After removing my stock intake last weekend to install the icebox, my friend and I realized that my CL has been in an unreported accident! The frame is slightly bent and kinked on the left side and bondo'd up in other parts. I purchased my car last july from a reputable dealer in Alabama over ebay. Unfortunately I trusted the dealer's reputable ebay status (500 car sales with a 100% satisfaction rate) and the clean carfax, nd did not have a mechanic inspect the car before purchase. I live in NC so I had to trust the dealer' walk-around inspection. Regardless I know it was unwise, however I feel the car's condition was misrepresented to me. Besides this it drives great and I love it. Since it has been so long I'm not sure if I have any recourse. What should I do?

 

If you have the inspection in writing you might have some recourse. I think it's pretty common. They just have to prove they didn't 'know' it was wrecked, I think.

You can definitely file a complaint with them or their owner group.

 

I think your stuck, especially if there is no lemon law where you got it (I have no idea if there is or not).

If the dealership did not see it and it wasn't reported on Carfax (which a lot of dealerships use to find out about the car) then they may not be in any fault. If they didn't know, how could they have misrepresented the item for sale?

I'm sure they took it as a trade in and just looked at the vehicle and ran a carfax to find out about its past. You said you had to remove things to find out, which dealerships don't normally practice anything like that unless making repairs and even then they probably wouldn't say anything (bad ethics, I know).

My car shows no history on carfax, but when I pulled a Choice Report it just said there was $990 of work done on it... So I have no idea what they did to mine.

Besides all of that, the dealership could argue that because of the time since purchase and it not being reported on carfax that you could have done it yourself and that you're looking for a way to get retribution for it.

 

Did you run a Carfax before you bought it? I would get it checked out. And if it's in really bad shape call the dealership and see what they say.

 

He already said it has a clean Carfax.

 

Sorry man your stuck. Nothing you can do. The carfax $5K warranty only applies if you ran it & then sent it in. Also there's a little fine print that says it only applies to major accidents, or millage fraud.

Now the car dealer is a car dealer. Again you have no recourse cause you have no proof the dealer was aware of the past damage, & it's a used car. Most of them have "AS IS" written on the sale invoice. Meaning the selling dealer is not responsible for anything after the car leaves their hands.

 

Actually, a Lemon Law is irrelevant regardless. This is a disclosure issue. I think you're stuck with it bud. Sorry.

 

yep. stuck like chuck. chalk it up as bad luck and move on. especially if the car runs and drives good.

 

Yeah, not much you can do. My carfax was clean on my CL but when I just had the bumper fixed they told me there was previous damage/repair done on the front bumper. If it's not reported to insurance there's no way it'll show up on the carfax.

 

Sorry. I missed that.