tazTL

Hi all!
- I just bought my 2002 TL-S about 3 weeks ago. The car had a big sticker on it that said it was certified and the sales man and myself discussed several times about the additional warranty the car would have since it was certified. When we were finalizing the deal, the sales manger got involved and the fact that the car was certified was brought up again. I had a friend with who remembers the same. Since then, the car started whining loudly when accelrating, the brake lamp came on, I realized that the wheels were out of alignment and then the transmission died. I then towed the car to a local dealer (different than the dealer where I purchased car). This dealer told me that the car had not been serviced for the scheduled 45,000 mile service (because all the fluids were very dirty), the tires were almost bare, the front right tire was damaged, and there had been body work done on the front right. He said that the car had been hit on the fron right which knocked the wheels out of alignment, damaged the front right tire and possibly played a role in the transmission dying.

- Since the wheel alignment and tires should have been checked during the certification process as well as the fluids etc for the 45,000 mile service, I called the dealer where I bought thecar.

- The dealership told me that the car IS NOT CERTIFIED, IT HAD NO CERTIFIED STICKER ON IT and NO ONE SAID IT WAS CERTIFIED!!! They told me I should have gotten a certified warranty booklet. The paperwork is still in my glove box at the other dealer getting the transmission repaired but I dont think I received that booklet.

- Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this? I dont have much experience dealing with car dealerships. Am I just screwed? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!!

TAZ

Mr Zipps

Go back to the dealer you bought it from and start yelling.. Demand them to fix everything and certify it. ALso tell them your going to contact the BBB and complain if they dont fix the problem.

Good Luck....

tazTL

well, heres a twist: I contacted the bank I got the loan from and they havent finalized the payment for the car. I had the bank hold payment until this issue is resolved. I contacted the acura dealer and told them they needed to certify it. They said it is not possible to certify an acura after it has been sold. The car does have a clean carfax record though (I verified this). Does anyone know if this is true that you cant have an acura certified after it has been sold? Also, the dealer seems like he might cut some kind of deal since all he has is the down payment. If its not possible for him to certify the car, can anyone suggest something else for me to request the dealer to do? thnx again for the input!!

TAZ

ArN 2000 TL

don't reply on carfax.....its not a catch all for accidents, etc...

tazTL

tru, but it should catch all major accidents with frame damage etc, no?

scottiew

Either way sounds like they did some false advertising which is illegal. There is a whole section about that here in Texas, also FTC has some regulations against false advertising.

Check the contract laws in your State to see if there is a certain period of time where you can cancel a contract. Texas has a 3 business day rule HOWEVER it only applies to home solicitation, not when you go buy a car so double check carefully.

Type S Lady

Take the car back, park it on their lot, leave the keys in it and walk away. I wouldn't want it after all of that anyway, just walk away.

Mr Zipps

Put a stop on the payment and give them the car back. Bring up False Advertisement. I would be really pissed. Its a Acura Dealer not a Joe Shmoe dealer somewhere..

tazTL

I would take the car back but then couldnt they just keep my down payment? What if I could convince them to give me the extended warranty? Anyone think that may be an acceptable resolution? I guess I would still have to but new tires...urgh, what a pain...I just cant afford to lose my down payment to them...any thoughts? thnx again...

TAZ

njtls

the cars been damaged tho...why would you want that?...they ripped you off....i would be pissed as hell if they sold me a car i thought was clean and what not..they totally tricked you, your handling this too lightly

njtls

oh yeah, if they sold you that car with letting you know about the damage and telling you it was certified and it wasnt....you have no contract with them even with signed papers because contracts dont exsist when one party is decieved...return the car and they have to give you your down payment back, get a lawyer to tell you all the details...

JPTLS03

Have a Lawyer send them a letter. It will cost little or nothing(if you have a steady lawyer) Some Lawyers charge 50-100 bucks for a letter. It will say all types of Lawyer type lingo in it to scare the dealer. This is better than yelling. When you go in and yell, all the salesmen just laugh when you leave. Like its a joke. Let them know your not kidding. Have them send a letter to the dealership and to the salesperson that lied to you.

groebuck1

you can get the number off their web site - tell them exactly what happened and insist they open a case, call the dealership and ask for the District Sales Manager's name and number and call him, tell him who you are, the dealership and everything you were told and what happened. Call everyone you can - and make as much noise as possible.

tazTL

njtls - I see what you're saying and I would love to return the car but I'm worried that they can just keep my entire down payment and leave me with no recourse.

