Sad to report what this dealer did

[Inspector71]

In December 2014, I bought a black 2010 Challenger R/T from Lee's Summit Chrysler Dodge Jeep. I looked the car over several times. I noticed the hood seemed a touch higher than it it should have been. The salesman assured me it was a pristine car (19K miles) had not been subject to recalls, service problems and had NEVER been in an accident. He provided me with a carfax and again told me the car have never been in any kind of accident. I had a witness. I bought the car and it ran fine. Because it was December, I did not have a chance to do a really good detail job until the spring. In the meantime, the hood had come open three times while I was driving. When I detailed the car, I noticed the grille and headlight bezels were loose. I chalked it up to poor workmanship. I noticed the fascia under the bumper was not secured properly either. Later, in September, I noticed the right headlight was pointing skyward. I did not have time to deal with all of this as I had gone through a heart attack, was being forced to retire from work, and going back and forth to Texas from Missouri as my dad down in Mineral Wells was sick (he died before this past Christmas). I decided to look into trading the 10' on a newer version. I took the car to several dealers and they showed me an Autocheck that revealed the car had been in a major front end collision, in the local area, and provided me with the police department case number. I was shocked. No one wanted to give me anything for the car now that it was revealed it had been crashed. I would never have bought the car had I known it was crashed, I was lied to, I paid above market value and took a hit when I got rid of it (other electrical problems cropped up). I wrote a letter to the Lee's Summit Chrysler dealer, included copies of their carfax and the subsequent Auto report, and told them I would entertain proposals to square this. They had either deceived me intentionally, or not, but either way they needed to make this right. I gave them 10 days to respond. That was about 6 weeks ago. I have now filed a complaint with the Attorney Generals' office and will proceed from there. I am sharing this so no one else makes the mistake I did. I will never buy a car from them again. I am back to working on my old Chrysler cars. At least I know what I have with them.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Getting screwed on a car sucks. I hope it all works out for you.

 

[black64]

I hate dealers that screw the customer. I hope you sue them and get compensation for what they did. Good luck on what ever you decide to do.

 

[djais1801]

that is the worst feeling, when you buy a used car on the street, it's buyer beware...but when dealing with a dealership on a "newer" car, shame on them.

 

[Scooby67]

So the initial Carfax indicated no prior accidents, yet a later Auto Check did?? Did you retain a copy of the original Carfax and was it current or post dated? I wonder........

 

[Hanover Mopar]

Sue the **** out of them

 

[Inspector71]

Thanks everyone. I kept asking about the hood and was told over and over it was normal. I wondered why the car, a 2010, had so few miles and was told the owner was hurt in an on the job accident and never drove it. Due to his injury, he traded the car in on a truck. Yeah, right. What is strange is I felt sorry for the car being treated that way. It was a really nice car. I hope it went to a good home. I could not sell it privately without taking a total beating. I wondered why the car had to dents, like the metal was "pinched," along the body under the door on both sides. They were not visible unless the doors were open. I have the exact same dent/pinch on a piece of weight lifting equipment...where I dropped a really heavy weight. Same. When my 68 Charger is finally done, I will know exactly what I have. Thanks for the support. This was a really bad experience.

 

[Cranky]

Last time I dealt with a dealer, I wanted to put the vehicle up on the rack and check underneath it and they refused. Asked what were they trying to hide....and that's when they said I needed to leave. Over 30 years ago I met another car freak that just happened to work at a dealership and we ended up being friends and haven't had to deal with the aholes since.

 

[usaroadrunner]

dont autocheck an carfax have that buy back guarantee, i would check into that also. good luck

 

[Beekeeper]

a friend of mine bought a brand new chevy duramax that had been damaged while unloading from the car hauler the dealer hid it from him. he took it in for service and when he went to pick it up one of the mechanics told him whoever did the repair work on the door did a great job. he said what are you talking about that truck is brand new and ive never had any repair work done to it. the mechanic then said well it's had a door hinge replaced because they are welded to the body from factory and yours is bolted on. long story short he sued and a few months later was driving a brand new cummins and an undisclosed amount of cash to boot.

 

[YY1]

Our parts girl's husband used to work at a chevy dealer.

One day they were beaming about the "great deal" they got on a nearly new tahoe.

It was "the owner's personal vehicle" and had very low miles.

The next week the problems started.

Fast forward, and it turns out it was a lemon and the dealer bought it back personally, then unloaded it on one of their employees.

