Alright heres the low down. And please, don't judge me based off this issue, because I have already beaten myself up enough about it, I just need help.

Okay, as you know I am trying to sell the truck. Also, I am trying to sell my 05 Honda Accord that I bought over the summer...I paid $12,500 for it out the door with 35,800 miles, 5 speed sedan LX. Anyway, I remember asking the dealer if the car had a clean carfax, and he said "yes"...So I struck the deal without doing my homework. Sure enough, almost 3 months later, I am trying to sell this car, so I did a carfax...This thing has 3 car accidents...Front, rear, and a deer... Sounds like a rap song.. So I need to know if you guys agree with what I am going to do. In the paper work the dealer signed, the question asked "Do you know of any body or mechanical issues with the car or engine"? The dealer owner writes "none known"....Thats utter bull ****, of course he knew, dealers are requires my law to have a proof of a vehicle history report. So if thats the case, then he knew. So what I plan to do is go to this dealer in the morning, and ask for a full refund for not disclosing this information to me and that he has completely put me a in a postion where I paid top dollar but will not be able to get any money back from the car because of THREE accidents! If he refuses to take my offer, I will tell him our family will be hiring our lawyer...Does this sound reasonable? If it matters, I live in Maine.

 

yeah man I agree with you because in short the jackass lied to you just to make a sale.

 

That is one of them lawyer questions. "Do you know of any body or mechanical issues with the car or engine"? The dealer owner writes "none known". If the car was repaired , he answered trufully. Being wrecked does not mean the car has problems. If properly repaired they are as good as new maybe better. I have 2 Sables that were wrecked when about new. bought one with about 21k and the other about 14k still had factory warranty. one now has 110k the other 160k. neither had problems until about 80k. and they were known problems with taurus and sable. wrecked or not. and no I am not a dealer or salesman. If you didnt read the report or ask the right questions or look the car over, its not the sellers fault. About 99% of repair shops use tape when they paint. the persnickty perfectionist other 1% dismantle and paint and are dang near impossible to tell.

 

i worked for a dealer for almost 3 years, there is a reason they have it written as 'none known' so they can get out of what you are dealing with. the car fax probably was clean WHEN you bought the car, carfax wasnt updated or 'lagging' if you will. the dealer 'might' have been lying to you, but more likely flat out he hadnt even seen and had been too lazy to look at the report, so he wasnt 'lying', just not up to par. the reason its written like that is for exactly the reasons that ive stated, so the dealer dont get screwed because of a minor mistake, and if YOU didnt do your homework and didnt catch the salesemans lazyness or screwup, then shame on you. there i about nothing you can do. (i will say this that the entire time i was selling, i was as truthfull, and accurate and honest as could be, and that was probably my worst enemy: myself...... was told that i was too much a buyer and not enough seller)

anywho, suck it up and sell it as it sits.

 

Oh he knew...he bought from auction and all these things have been reported on carfax for years. No dealers buy things without looking...Also, I emailed him 2 weeks ago asking him to keep an eye out for some trucks for me because I was selling the car, and he never emailed me back. its because he knew why. Im going up there and getting money back. I would lose thousands trying to sell "as is"....I am trying to buy a new truck right now, I cannot afford to lose ANY to the car...Common i dont give up that fast

 

That sucks, but I don't think you will have any luck getting a refund. The time and lawyer fees will be a waste, because in the end you won't get anywhere. I think that you can still sell it for a decent price. Most people will still buy a nice clean car even if it has had an accident. If you can't tell by looking over the car, then It was probably repaired properly. You can just sell it as is and you don't have to say it has been wrecked. Until recently you didn't know either.

I have seen this type of thing happen before. You just have to forget about it an move on. There is a slim chance that you can get them to do something, but its highly unlikely.

 

It does suck. The problem is the loan I have is so new, so I don't have much paid down, so the depreciation of a vehicle that has been in a car accident is now way under what I owe...It is going to be the difference of me getting into the truck I want now..Its very bad. I would rather pay the $600-$1000 to have him properly sued then lose 2,3,or 4 grand off resale value...I owe 10,800 on it, and I had it for sale for $11,500 before I knew. Now at best its worth 7, or 8...Which at least if I am going to accept that, I want the guy to burn to earn it. And at the very least, I expect him to pay the difference of what I will take a loss on selling as "in 3 car accidents". Which at that point, hes better off just giving me my money back, and reselling the car himself. He probably only paid all but $1,000 for it at an auction. Fukcer!

 

The thing is I don't think you will win, so you will lose the lawyer expenses on top of everything else.

Sometimes the dealers really do not know the history of all the vehicles they sell. They can not be expected to know everything. They should however disclose what they do know. If they were expected to know everything, then they could be sued for any detail that was not mentioned.

 

Ehh, I hear you. But I still need to try. He will be sued and I will win.

