Car dealership frustration

Temperance

Temperance

Dagobah Resident
FOTCM Member
So I've been looking into buying a new car. I own a 1999 toyota corolla with 157000 miles, which I've had for about 3 years or so (my first car), and after having some recurring problems with it (starter) and it's just kind of falling apart slowly, I wanted to upgrade to something that I can rely on and trust in winter weather. So I've been looking at Rav4s. I finally found a decent one, 2009 4wd with around 60,000 miles on it, for $12,000 and with a 5 year engine/transmission warranty included. I started the paperwork for it a few days ago, getting my mother as a cosigner for the loan. She went in and handed in the down payment ($1600), signed her part of the paperwork, and gave them my old car's title. I was supposed to go in this morning to finish the paperwork and drive away. The day that I went in to start the paperwork, I had a weird gut feeling, although I wasn't sure if I was just a bit nervous (never bought a car before from a dealer, and it's a big move for me), or if it was my breakfast, but today I found out the gut feeling was actually pointing at something. Today, when I went to the dealer to hand in my old car and drive away in the new one, I found out they had got into an accident while moving the car out of the lot this morning. The driver's side wheel and fender seem to have gotten hit, somewhat hard. The wheel looked fine, but the fender was pretty much caved in. They apologized and offered to repair it and have it ready by tomorrow, at no cost to me.

I'm not sure if it's too late to back out of the whole deal and just look for a different car, since the loan went through and most of the paperwork is finalized, they just need me to sign one last thing.

Tomorrow I'm going to further inspect it, test drive it, and make sure everything is fine as far as I am able. I'm also thinking of taking it to a mechanic to check it out before I sign. I'm also going to try to convince them to make them responsible for anything that comes up down the line that could have been a result of this accident, although this might be tricky. I'll ask for a written statement, but not sure how to go about this. And I'm not sure if I can actually cancel the whole transaction at this point.

I'm going to talk to them about it tomorrow after I see what they fixed, and gonna make sure they didn't just patch up the bodywork and left it at that, and going to find out if I can still back out of the transaction altogether and get a different car at a different dealer.

I should have just gone with my gut feeling and gone elsewhere at first. :ohboy:
 
I will put my two cents in FWIW. Cars that have been in accidents are worth much less (here in the US) than those that have not been in any accidents. We have ways to check the title to see if it has been in an accident (CarFax, etc.) You should be able to back out seeing as this is not the car that you and your mother signed for days ago. If they are a reputable dealer they will understand. If you are unsure, not feeling good about it, best to back out of the deal and look elsewhere for another car, there are plenty of them for sale. Good luck and whatever you decide may it be a good choice for you, not for the dealer.
 
I'm not too much into cars myself and especially used ones. Maybe you can lower the price would be one option or if you have the time you could back off and look somewhere else, because I think they should told you so from the beginning since it is their business.
 
Has it been over 72 hours since the paperwork was signed?

3 Day Cooling off rule: http://assembly.state.ny.us/comm/Consumer/20041123/
 
1984 said:
Has it been over 72 hours since the paperwork was signed?

3 Day Cooling off rule: http://assembly.state.ny.us/comm/Consumer/20041123/
Click to expand...

He said in his initial post that the day he went in to finalize the paperwork is when he saw the damage, so I doubt the paperwork was finalized. But I'm wondering why the deposit was put down before the paperwork was fully completed and the car was purchased? Did they pressure you into putting the deposit down that day or something?
 
1984 said:
Has it been over 72 hours since the paperwork was signed?

3 Day Cooling off rule: http://assembly.state.ny.us/comm/Consumer/20041123/
Click to expand...

I signed the loan request on saturday, my mother signed her part yesterday. Also, I'm in New Jersey.
I'm not sure how this would apply, but I don't think we got any cancellation notices yet. Also, im not sure how cancelling the loan at this point would affect my ability to get a future one soon.

