Used car dealer under fire for racially motivated price markups

Buyers, beware! Although used-car salesmen have never had the squeakiest of reputations, one North Carolina car dealer is in trouble after he allegedly took things to a new low.

After years of doing business in the area, Auhdi A. Saadeh is under fire for unlawfully jacking up the prices of cars. What’s worse is that he specifically targeted African American customers, raising prices as much as 40 percent and tacking on 29 percent interest for payments. And if you think that sounds high, it is: Those mark ups are the absolute highest amount lenders are allowed legally by the state.

Saadeh and his dealerships are also in legal trouble for failing to determine whether or not customers could actually afford the cars they were buying. They even (allegedly) repossessed cars when customers had yet to default on payment schedules.

Officials say Saadeh sold cars with illegal markups from 2006 until 2011. Currently, he’s in a legal battle with the state of North Carolina and facing federal charges, as well.