OMVIC's Registrar orders CarHub North York Chrysler to cease false advertising over hidden finance fees

OMVIC’s Registrar, Maureen Harquail, ordered Toronto Smart Cars Ltd. o/a CarHub North York Chrysler / National Auto Shield Warranty to immediately cease using false, misleading and/or deceptive advertising about vehicle pricing on June 16, 2026. This is a different instrument from the discipline fines this site usually covers: no panel and no fine. It is the Registrar acting directly under s. 29 of the MVDA, which lets her order an immediate stop to advertising she believes on reasonable grounds is false, misleading or deceptive.

The order is not a final adjudicated finding. It took effect immediately under s. 29(3), but the dealer was entitled to appeal to the Licence Appeal Tribunal within 15 days of service under s. 9(2), and the Tribunal may grant a stay until the order becomes final. Whether the Thornhill dealer, registered since 2003, has appealed is not public in the order itself.

Two prices, one of them buried

The particulars describe a pricing structure that an OMVIC representative found on February 12, 2026 across six vehicles, on both a third-party listing platform and the dealer’s own website.

On the third-party platform, each vehicle showed one prominent price “subject to taxes and licensing”, with no indication it was a finance price. On the dealer’s website, the same vehicle carried a prominent finance price plus “lic., taxes & finance/lease fee”, and a less prominent cash price. The fine print on both stated that “Online prices and payments are for finance purchases”, that there is a “$850 finance/lease fee”, and that “Cash purchases for used vehicles have a $2,350 surcharge (the finance price + $2,350).”

So a 2024 Cadillac LYRIQ advertised at $49,998 would have cost a cash buyer $52,348, and a finance buyer paying the headline number still owed an $850 fee on top. The same spread ran across a 2019 Subaru Outback ($20,369 advertised, $22,719 cash), a 2022 Porsche Macan, a 2024 Audi Q4, a 2024 Jeep Wrangler, and a 2023 BMW X1, each exactly $2,350 apart.

The order’s stated grounds, on the Registrar’s belief on reasonable grounds, are that the dealer failed to advertise finance and cash prices in a clear, comprehensible and prominent manner, failed to make its finance prices all-inclusive contrary to s. 36(7) of O. Reg. 333/08, and advertised in a manner that was false, misleading and deceptive contrary to s. 28 of the Act.

Three reminders came first

The order records that representatives of the Registrar reminded this dealer of its all-in and clear-prominent pricing obligations three times: around May 2023, February 2024, and June 2024. The cease order arrived after the fourth look. Repeated warnings preceded fines the same way in Riverside Chevrolet and Stouffville Hyundai. The difference is the instrument: a cease order stops the conduct now rather than punishing it later.

Section 29 has a tail worth knowing about. Under s. 29(4), if the registrant does not appeal, or the order is upheld, the Registrar can require the dealer to submit every advertisement for pre-approval before publication for a specified period. For a volume dealer, having each listing vetted by the regulator before it goes live is a heavier operational burden than most fines.

The dealer’s operating name bundles CarHub North York Chrysler with National Auto Shield Warranty, a warranty brand. Dealers selling their own warranty products carry separate obligations, covered in the post on extended warranty rules; this order is about pricing advertising only.

What to learn

• The Registrar can stop your advertising without a hearing. Section 29 orders take effect immediately; the hearing, if the dealer wants one, comes after, via a 15-day appeal window to the LAT under s. 9(2).
• A fee disclosed only in fine print is not disclosed. The $850 finance/lease fee appeared in a footnote while the headline price excluded it. Section 36(7) puts every charge in the advertised number itself, and different cash and finance prices each need equal prominence.
• Ignored reminders change the instrument, not just the amount. Three all-in pricing reminders across 2023 and 2024 preceded this order. The escalation from education to a cease order (with possible ad pre-approval under s. 29(4)) is the advertising equivalent of the warning-letter-then-fine pattern in the discipline cases.