Coweta County

Car dealership pays fine, offers buyback on resold lemons

COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — A Coweta County car dealership will pay a fine and offer to buy back some of the cars it sold. The cars were once branded as lemons, and were resold to customers of Southtowne Hyundai.

"If I had known it, I would not have bought the car," said buyer Phil Kaufman, of Decatur.

"We didn't believe that consumers were being told, effectively at least, that they were getting a reacquired lemon vehicle," said Deputy Atttorney General Anne Infinger, of the Office of Consumer Protection.

The dealership admitted no wrongdoing in signing a settlement with Georgia regulators.

Owner Hal Philipson agreed to pay an $80,000 fine and repurchase at full market value any lemon car sold between January 1, 2012 and June 1, 2015.

"He's going to buy back a lemon at the scrubbed clean, non-lemon price," said Infinger.

"I definitely think I'll talk to the dealer about buying it back because I won't be able to sell it to a private vendor without being honest and letting them know that it has a lemon title," said Kaufman. %

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"You still say that every customer knew what they were buying?" Channel 2's Jim Strickland asked Philipson.

"Oh, 1000%," he replied.

Philipson insists all buyers signed multiple disclosure forms. He's settling the case, but continues to sell former lemon cars. They are now emblazoned with large yellow stickers on the windshield.

"We think it's the best value in America," he said.

Philipson has a second store in Newnan and another in Riverdale. They will be paying much smaller fines and will make the same buy-back pledge.