Why a Connecticut Nissan Dealer Just Had to Pay Customers Back $4 Million

• A Connecticut Nissan dealer must pay $4 million after the FTC and the state’s attorney general found it charged customers thousands in fees they never agreed to.
• Investigators say Manchester City Nissan charged buyers to “certify” used cars the dealership had already advertised as certified pre-owned, and slipped extra products into loan paperwork without permission.
• The settlement is one piece of a bigger federal push: the FTC sent pricing warning letters to 97 dealer groups this year and separately won $75 million back from another dealership chain.

What Investigators Found at One Connecticut Dealership

The Federal Trade Commission and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced on August 19 that Chase Nissan LLC, doing business as Manchester City Nissan, will pay $4 million to settle allegations that it built its sales process around fees customers never agreed to pay. The government first sued the dealership and its owners and managers back in January 2024. The case centered on the dealership’s own sales data, which investigators say showed a pattern of charging buyers for things they thought were already included in the price.

Two practices stood out. Some customers were told they had to pay a fee to “certify” a used car that the dealership had already advertised as certified pre-owned, meaning they paid twice for a status the vehicle was supposed to already carry. Separately, add-on products such as total loss protection turned up in financing paperwork that customers say they never asked for and never approved. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong put it directly: “Manchester City Nissan systematically ripped-off Connecticut customers through needless, unauthorized junk fees.”

Where the $4 Million Goes

Under the proposed order, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, the dealership and its owners must pay the full $4 million into a fund earmarked for consumer redress, meaning it goes back to the customers the government says were overcharged rather than into a general treasury account. The order also bars the defendants from misrepresenting whether a vehicle is certified or carries a manufacturer warranty going forward.

Beyond the refunds, the settlement changes how the dealership has to advertise. It must now display the maximum total price a customer will pay, excluding only fees required by government, as the most prominent number on any advertisement or price sheet. That closes the loophole that let a low headline price hide hundreds or thousands of dollars in fees a buyer would only see once they reached the finance office. The order also requires the dealership to get clear, informed consent from customers before adding any charge to a deal. Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, called the settlement “another critical step in the Commission’s goal of advancing price transparency in the auto marketplace,” language the agency has repeated across several of its recent dealer cases as it builds a public record of what counts as an illegal fee.

Part of a Bigger Crackdown on Dealer Fees

Manchester City Nissan is not an isolated case. In March, the FTC sent warning letters to 97 auto dealership groups across the country, telling them plainly that the price in an advertisement has to be the price a buyer actually pays. The letters named specific tactics the agency considers illegal: advertising a price that excludes required fees, promoting a rebate that is not actually available to every buyer, and making an advertised price contingent on financing through the dealer’s own lender. The only costs a dealer can legally leave out of the headline number are taxes and government registration fees.

An even larger enforcement action landed a few months earlier. In April, the FTC and the Maryland Attorney General secured full refunds and additional penalties against Lindsay Automotive Group, covering more than $75 million in consumer charges tied to deceptive pricing and unwanted add-on products, plus a separate $3.1 million state civil penalty. That case followed an earlier December 2024 complaint accusing Lindsay of systematically deceiving and overcharging buyers. Together, the two settlements and the March warning letters show a federal agency treating dealer junk fees as a priority rather than a one-off complaint, even as a formal nationwide rule aimed at the same problem, the FTC’s CARS Rule, was vacated by a federal appeals court in January 2025 and formally withdrawn by the agency in February 2026.

Add-on products are a recurring thread across these cases, not just at car dealerships. The FTC’s $10 million settlement with warranty seller CarShield, which sent $9.6 million in refunds to more than 168,000 consumers by the end of 2025, targeted the same basic pattern: a product bundled or misrepresented at the point of sale that the buyer never fully understood they were paying for. Regulators describe the Manchester City Nissan case as fitting that same mold on the dealership side, where a certification fee or a loan add-on gets buried in paperwork the customer is already signing under time pressure at the finance desk.

The Rule Is Gone, but the Fees Are Still Illegal

The CARS Rule’s withdrawal changes what protects anyone shopping for a car right now: no single federal regulation spells out exactly what a dealer must disclose and how. What remains is Section 5 of the FTC Act, the general ban on deceptive and unfair business practices, which the agency is now using case by case against dealerships it can show misled customers on price. That is a slower process than a blanket rule, but the Manchester City Nissan settlement and the Lindsay Automotive case show the agency is willing to pursue individual dealers all the way to a signed court order.

The CARS Rule itself had a short, contested life that explains why enforcement now runs case by case. The FTC first proposed it in 2022, finalized it in December 2023 over dissent from two of its own commissioners, and watched a coalition of dealer associations challenge it in court almost immediately. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the rule in January 2025 on procedural grounds, ruling the agency had not followed the correct rulemaking process, and the FTC chose to withdraw it entirely in February 2026 rather than attempt a second rulemaking. That leaves individual state attorneys general and the FTC’s general deception authority as the main tools regulators have left, which is exactly the combination that produced both the Manchester City Nissan and Lindsay Automotive settlements.

What Car Buyers Should Watch For at the Dealership

Ask for the full out-the-door price in writing before signing anything, including every fee the dealer plans to add beyond tax and registration. If a car is advertised as certified pre-owned, ask directly whether any additional certification fee applies, and get the answer in writing. Read financing paperwork line by line for add-on products such as total loss protection, gap coverage, or extended service contracts, and refuse anything that was not part of the price you agreed to. If a finance manager tells you a product is required to qualify for a loan or a rate, ask them to put that requirement in writing. Lenders rarely require specific add-on products, and a manager unwilling to document the claim is a strong sign the requirement does not actually exist. If a dealer adds a charge you never approved, you can file a complaint with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov or with your state attorney general’s consumer protection office, the same route that led to both the Manchester City Nissan and Lindsay Automotive settlements. Keep a copy of every document you sign at the dealership, including the buyer’s order and the finance contract. Those records are exactly what turned individual complaints into cases regulators could actually prove in court.

Sources:

• FTC press release, “FTC, Connecticut Secure $4 Million Settlement with Manchester City Nissan”
• Connecticut Attorney General, settlement announcement
• FTC press release, Lindsay Automotive Group settlement