Oh I am ticked off...my new car

[DammitJanet]

I didnt notice this when I was buying it because it was in the shade when I looked at it however a few days after I got it home, both difficult child and husband noticed that it looked like the hood was off kilter just a little bit and it looked like it didnt shut properly. After further inspection....inch by inch....we noticed some scratches on the area right below the window where it looked like the hood had been shoved up there. Also there was some paint that was a little flaky down near the bumper which was covering rust.

When I bought this car they gave me a paper saying the car hadnt been in a wreck, it wasnt a flood car, it wasnt a salvage title and it hadnt had any reconstruction done to it.

Well well. I asked the salesman who sold it to me if he could get me the information about whatever type of accident the car had been in. I called him back when he told me to and he tells me that all he knows is that the car had a minor dent in the front quarter panel and they replaced that.

Oh BS. I just pulled the CarFax and the car was considered a total loss in January, 2012 after an accident in November of 2011. And that was the second accident the car was in!

I am making a copy of this carfax....in fact two, and I am going down to this dealer and they are going to give me my money back and then some because I turned down another car because I had bought this one. The car that I heard back on the next day after I bought this was actually the car that I had been looking for in the first place.

I just paid 8K for a car that was sworn to me to just have been a repo which was why I got a good price. I was told they just got it in from someone who had failed to make the payments. That is completely untrue.

I am going to attempt to find the owner in VA where these accidents happened because the carfax showed when it was sold and when it had some work done to it. I am hoping one of these companies will give me the name of the owner who apparently lived in VA beach.

Middle son said I should push for getting the money back and keeping the car because I can do some really bad stuff to their reputation in this area. I would happily buy a sign and put it on the back of my car and say what they did.

*I actually want the purchase price and I will live with another 2K which will give me enough to buy another car that is just as nice.

 

[tiredmommy]

How did they re-register the vehicle in your name if it was a previous total loss? Title should have been pulled and it should have been salvaged for parts.

 

[DammitJanet]

They havent given me the title yet. In fact that was something I didnt understand and that DMV didnt understand since I paid cash for it and had no lien. The only thing they gave me was an application for a title and that does me no good. They have to send off the title they have I think and put it in my name. I think they didnt want me to see the title because it has to say SALVAGE on it if the car has been totaled out.

 

[InsaneCdn]

We pull carfax prior to every vehicle purchase - dealer or not.

 

[Hopeless]

Carfax pulled for every vehicle we purchase as well prior to putting money down. This dealership sounds shady to me. Hope you get your money back!

 

[donna723]

My son who knows all about cars bought a new (to him) truck last week and we were just talking about this. What kind of a paper did they give you that said it hadn't been wrecked? I hope you still have it! Misrepresenting the status of the car is certainly unethical and probably illegal, especially if they put it in writing that the car had not been wrecked! This sounds like a really shady dealership.

From what my son said, very few of the vehicles that are "totaled" by the insurance companies actually end up being used for parts or go to the car crusher to become scrap metal. Unless they're really bad, most of them are repaired and resold. BUT ... here at least, they can't be sold with a regular title. They must be sold with a "Rebuilt" title and generally they sell for a lot less than a similar vehicle that has never been wrecked. In 2001 I bought the first brand new car I had in years and drove it for 5-6 years. A deer ran out in front of me and damaged the hood, front bumper and one headlight. The insurance company totaled it out because of the high mileage. It was still a very nice car, still drove fine, no engine or frame damage. NO WAY did they junk that car ... somebody is probably driving around it in right now!

Do you still want the car, but just feel like you paid too much if it had been wrecked? Or do you just want your money back so you can find another car? If it was me, I'd make copies of that paper, then go in there waving it and the Carfax report, loaded for bear! I'd demand either my money back or the difference in what you paid and what the car should have sold for if it had been wrecked and rebuilt. And if they hesitate, I'd threaten to file a complaint with the BBB. And if you REALLY want to get to them, threaten to tell the story to an investigative reporter from the local newspaper or TV station. They love to get a hold of things like that! I'd be mean enough to do that anyway, AFTER you get your money back! And if you were to get the title back and it doesn't state that it was rebuilt, if it's a regular title and they misrepresented it, they will be in a world of trouble with the State authorities, or they would be here anyway.