Beau, my mother left the down payment yesterday, not sure why. She also said she already got the car under our insurance, not sure how much more that complicates things.
 
From my understanding as long as you haven't taken delivery of the vehicle you can cancel the transaction. Also as scotseeker has pointed out the value of the car is now less being in an accident. Maybe you could ask them for a better offer? The only problem with cancelling is that every time they run your mom's credit it lowers her score but it shouldn't be by that much I would think. I'm not sure. Other than that if you can get them to warranty the work in writing you should be okay. Most body shops warranty their work for the life of the vehicle anyway. Do you have a mechanic who can check it out for you once you pick it up?
 
Hi Guille,

My first reaction was to back out altogether, take your money and go elsewhere. But if you really like the car and can lower the price perhaps get someone involved that might get you some guarantees like Pete said.

Perhaps getting a manager to type in an oficial document that binds the dealers to malfunctioning related to the accident. Also, how bad does it look?

Like Pete said, the down side of going elsewhere would be your credit and your mother's credit, but it should go back to healthy once you start making the payments.

On that line, I'm not sure if you got a loan approved through the dealer or through a bank, if that's the case, could you take your loan and go elsewhere? Although I can imagine that would be super difficult.

Just my two cents here
 
If you want to go through with the sale you could ask them to reduce the price considering that the accident will show up in a CarFax report and that will lower the resale value.
 
Guille said:
So I've been looking into buying a new car. I own a 1999 toyota corolla with 157000 miles, which I've had for about 3 years or so (my first car), and after having some recurring problems with it (starter) and it's just kind of falling apart slowly, I wanted to upgrade to something that I can rely on and trust in winter weather. So I've been looking at Rav4s. I finally found a decent one, 2009 4wd with around 60,000 miles on it, for $12,000 and with a 5 year engine/transmission warranty included. I started the paperwork for it a few days ago, getting my mother as a cosigner for the loan. She went in and handed in the down payment ($1600), signed her part of the paperwork, and gave them my old car's title. I was supposed to go in this morning to finish the paperwork and drive away. The day that I went in to start the paperwork, I had a weird gut feeling, although I wasn't sure if I was just a bit nervous (never bought a car before from a dealer, and it's a big move for me), or if it was my breakfast, but today I found out the gut feeling was actually pointing at something. Today, when I went to the dealer to hand in my old car and drive away in the new one, I found out they had got into an accident while moving the car out of the lot this morning. The driver's side wheel and fender seem to have gotten hit, somewhat hard. The wheel looked fine, but the fender was pretty much caved in. They apologized and offered to repair it and have it ready by tomorrow, at no cost to me.

I'm not sure if it's too late to back out of the whole deal and just look for a different car, since the loan went through and most of the paperwork is finalized, they just need me to sign one last thing.

Tomorrow I'm going to further inspect it, test drive it, and make sure everything is fine as far as I am able. I'm also thinking of taking it to a mechanic to check it out before I sign. I'm also going to try to convince them to make them responsible for anything that comes up down the line that could have been a result of this accident, although this might be tricky. I'll ask for a written statement, but not sure how to go about this. And I'm not sure if I can actually cancel the whole transaction at this point.

I'm going to talk to them about it tomorrow after I see what they fixed, and gonna make sure they didn't just patch up the bodywork and left it at that, and going to find out if I can still back out of the transaction altogether and get a different car at a different dealer.

I should have just gone with my gut feeling and gone elsewhere at first. :ohboy:
Click to expand...

Just my opinion - go with your gut feelings!

First off, it's a used car (2009 4wd) that is not as structurally sound (driver's side wheel and fender hit) when you first started the paperwork. The offer "to repair it and have it ready by tomorrow, at no cost to me" sounds like a "quick fix" just to get it off the parking lot and money in their pocket?