Since it wasn't sold to them by "the dealership" there was nothing they could do.

That's a hell of a thing to do.

 

[Moparsmitty]

I love how these dealers proudly display all of these awards that they get from various rating outfits (J.D.Power, etc. etc.). All I can say is that the bar must be pretty damn low for some of these dealerships to receive these "awards". Those awards mean absolutely nothing to me. After doing business with most of the dealerships in my area over the years I'd have to say that most of them are ok, but there are a few that I wouldn't deal with under any circumstances. And yes, the bad ones have these awards plastered everywhere in their showrooms too.

 

[drobertson]

Sue the **** out of them

X2

 

[Kern Dog]

Many dealers are short-sighted ********. They'd rather make a quick, ONE time profit rather than pleasing a customer in the hopes that they'd buy from them again and again.
Screw that...I'm willing topay a little more from a business that treats its customers with respect.

 

[Bb70charger500]

I had the same b.s. down here I was looking at a used Durango 2015 with 12,000 miles the fenders and hood didn't seem to line up correctly they provided the car fax because I said this car was hit and they swore up and down it wasn't ever wrecked the car fax said it was perfect but I did notice the car fax wasn't the correct date ! I said get an up-to-date car fax printed why we took it out ,of course there was complaining about that saying it cost money I said if you want to sell the truck you'll get it if you won't I'll leave now well on our test drive the a/c quit the transmission didn't shift properly and the car shook like hell when you got up to 60 mph and funny thing the sales man was telling me to not go over the speed limit as the cops were out he Saud this 10x so me being me I ignored him and took it 10 over and my god it was horrible ,so now he's saying it's just because it's been sitting on the lot ,it's very common the tires get out of round the ac looses charger and the trans needs a reflash. So after he tells me all this I confront him and his manager in the middle of there show room about it being a totaled car and this that and trying to screw me the up to date car fax came around and oh look it was in a major Collisons surprise surprise. I told them that I wouldn't let this go and I've spread the word about my experience and I've received a cease and assist order saying I'm doing something to there business ,so being an *** I had my attorney Wright up a nice letter and they haven't spoken to me since . You got to watch them there slick little
bast-- turds good luck and sue the crap out of them they knew what they were doing

 

[Kern Dog]

Give em hell, BB70 !!

 

[Sonny Black]

been there.......they some (car sales people) are whores


end of story....best of luck with them!

 

[Budnicks]

That sucks, while it's not the norm for most dealerships & owners for that matter...
There're some unscrupulous nefarious types out there,
especially used car salesman, gutter scum that will do anything to make a buck,
with no scruples/conscience what so ever & they give the rest a bad name & reputation....

I hope all works out for you...
Good luck with the 68 Charger project too...

 

[Dennis H]

Sorry that happened. That said, Caveat Emptor. Go with your gut. If something doesn't look right there is a reason.

 

[Bruzilla]

I guess it's time to offer up some salesman perspective. Short version: Most salespeople don't know anymore about your car than you do. There's usually 100+ cars on the lot, and they have no clue what the particular history of any one of them is. So if you think they are concealing bad information from you, they usually aren't because they don't know it themselves.

Second thing is what sales managers, the folks who usually do know a bit more on the used car side, do know about used cars is what they are told by their previous owners, who are usually the worst liars on the lot, and service people who don't spend much time checking cars out. The sequence is a used car is offered up as a trade and the owner tells the dealership what they want to (something all of us who have bought used cars know well). If the dealer takes the car in trade, it is given a quick inspection and a determination is made as to whether the dealership will resell the car or send it off to an auction for disposal. If the car is kept, it is sent to Service for an inspection of specific items (brakes, engine, trans, switches, etc.) and these are inspected and any discrepancies get passed to the Used Car Manager to make a determination on. Few mechanics are going to give a car the in-depth lookover one of us would as their job is to get the car in and out as efficiently and quickly as possible.

As to the whole "salesmen will tell you anything..." issue, here's how the dealerships I've worked with handle things with used cars. You sell someone a car, you get a commission. If that car is brought back to have an undisclosed problem fixed, even if it's not something the dealership is required to fix, and the dealership fixes it, a part of that cost is deducted from the salesman's commission. This is why few of the salespeople I worked with wanted to deal with used cars. The commissions were higher, but if one came back for repairs that commission could drop to $0 very quickly. So there really is no incentive for a salesman to lie about a car's problems, and a lot of incentive to state any problems they know of so these can be documented and the buyer made to accept them before the car leaves.