- New York is refunding Nissan lease buyers its dealers overcharged.
- Dealers billed up to $3,200 for recall work the law makes free.
- Hidden markups were buried inside a single vague line item.
If you leased a Nissan in New York and bought it at the end of the lease, the state wants to make sure you didn’t get taken for a ride. New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that Nissan Motor Acceptance Company (NMAC) will provide refunds to consumers who were overcharged during lease buyouts, expanding a crackdown that has already returned more than $4.5 million to over 3,100 customers.
The investigation centered on what happened when lessees exercised the purchase option written into their contracts. According to the Attorney General’s office, many Nissan consumers were promised a specific buyout price when they signed their leases. When they returned to purchase the vehicle, however, some dealerships allegedly inflated the price, added unauthorized fees, or bundled extra charges into the transaction.
Read: He Wired $77,300 For A Lexus That Never Existed, And A Real Dealer Got The Blame
The details uncovered by investigators are frankly hard to believe. One customer was allegedly charged $2,563 for electrical tape that the dealership’s own records reportedly valued at just 8 cents. Another customer said a supposed repair tied to a Certified Pre-Owned inspection amounted to little more than the dealer spraying the vehicle with a hose.
In several cases, dealerships allegedly charged customers more than $2,500 for CPO-related work that investigators said was improperly categorized as repairs. Perhaps even more surprising, some consumers were charged as much as $3,200 for recall repairs, despite federal law requiring safety recall work to be performed free of charge.
Investigators also described a more subtle tactic. Dealerships would allegedly combine legitimate items with hidden markups under a single line item. For example, a $1,000 warranty and a $500 repair might be rolled together with a hidden $500 surcharge and simply listed as “$2,000 in aftersales products,” making the overcharge difficult for customers to spot.
Of nearly 10,000 Nissan lease buyouts the state examined, it found more than 3,000 carrying improper charges. The good news for consumers is that they allegedly have to do nothing to get their money back. As Road&Track reported, NMAC says it’s auditing dealers statewide and issuing refunds throughout 2026, including any additional loan interest paid by those who financed inflated buyout amounts.
We know. The idea that car dealers are sometimes shady might be tough to swallow. At least in this case, authorities are taking it seriously.