They may be thinking - because you are young and inexperienced (not a mechanic by trade and your Mother cosigned) that they might be able to pull "a fast one"? Once you finish signing the paperwork and drive off the lot with that car - any problems with that car - become your problem and responsibility. A 5 year engine/transmission warranty, I doubt includes a radiator leak (due to impact), front alignment problems, bent wheel supports or damaged brake pads or electronic problems that might have been affect by a hard impact. Plus another consideration, if you were to trade that car in - say in 2 years - in an upgrade, the fender repair and other cosmetic work might be slightly visible (to a trained eye) and you lose "sale value" through no fault of your own.

The down payment ($1600) that your Mother handed them - if it was a check - should still be in the folder with the paperwork. Legally, they aren't suppose to deposit it until the deal is finalized. As for the bank loan, since it has already been approved, call and ask them to hold the paperwork. You can renegotiate the loan if you decide on a different vehicle.

The choice is still yours but you still haven't finalized the paperwork and you are already dealing with problems - not of your making? For what you are willing to invest - why not consider other options before signing the dotted line? Again, just my opinion.
 
I went in again today, to talk about my options with them and to take a second look at the car. They let me take a look at it in the back, where they had taken off the fender. There seemed to be no damage whatsoever to the areas under the fender, although the fender itself looked bent in at the middle. The wheel looked undamaged, so did the shocks and everything else in that area.
I asked the guy there what was the other car involved in the collision, and he said a toyota tacoma, which has a high up bumper, which is what hit the fender, but not the wheel.
They didnt report the accident, but rather fixed up the other guy's bumper.

I'm going to test it out tomorrow once the fender is back on and see how it drives. The owners said they would take full responsibility for any problems and to just bring the car back for them to fix it. I will ask them to give me a written statement tomorrow before signing. Also, the insurance they provide does cover the parts that could have been damaged in an accident like this, if there are any problems down the line. Since it wasnt reported, if the bodywork is good, there shouldnt be too many problems with resale value.

As was said, at first i thought the damage was worse than it really was, and that they were trying to pull a fast one, but when i went in today they assumed full responsibility, sent me to the back to examine it, and seemed honest and transparent. It's a relatively small dealer, so i was basically dealing with the owners the whole time.

I will see how it works tomorrow.
Thank you everyone for your feedback!
 
If you are able to, it would be a good idea to have a mechanic take a look at it either way before signing anything. To an untrained eye things can look just perfectly fine but there could be other problems that they aren't telling you. If everything checks out, it still wouldn't hurt to ask for a discount or additional warranties. Them fixing it is on them but whether or not they reported it, it was still an accident and I wouldn't want to pay the asking price.
 
Guille said:
I'm going to test it out tomorrow once the fender is back on and see how it drives. The owners said they would take full responsibility for any problems and to just bring the car back for them to fix it. I will ask them to give me a written statement tomorrow before signing. Also, the insurance they provide does cover the parts that could have been damaged in an accident like this, if there are any problems down the line. Since it wasnt reported, if the bodywork is good, there shouldnt be too many problems with resale value.
Click to expand...

As I read your post I was going to suggest this, I am thinking that this should be a valid legally binding doc perhaps, doesn't hurt to look at what it must contain to make it so. It is a sort of warranty, right?
 
Hello everyone, I tested the car today, and even at highway speeds, everything seemed fine. The dealer went over their warranty, which included any damage that could have come from that crash, although as they showed me before it was only a minor impact only affecting the fender, and offered a $300 reimbursement for the trouble, while also paying me a generous price for the car I was trading in (considering it was in poor condition). The fender itself looks as new, exact same paint and everything. So I looked over all the paperwork carefully and finally signed. Thank you everyone for your feedback, and looking back at my initial reaction I over-reacted to the situation, since it wasn't as bad as I initially thought it was. I will, however, remain watchful of anything unusual, and I will certainly listen to my gut feeling next time.
 
The accident probably won't show up on Carfax, since it was on the lot and the dealer fixed it. They have different rules and don't need to report it as an accident unless it's a certain % of value or structural, so it shouldn't effect the resale value unless it looks like it has been damaged, FWIW.
 
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