Two Kentucky families have come forward to say that a Shepherdsville car dealership took advantage of elderly or vulnerable buyers in vehicle deals, leaving one with a Honda traded in for less than half what the dealership later listed it for, and the other with a $38,000 truck loan he says he cannot afford. The dealership disputes both accounts. The dispute over the Honda escalated this month into a confrontation outside the dealership that was captured on camera.
At the center of on family’s complaint is an 84-year-old woman with cognitive decline who, the family said, went to the dealership alone and traded in a paid-off SUV she still owned. Her daughter, who along with her two sisters holds power of attorney, said the family didn’t even know she had gone to the lot until the deal was done. By that point, the dealership had the Honda while the mother drove home in another vehicle.
A second family says a working-class father walked out of the same dealership owing tens of thousands of dollars on a truck he believed he had already paid down through a trade-in and a cash deposit. He has since received bank paperwork showing the financed amount and the interest rate. He says he could not see the screen on which he signed.
Each side disagrees with the other on important details. The dealership’s owner has defended its sales process and rejected the suggestion that anyone there mistreated anyone. What the families have been told, what the dealership has said in response, and what the law does and does not cover when an elderly buyer with cognitive decline walks into a car lot are all now part of a Louisville investigation.
The First Family and the Honda CR-V
Dana Horrell says her 84-year-old mother went to 44 Auto Mart in Shepherdsville on May 2 without the family ever knowing she left. There, she traded in her paid-off 2021 Honda CR-V with 66,000 miles for just $10,000.
The family later found the same SUV listed online by the dealership for nearly $27,000. That’s more than double what they had paid for it. Screenshots from the family also showed a Kelley Blue Book trade-in estimate of roughly $19,000 to $24,000, depending on the car’s condition. The mother took home a 2020 Hyundai Kona that the family said cost about $20,000, which is worth a good deal less than what she should have been presented with.
When Horrell learned what had happened, she contacted the dealership and told employees about her mother’s cognitive decline. She also noted that she and her sisters hold power of attorney. An employee stressed that the decision was final, seemingly not caring about the legality of the situation.
Horrell returned in person on May 11 hoping to get the Honda back, but 44 Auto Mart owner Rusty Mulvaney refused. He said Horrell’s mother had told him she liked the replacement vehicle and that the only option was to renegotiate. The family said they ultimately agreed to swap the vehicles back evenly, and Mulvaney would cover the transfer fees and sales tax.
This month, however, things escalated when Mulvaney approached Horrell during a WDRB interview outside the dealership. He warned her that she would face a lawsuit due to the incident. Horrell accused him of having financially exploited her mother over the trade-in. Mulvaney replied that he had not been at the dealership the day of the deal. The two also disagreed over who originally proposed the renegotiated swap.
A Second Family’s Experience
Neal Bennett, a bricklayer who told WDRB he has bought 11 trucks in his life, said he believed he was purchasing a 2016 Chevrolet Silverado from 44 Auto Mart for $38,000 before his down payment and a trade-in of his 2018 Chevrolet Equinox were applied. He later received bank paperwork showing the loan amount was still $38,000 at a 16% interest rate, despite the down payment and trade-in.
Bennett said he had signed most of the paperwork on a mouse pad without being able to see the computer screen, and he left without copies of the contract. His daughter Tara Bennett told WDRB she had asked twice for the full paperwork and never received it. Mulvaney disputed the account; an attorney for the dealership pointed to the signed paperwork showing the financed amount, and Mulvaney said the dealership uses different-colored ink to highlight responses on its sales documents.
Mulvaney defended 44 Auto Mart’s sales practices, telling WDRB the dealership goes over numbers carefully with its buyers and that he could not have stayed in business for 38 years by treating people badly. He declined to discuss the gap between what the dealership paid for the Horrell family’s Honda and what it later listed the SUV for online. Asked whether the original Horrell trade had been fair, he said fairness was subjective.
Horrell has since urged other families to stay closely involved in major financial decisions made by elderly relatives. The Kentucky Attorney General’s office of senior protection offers mediation services and investigates consumer complaints when it comes to older adults. It remains unclear whether there are additional elderly customers that have been affected.