Question: I bought a brand new car and I found out after the fact that it had been wrecked. Why do big name dealerships feel they can do this to their customers?

June 22, 2004

Hi Tony

I just happened to stumble across you website this afternoon and one particular scenario caught my eye, because the same thing had happened to me.

I bought a brand-new Honda Accord, or at least what I thought was brand new and within 2 weeks after noticing some small defects (driver's side door was not hooked up to the dome light, or chime for headlights), I found out the car had been damaged on the entire driver's side.

The dealership never admitted to what happened, but performed a "paint thickness measurement" test in front of me on their lot, because they were so sure nothing was wrong with the car. It was clearly obvious that the paint on the driver's side was much thicker than the paint on the passenger's side.

The car had been transferred at some point from another dealership about 75 miles away, so there is a possibility the damage could have happened there, but either way they were in the wrong. I contacted the previous dealership and they said they didn't have any records of the car being damaged.

The dealership I bought the car from offered to give me a new car, which I of course took, but was not as lucky to get the lowered finance amount and interest as Amber and her husband did in her story.

I am pleased with my car now, but had never heard of such, and could not believe what was going on at that time. Why do big name dealerships in a city feel they can do this to their customers?

It's sad they cannot be truthful to their customers. They lost my business (along with maintenance) forever and all of my friends that know what happened.

Great website, and many good tips to know when purchasing my next car.

Thanks,

Jennifer

Answer:

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for your kind comments regarding my website.

It's unbelievable isn't it what some dealers try to get away with? It never ceases to amaze me.

Some dealers, especially large high volume dealers, really don't understand or care about the basic concept of customer service. They figure "Oh well, one customer one way or another is not going to hurt us! There are plenty more where they came from!"

The mind set of most dealers is "Now, Now, Now!" There's no tomorrow with them. They live to get the car down the road "Now," and worry about any repercussions latter.

In the case of the damaged car you can be sure the dealer knew it had been repaired. Maybe the sales person didn't know, although I find that highly unlikely, but the Sales Manager or the dealer knew. Even if it was repaired at the previous dealer, that dealer would not have dealer traded the car without disclosing the damage. The dealers don't want to hurt their reputations with one another.

My guess is the dealer you bought it from did the repairs.

They replaced the car because they knew that you could cause them enormous amounts of trouble if they didn't cooperate.

All my very best...

Tony Iorio