Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

A friend of mine financed a vehicle for one of his coworkers (against everyone's advice). Here's how the situation went...

The coworker went down to the dealership to try and get a car. Not being able to obtain financing by himself, he called my friend while he was at work and asked if he could co-sign for the vehicle. Feeling pressured and without enough time to think it through, he reluctantly agreed. When the salesman, ran his credit, he informed the coworker and my friend that because the coworkers credit was poor, if they financed the car together my friend's credit would be hurt. He then persuaded my friend to sign for the vehicle knowing full well that only the coworker (and his wife) were going to be making all the payments and driving the vehicle. Now, having only my friend's name and credit on the application, the sales person proceeded to up-sell the car the coworker and his wife, convincing them to persuade my friend to sign for a higher priced vehicle. The salesman then personally drove the contracts down to my friends office location in (at about 9pm that night) for him to sign immediately so he would not have proper time to think about the decision he was making and change his mind about co-signing OR the greater valued vehicle that the coworker and his wife now wanted, and not the less expensive vehicle they originally intended to get. The contracts were prepared and highlighted in the places where signatures were needed and the sales person sat next to my friend the conference room and pointed to lines and said "sign here, and here" and informed my friend that he was in a hurry. He was not provided with a copy of the contract for review, even though a copy was suppose to be mailed to him. He has since been told that this is what's known as a 'straw deal'. The dealership pressured him to finance a car for another person knowing full well that he was not going to be making payments or driving the vehicle. They did not inform my friend that allowing him to finance the car on behalf of someone else was illegal for them to do, and the salesman actually even joked that if the coworker and his wife could not make the payments, that my friend would have a 'cool car' to drive. (Of course) the coworker has since not been able to make payments and he now has a car that he doesn't want. Is there anyway he can get himself out of this mess?

Thanks for the advice!

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