 

We buy from Auctions all over the country. We bid and buy online. All we see is the picture and we see it roll across the block. It is my job to go get them and bring them home. We buy from auctions all over the country. I pick up lots of cars that have very minor damage that was never disclosed.


Only new cars, that can not be sold as new (Had some minor damage that was repaired, parts stolen from it, etc) have disclosure notices. Any damage over $3000 must be disclosed per Federal Law.

If you feel you've been shafted, contact your States Attorney General, by phone and follow up with a letter. It is extremely possible that the dealership did not know and you have no possible way of knowing whether they did or not. The Attorney General can trace the cars history much better then CarFax ever could.

As a buyer, it is your responsibility to get the CarFax, Not the dealers. He is just moving cars and may or may not subscribe to CarFax. Most dealers don't.

You've fallen into a marketing ploy by CarFax to force dealerships to use their service.

I picked up a 2008 Sebring one time that was listed as having low miles and being a repo with no keys in Detroit.
We won the bid for the car ($7000) and I took a trailer to Detroit to get it. When I got there, there was no wheels and tires, the car was filthy inside and out. It has 11,000 miles on the clock.

When I got it home, the mechanics threw a set of tires on it, cut and programmed a key and started it up. It smoked like a mosquito fogger.
Chrysler replaced the engine under warranty (brand new) and we put $2000 worth of wheels and tires on it, cleaned it up and sent it down the road for $13,000. This car left the lot with a full warranty.

We made full disclosure and the new owner is very happy.

 

350Baby, does the car look and run well. Has it been repaired right? Were the accidents low speed fender benders or parking lot bumps? Its hard to get any minor repair done for under a thousand bucks. Or are you just wanting to sell 2 vehicles you owe on and trade for another? If you are trying to sell and trade on loans less than about 3 years old you are going to lose big time. You are in the "upside down loan syndrome". This is what I keep trying to tell my youngins and grand youngins. You are a consumer you are lucky to get 50% of what you pay for something (10% on luxury stuff) when you walk out the door with it. Trading a vehicle in to get another is going to cost you more. Buying an extended warranty on anything but a notebook computer is about 90% profit.

 

The car looks good, drives okay. If the car didn't have a bad carfax, I wouldn’t be losing too much money. I owe $10,800, and the private party resale in excellent condition is $11,500 (however now that I learn it has accidents, I definitely will not be getting this, hence a lawsuit is in the works)...So I'd make $500-$700 and lose about $1,200 on the car if I took that 11,500...Which I don’t care, shiit happens. I just know...that he lied. I went in there today, and he said too bad I’m not giving your money back, go ahead and call the state police....why the hell would I call the state police?...I would call the Attorney General’s office. He also said "the car had a clean Massachusetts title"...I live in Maine not Massachusetts and a clean "title" don’t mean crap to me, that doesn’t tell me anything... Though some dealers may do an honest living buying thru auctions, for the most part it’s a sleazy business, especially with what this guy is doing, by buying them in Massachusetts, and he has a method of getting around technicalities in the system. He then hung the phone up on me, because his mechanic had to call him for me because he was in Massachusetts at an auction...no surprise right!? I’m not worried, he’s screwed, I have a meeting next Wednesday with our lawyer.

 

Im afraid this is where you could have a serious problem. Unless the dealership has a written SOP (standard operating procedure) that they absolutely get carfaxes for every car they sell, it would be your word against his, and that is very hard to prove.

Also you would be asked why you didnt look at the carfax. Ultimately it does come down to you when you buy a vehicle (although you do have some protection) Im willing to bet you would get told you didnt look into the matter enough and thats your responsibility, not the dealers.

Again it comes down to proving it. Which im not so sure you would be able to do. Im not familiar with carfax, but if you can contact them and ask them when a previous report was pulled you MAY have a little something on your side. If they wont tell you, your pooched though.


Up here they have auctions too, and there is no requirement by law stating you have to have a carfax done to buy a vehicle. Double check your laws there.

You will NEVER get the full price back on your car from the dealer, EVEN if you won (which Ill be honest, I dont think you would based on everything youve told us here) you have had the car for three months, so there would be wear and tear, etc on the vehicle.

Now im by no means sticking up for a dealer, they can be sneaky b@st@rds, but they cover themselves pretty well, and sometimes you got to look at it as an expensive life lesson.

IMO if you end up suing, you are just throwing that money away. Might as well send it up to me and Ill buy some parts for my truck!

 

Its okay though, I seriously dont mind and either does my family. We would rather give this guy a living nightmare hellish time trying to battle us and lose, then just allow him to walk away. Im a super nice guy, I mean..too nice, so this is going to feel great. I think I will win and I refuse to think otherwise.

 

You seem like a hell of a guy, but I myself am just being honest. Some dealers do certain things certain ways for a reason.

I really hope you do some research before spending some bucks on a lawyer. I also hope it works for ya (although again Im pretty sure it wont) and hope you post back with some results (either good or bad)