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Go to trade in car and find out it was wrecked


smokin5s

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So I went to a dealership to try and trade in my car and come to find out that in a previous life the car had been wrecked and has frame damage. The car is a 2013 but was a fleet car so it's first ~6,000 miles were not driven by me. When I purchased it, the dealership made no comments about the car being wrecked and provided me with a clean carfax report... Is there anything that I can do about it or am I just screwed at this point of time? Anyone have similar experiences?
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Your screwed, carfax can take a while for something to pop up on the report. Also if it was not submitted as a insurance claim it won't show up anyhow. THe dealer that sold it to you may have not check any further than the report so they would have had no idea it was wrecked. unless the car was advertised as never in a accident or along those lines there is nothing you can do as they didn't really do anything wrong.
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What's the frame damage?

 

They "should" have known if it was wrecked, but they might not have anyway because they were lazy. Without the statement in writing it is just your word against theirs. Sucks, maybe don't deal with that dealer ever again?

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Is there anywhere when you purchased it that the dealership signed off on it not being wrecked? If so then you could go after them... You need proof they knew it was damaged before they sold it to you. You could probably get ahold of your insurance company and get them involved if you took it to court, because they would have record that you never wrecked the car, so the damage had to of been there previously.

 

This doesnt fall under the "Lemon Law" or anything does it?

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Actually you don't need proof that they knew it was wrecked, just need a written statement where they assert it hasn't been wrecked as a statement of fact and NOT a statement of opinion.

 

^^^

 

That being said, dealers are generally good about not putting these things in writing.. Most likely a lost cause at this point.

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Same thing just happened to me, Carfax does a good job of covering their ass in the legal. It's what is reported to Carfax, so unless you can prove it was reported before you bought it. It takes a while for that shit to cycle through and if it gets sold right after its fixed it won't be on there. Happens all the time.

 

After owning my Miata for 3 years and seeing that stuff was reported about 6 months after I bought it there wasn't much recourse. I just took my loss and moved on, at least I was honest with the new owne so I don't have that hanging over me.

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Carfax is only as good as the information provided to them. Big question as stated before....was it one of their personal fleet cars or bought elsewhere? If bought elsewhere it sounds like an improper inspection was done when it went through service. Or they just didn't bring up what they found. This is a tough one and I am unsure what can be done legally if the car was repaired and holds a clean title.
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honestly, I just took the hit on the trade in and got out from under it... I had positive equity in it, although I have a hard time with eating money like that... I'm sure I could have called a lawyer but at some point to hell with it, learn and move on.
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Sometimes carfax is wrong also. I had a new 2010 Camaro that a dealer told me had been wrecked when I went to trade it in. The guy even proceeded to show me a paint line on the fender that didn't exist... Took it to another dealership that saw the bs and gave me top dollar. Have it inspected. Go from there with information and facts.
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honestly, I just took the hit on the trade in and got out from under it... I had positive equity in it, although I have a hard time with eating money like that... I'm sure I could have called a lawyer but at some point to hell with it, learn and move on.

 

Well, what was it and what did you get?

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Coming from someone who works in the repair industry, I would like to state that CarFax's interpretation of "frame damage" is quite liberal, that could be as minor as just setting the car up on the frame machine for measuring. Also, frame damage =/= salvage title or anything, shouldnt be that big of a deal.
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Just a quick thought/question: How do you know the car was damaged? Are you just going by the word of the dealership? Were they able to show or provide you proof? Nobody has a hard time believing a dealership will lie about an auto NOT having damage to make a profit, why wouldn't they lie about it HAVING damage to the same ends?

 

Obviously, I don't have all the info to rule it out, so I'm just throwing it out there.

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Same thing happened to my brother in Atlanta when he went to trade in his 05 A4 1.8tq 6mt. The carfax shows clear no accidents. The autocheck that the audi dealer uses shows frame damage front end collision. There was no collision since he had the car since new. He said it was just a waste of time to deal with autocheck and sold the car privately and made a decent deal out of it. Then bought a 14 S4 Prestige.
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