member log-in), or www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/usedcar-comply.pdf (see page 10 for a Spanish translation of the cross-reference).

Additional resources:

FTC - Dealer’s Guide to the Used Car Rule: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/usedcarc.shtm

Spanish Language Buyers Guide form:  
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/resources/forms/s-buyers.pdf