So my cousin went out and bought a 08 gs300 from Acura of Seattle and they had to order the car from another dealership. They gave her a carfax on the car and it was clear and clean.. They were detailing the car when we did all the paper work so the car looked new and wet with a fresh layer of wax. She washed the car today and she noticed the whole passenger door and fender was bondo'd up and repaired.. It's been about 2 weeks now and they're refusing to help or do anything about it. Is there a way I can return the car? Have then pay for the repair and fix it or take the damage amount off the loan? Any advice or input would be greatly appreciate it.. Thanks in advance 6speeders!

-Kenny

 

Did they know about the damage prior to the sale? Not all accidents that occur are reported to carfax so it really doesn't give the peace of mind the commercials say it should.

 

Your state DMV should have a department that you can report your dealer experience to...good luck

 

Not sure but they did not mention it during the sale. It wasn't reported cause if it was the insurance company would of repaired it the right way.. It was hard to tell when the car was still wet and waxed. She's single and drives solo a lot so she or anyone never go on passenger side to he able to see the damages. I'll check out the DMV and see what they can do for her.

 

Not sure how the law plays into this, but did the dealer offer the carfax as testimony to it's pedigree? Use words like, —has a clean car fax? Did you ask if it was accident free and the dealer said yes? How was this car represented to you by the salesperson or dealership? Do you have any of this in writing? Even an email will validate your claims.

If someone decides to repair the car w/o using their insurance and pay out of pocket, a carfax may not show it has been repaired. I seem to recall that It's up to dealers and insurance companies to report the value of the repair over certain amount of $$$ in repairs.

One other thought, sometimes cars come into port from the mfr with dings and other small issues. A lot of small repairs are made on new cars even before they come to the dealer lot.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. Unfortunately, I had a similar experience years ago at a Toyota dealership in CA when my dad bought a used car with body repairs without disclosure. At the end, we were able to speak directly to the floor manager and return the car given that a new car would be purchased at the same dealer; however, it was NOT a good experience to go thru. We really made a scene at the dealership lobby. Don't get me wrong. We didn't curse of yell. We just raised our voice to bring other buyers' attention and stated that we would bring it to the media for free adverstisement of their practice. After almost 3 hours of negotiation, they sold my dad a brand new Camry at MSRP. At the end, it might be a thousand more than one would pay for the same new car. The feeling of knowing that the car would not be an eye sore for years was priceless. I highly recommand to bring 2 or 3 friends of yours to help you for such negotiation since it would be a test of endurance. And remember, what do you get to lose besides time at the end if they say no? At the end, the dealership may end up paying more with damages to their reputation and loss business due to this incident exposed by media which would be far more than couple thousands of dollars. Best luck and keep us update with the progress. Hope this helps.

 

I had an accident with my M3 (T-boned another car), my insurance paid for the repairs (~$10K IIRC) and the carfax was still clean a year after the incident.

 

Wow that 5ucks... sorry to hear about it.. but I dont think there really is too much you can do.. Doesnt sound like the carfax was falsified.. without being biased- Acura if Seattle might have had no idea about the repair work that was done in the past and as FerRari stated, it wont always show up on the carfax even if the insurance company performed the repairs.. A lot of dealerships take trade ins or buy vehicles from auctions based solely on carfax reports and unfortunately in the real world most people who have minor fender benders take care of the repairs out of pocket. Now if, for some reason, the dealership was aware of the repairs and did not disclose the true history then you might have a case- good luck trying to prove that though. for what its worth, most wholesale buyers use a paint thickness gauge that can read how thick the paint is and usually dictates that work or respray was performed- A good thing to ask is where the car came from...was it a trade in or was it auction bought? - seems sketchy already when they say that they had to "order it from another dealership"- the car is 2 years old and is used I take it... something seems strange about that.. A lot of dealerships that I've bought from in the past wont even deal with the hassle of selling a car that was traded in- they just send it to the auction..

The owner should have looked the car over thoroughly on pick up and called it out then.. two weeks later makes it a harder battle to fight.. my 2 cents..

either way- good luck-

Caveat Emptor

 

Don't count on Carfax. A few months ago I went in to trade my wifes van in, and while appraising our van they came out with a Carfax showing a serious accident that our van was involved in. It was never in an accident! We keep a pretty accurate calendar of where we are and what we do on a daily basis and the day the accident supposedly happened I was out of town and my wife had had an appointment on the Eastside with a baby. Needless to say she was not downtown and out van was not in an accident so serious that it needed to be towed.
Got a copy of the accident report and it listed out van, being driven by someone we don't know in a serious 3 car collision downtown Seattle, with 3 sides of the vehicle sustaining damage, ending with Lincoln Towing hauling it away on a flatbed.
We contacted the Officer who wrote the report and he got back to us. He wrote down the license plate of the van in the accident, one number off! The van that was in the accident was the same color, and make as ours! It was one year older than ours, but the same body style. He ammended the incident report, and we have filed it with Carfax to have it removed. Waiting on Carfax at this time.
I used to be in the industry and Carfax is far from a perfect system. I can't tell you how many cars I saw come through dealerships with repaired damage (and even once obvious flood damage) that wasn't on the Carfax. If there isn't a police report, or an insurance claim then there will usually be no way of knowing that there was an incident. Individiual body shops don't usually report to Carfax.
Don't trust a Carfax!

 

how do you know bondo was applied? is the repair that bad? i would get an estimate on fixing the repair. if it's a few hundred bucks, i would just move on and have it fixed. if the dealer never advertised it as accident free in writing or you didn't ask, that's a lesson your friend has to learn. trusting carfax is silly.

 

I would start by contacting the dealership... go in, see what they say. Then you might have to file a complaint with the attorney general. There's a whole website that you can look at for WA state laws, etc etc.. look into "lemon" laws. There isn't much you can do legally I don't believe, but if it's a reputable dealership they may allow you to trade that car in on something else.... but definitely start with them.

Here's an example of a clean car fax... my car, about $10k in damage.... I did this about 8 years ago.

 

with all 'as is' and 'no warranty' disclosures she signed, your cousin is pretty much done ........sorry, lesson for the future- take it for buyers inspection to the mechanic you trust.......

 

Lemon laws does not apply to used cars.

 

Correct, but they do apply to cars up to two years old even if you're not the original owner. I don't think accidents fall under the "lemon law" but again, I'm not too familiar with it. Perhaps the dealership can somehow be held accountable for a potentially "un safe car".

Just throwing out ideas.

 

Just do a Nancy Kerrigan on the dealer!~!!!!