And about the tag ... my son paid cash but did not get the title to his new (used) truck from the dealer. The dealer does all that with the paperwork and title transfer. My son got a temporary paper tag good for 30 days. His transferred title with his name on it will come in the mail, then we take that in and buy his permanent tags.

 

[DammitJanet]

Donna...about that 30 day tag....that is the same thing they do here IF you dont want to transfer your current plates. Few people do but I have a permanent handicapped plate. Also people would want to do it if they have custom tags. Like the private investigator who has "ISPY4U".

I do have the papers they gave me. We both had to sign those papers. After looking closer at the carfax, the car has been in 3 accidents! And they want to say it hasnt been reconstructed? And here is what is really interesting.....they sold the car on 7/10/13. Somehow they ended back up with the car again very fast because I bought it on 8/11/13! I bet someone else found out that they lied to them and took the car back.

I did find out from reading this carfax report that there may be a reason that the title doesnt or wont say salvage. If all these accidents, especially the one that totaled the car, happened while the car was a rental then it wont show up because rental companies are considered to be self insurers. And this car says it was a rental car at one point. That was owner 3. They hardly put any mile on it during the time they had it as a rental either which makes me think that accident was fairly bad. The only info I have on the last accident was that the vehicle hit a deer and had head on damage. But immediately after that the vehicle was totaled out and the insurance company transferred the title to their name.

I am looking up information on fraud in auto sales. I was stupid not to pull the carfax but when I asked if they had one they said no but they gave me that paper. I think there is something called Fraud in inducement. If I am thinking correctly that is when someone actually commits fraud in order to convince someone to do something. The is what they did.

Im still amazed that within 30 days they sold that car twice!

 

[1905]

Since someone else just had it, it looks good that you can return it. Something similar happened to my husband when he bought a new Ford truck. The paint started peeling and it was covered by the warranty. He took it back to get repaired and they told him that this van must have been in an accident because there were 2 paintjobs, and that would void the warranty, so sorry they weren't fixing it. The manager atthe dealership said "sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes it eats you" to my husband. He called the Ford fraud dept and they gave him a canned reaponse....."I can understand your frustration etc...." he called more than once and got the exact reply. He drove right to a lawyer,near the dealership. 2 years later, he won 10 thousand dollars, the lawyer took 3, that was the price between a new van and a used one. This van lasted for 12 years anyway, until difficult child destroyed it, a story for another day. husband wanted a new van. This was a Ford, you would think they would make this right from the beginning. I hope your place fixes this, tell them they need to make this right, that's fraud.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Janet,

Take a look at numbers 2,4 and 6 on the lemon laws list for your state - they have committed fraud in three areas! I would be calling that dealership immediately!

http://www.lemonlaws.net/northcarolina/consumerfraud.html

 

[DammitJanet]

Good to know LDM. I checked out the law concerning fraud by inducement and they have broken that law too. Im not entirely sure about lemon laws because I thought that could only happen in a certain amount of time but I am going to call VA today and try to get that "wash back" report on the car. I also need to contact the place that sold this car at auction and find out if they told my dealer what was wrong with the car.

One thing I think is completely wrong is that a rental company can get by without putting Salvage or Rebuilt on the title because they self insure so Im not sure what my title will say because I havent seen it yet. However, I am smart enough to go in there to the dealership and if they wont do what I want them to do, I will start asking for names for everyone from the owner down to the salesperson and tell them that I am going to go issue subpoena's for all of them because I am holding them joint and severally liable for this case. I will also throw in there a conspiracy charge can be made on all of them. This even includes the secretary who typed up my paperwork.

Im hoping that me acting like I know a thing or two will scare them into complying.