- JPTLS03 - That is a good idea about having a lawyer send them a letter, I'll have to look into that. My girlfriend is actually a second year law student so she's looking into the legality of this all. I think it basically boils down to my word against the dealership.

- What a pain. I'm going to call the bastards on my lunchbreak and see what options they want to give me if any. Thanks to everyone for all thier replies! Hopefully all will work out ok. Any more suggestions or comments would be helpful.

TAZ

tazTL

groebuck1 - That will be my next step, good point. I'm also going to call the corporate offive of the dealership. thnx

TAZ

JPTLS03

Good luck, keep us posted!

nym31mp

im sorry this happened bro.but i agree put legal pressure on them they wont lose anything givin u ur money back this is an acura dealership...........givin u ur money back is like a drop in the bucket for them..........good luck

groebuck1

check if the dealer has a web site - they may still have your car listed on it since most dealerships are lazy - and check out if they have a posted acura certified policy (like all of our pre-owned acuras are certified - blah blah blah).

Darkshear

iTrader: (1)

Taz, check ur Private messages.

scottiew

If you can stop payment on the downpayment check you'll prob be ok. I don't think dealers rush checks to the banks, I think they do them in batch (e.g. one day a week) I'm sure that varies dealer to dealer. If you stop payment, the worse they can do is ask for their car back!

I agree with what's said above, the way they are handling it (or lack thereof), I wouldn't do business with them. At least you have the loan stopping. If they ask questions just tell them your loan didn't go through... Oops sorry please give me back my down payment :P Not sure if that'll work but may...

goldendragon576

I would also file a complaint to the district manager. That is definitely false advertising and highly illegal. You scream and yell enough followed by some threats, you'll get your way.

jpadilla

dont settle for that POS. take your car back, you should have a time period that you can return a car. Call you bank to find out what the time period is. Have the back stop payment on the loan, and see if you can stop payment your downpayment check. Stay away from that dealership. What dealer was it?

njtls

they cant keep your down payment...that would be illegal...no contract exisit between you and the dealer if they decieived you, search the web for the exact circumstances...but i garuntee in a court of law you would win assuming you have edvidence that the damage was not made known to you and that they lied about certification...one such way to prove it would be if you payed the price for a certified clean (never damaged) vehicle..it would have been substantially more then a damaged un certified vehicle...so if you show that they charged you way more then the value of a previously damaged, uncert vehicle, then they will probably beleive your story that they lied to you about certification and clean title

jbx35

You have 30 days to stop payment on a check now, even if it has been cashed. Got a letter from my bank a few weeks ago on this.

tazTL

okay, the dealer is just faxed over a service report history. It looks like the oil was changed and the rear brake pads were replaced on 10/14/04. The dealer is also telling me that the tires were within spec (he gave me the measurements but I dont have them on me now). I'm contacting the shop where the car is at now to find out how much tread exactly the tires have to see if the numbers jive.

njtls - I agree it wuold be illegal for them to keep the check but to prove that, I would have to take them to court in which case it would be my word against his...and if I lost the case, I could possibly have to thier court fees....thats a big risk.

- Also, I would be quicker to return the car but $1,000 of the down payment was paid with a money order which I'm sure they cashed by now. Also, the dealership where I bought the car is about 5 hours away which would make it extremely difficult to make time to go back down there.

- The dealer is now coming up with more lies as well. He says the car was never listed online at all because all of thier cars listed online are certified. BS! I actually called my girlfriend from my cell while I was test driving the car to have her look at it to see what she thought. The salesman was in the car and he was the one who suggested I have her look at the car online! MORE LIES!

- Can anyone tell me how much the extended warranty usually costs? The dealer is telling me that the warranty normally costs $1,100 and that he will pay $600 of that to compromise with me. I thought the warranty was more like $900 though. To me, that is not acceptable either way. He's also saying that having it certified is a $3,000 dollar value....
thnx again for all the suggestions..any more comments?

TAZ

scottiew

Wow. You are getting it in the *** with sandpaper and axle grease. Find a freakin attorney who will at the very least go pro bono. Typically an attorney won't take the case if he/she won't win so I really don't see all the risk. Again all it may take is a letter. Also file a complaint with your District Attorney and the Attorney General. False advertising or just bad business. Also immediately file a complaint with the BBB and do as others said contact the regional Acura manager and the corporate one. Pursue arbitration hell maybe they'll have to buy the car back but you win.

