Rallye Motors, a luxury car dealership with locations throughout Long Island, is facing a class-action lawsuit that accuses the company of charging customers for labor and repairs to vehicles that were not performed.
The lawsuit was filed in State Supreme Court in Mineola on Monday on behalf of Salvatore Stile, an international shipping executive who resides on the North Shore.
Stile said his 2015 Mercedes Benz S50 was repaired at Rallye Collision Center in Carle Place in 2016. According to Stile, the cost for repair was more than $20,000, which was largely paid by his insurer.
The initial estimate of the repair of $20,808.15 included $14,260 for parts and $4,270 for labor, according to Stile. The final invoice, however, listed $4,142 for parts and charged $10,107 for labor, according to the suit. Ultimately, the suit states, Stile paid a $1,000 deductible and his insurance carrier paid the remaining $19,808.15.
Stile told Newsday that the safety aspect of the alleged scam was quite troubling.
“It was a pure profit play,” Stile said. “It was profit over safety. My family was driving in an unsafe car. They could have been in jeopardy.”
Efforts to reach Stile for further comment were unavailing.
Seventeen additional unnamed customers with claims of false advertising, breach of warranty and violating the state’s general business and motor vehicle laws are also included in the lawsuit.
Established in 1958, Rallye is marketed as Long Island’s largest luxury car dealership and the fifth largest in the United States. The suit names Rally Motors LLC, Rallye Motors Holding LLC, Owner, and CEO Juliana Terian, and other related entities as defendants.
Efforts to reach Rallye officials for comment were unavailing.
The suit also claims that Stile and other affected parties were financially harmed by the value of their cars subsequently declining and being charged with higher premiums and deductibles for insurance coverage.
Attorney Jeffrey K. Brown of Leeds Brown Law PC, who filed the lawsuit, said in a news release that potential damages could total hundreds of millions of dollars. Brown said he attempted to bring the alleged scheme to Rallye’s attention, but received no response.
“Rallye violated that trust of countless consumers who came to its body shop to get their cars repaired,” Brown said. “I don’t believe these customers realized what was happening.”
Brown also said his firm began investigating Rallye’s practices roughly one year ago after being alerted to them by a whistleblower. According to the news release, that whistleblower intends to file a separate whistleblower suit within 60 days.