You bought the car, somewhere in the paperstack of papers you have something should say or elude to being a certified car. Did you get a warranty with it that ONLY COMES ON CERTIFIED CARS? If so, I think that's sufficient evidence. You should nip it in the bud.

groebuck1

What dealer is it ???

tazTL

Scottiew - The car is currently getting the transmission fixed at a dif dealership and most of the paperwork is in the car. I think I'll go by the dealership tonight to check the paperwork for a certified warranty booklet. For the time being, they are stressing cuz I have thier car and they dont have payment...and thats the way its going to stay until I get this resolved. Maybe I'll contact a lawyer in the meantime to see what they have to say. My girlfriend is in law school so she is checking into the laws regarding all this...I'll figure it out one way or another. At least I've got the upper hand at this point. thnx...

TAZ

groebuck1

info inside for ya

scottiew

Cool man. Good luck to you!!!! I hope it all works out

tazTL

Tell me what you guys think:
I might be able to convice the sales manager to pay the full amount for me to have the platinum extended warranty ($900 - $1,100 value) to cover me until 100,000 miles. You think that would be sufficient or do you think the fact that the car should have been certified out weighs that? I would like to keep the car if possible because I really like it and if I could get the extended warranty OR get it up to certified standards at no charge, it would still be a good deal....
Opinions?
thnx...

TAZ

groebuck1

If you can get the dealer to pay the full coverage for 100000 miles (I am assuming that is bumper to bumper and if you go that route get everything in writing, what is covered, what is not - deductable if any) insist also that you get a full report of what damage happened to the car and what repairs were done...I would also make them replace the tires..and pay for any repairs you have been charged for so far..including the towing costs you incured

scottiew

Yeah also keep in mind that's not the only TL-S for sale :p There are plenty more to be found. groebuck1 seems to have a good plan there. I personally wouldn't settle for any deductable but $0.00.

tazTL

- The warranty would be a bumper to bumper warranty with $0.00 deductable.

- The towing and rental car was taken care of by acura road side assistance.

- I had the dealer fax me a service report specifying the work that has been done to the car but it doesnt say anything about body work except a small scratch was repaired on rear bumber.

- I'm checking with the dealership the car is at now to find out how much tire tread is left, and if he can determine to what extent the front right of the car was damaged...hopefully it was something small...I'm not sure why this isnt listed in the service report...

- If the tire tread really is bad then I will insist that they replace the tires. Otherwise, it could be the dealership the car is at now exagerating how bare the tires are so he could sell me new tires.

I'll keep ya'll posted... thnx!

TAZ

-

VTEC11

make sure its an acura warranty and not an aftermarket warranty. Does acura have such a thing as a Platinum warranty??

songoku

I am sure he meant extended warranty.

Pure Adrenaline

iTrader: (2)

Why are you fighting so hard to keep that car? It's damaged goods. Try to get the dealership to buy the car back, and move on. There's plenty of other cars out there.

Also, Carfax is not 100% trustworthy, and even if the dealership's work history shows no body work on your car, it could have very well been done at a different place.

Your biggest leverage is that you've stopped the payment to the dealership. Go back to the dealership, tell them you want your down payment back, and they can keep the car. Then find another one. Personally, if a car has been damaged so extensively that the suspension was messed up, then that indicates a pretty bad accident. Who knows what could happen later on as the car ages?


Btw, don't just threaten the dealership that you're going to contact BBB, your attorney, etc. Just do it, and when they get letters from your attorney, BBB, Attorney General, District Manager of Acura, and Acura headquarters, they will feel like a torch has been lit inside their *******s. And whether you get this situation resolved or not, you still must contact everyone you can about this.

Good luck.

scottiew

Yeah paying premium price for a knowingly wrecked car sucks and keep in mind that extended warranty has a profit margin on it so if they let it go for seemingly less they may eat very little cost or nothing at all so they win too as they've gotten a wrecked car out of their inventory.

If you can sock it to them I would make them buy it back and go buy a car from a different dealer. TL-Ss aren't that difficult to find.

fldave

Taz, It's hard to believe an Acura dealership is doing this to you! I would call Corporate @ 800 382 2238 and explain in detail what has transpired. After that, make certain that you don't keep this lemon that's been sold to you as it can only get worse. Also, call your State's Attorney's office for some free advice as this just might make thier day!

FlDave

Tom Blasing

If they say that the was not certified then ask them to show you the papers you signed that say it was sold as-is.

The certification being a $3k vakue is total BS. My girlfriend just bought a 98' CR-V from a Honda dealer. The certification warranty for that was just $400 and that's bumber to bumper.