Damaged car sold by Main Dealer - refusing repairs
Discussion
After a bit of advice,
Bought a 2 year old Mercedes from a main dealer in November. Week ago the bumper paint started peeling, now about 10x10cm patch of just primer visible. Dealer says it has been accident repaired, accepts they sold it like this but says because they weren't aware it had been damaged when they bought it they can't pay for it. Salesman is being a rude d**k but now waiting on the manager but doubt I'll get anywhere after his last comment of "why should I pay for it."
Any recourse with this, car is on HP with Mercedes Finance. I'm assuming I can't reject it and I don't really want to, I want it to be repaired and also checked to make sure the repair is of good quality.
Bought a 2 year old Mercedes from a main dealer in November. Week ago the bumper paint started peeling, now about 10x10cm patch of just primer visible. Dealer says it has been accident repaired, accepts they sold it like this but says because they weren't aware it had been damaged when they bought it they can't pay for it. Salesman is being a rude d**k but now waiting on the manager but doubt I'll get anywhere after his last comment of "why should I pay for it."
Any recourse with this, car is on HP with Mercedes Finance. I'm assuming I can't reject it and I don't really want to, I want it to be repaired and also checked to make sure the repair is of good quality.
Edited by Transiter on Friday 14th August 15:37
Edited by Transiter on Friday 14th August 15:41
Very similar problem to one we had with a 3 year old dealer-bought Jetta, except in our case the paint was cracking on the roof and bonnet.
Long story short but it too had been repaired (badly) in the past and not disclosed to us at time of purchase.
I went to VW UK who were amazingly cooperative. They put the thumbscrews on the franchise who was giving them the run-around. It culminated in a £3000 respray at no cost to us. It took 5 months to get a result but out of principal I was going to persist. VW UK kept us updated almost weekly and they were getting increasingly frustrated too.
I wish you the best; I would go straight to Mercedes UK and I hope they are just as good as their Fatherland-counterparts.
Long story short but it too had been repaired (badly) in the past and not disclosed to us at time of purchase.
I went to VW UK who were amazingly cooperative. They put the thumbscrews on the franchise who was giving them the run-around. It culminated in a £3000 respray at no cost to us. It took 5 months to get a result but out of principal I was going to persist. VW UK kept us updated almost weekly and they were getting increasingly frustrated too.
I wish you the best; I would go straight to Mercedes UK and I hope they are just as good as their Fatherland-counterparts.
Edited by abitlikefiennes on Friday 14th August 16:34
Edited by abitlikefiennes on Friday 14th August 16:35
Edited by abitlikefiennes on Friday 14th August 16:35
Transiter said:
After a bit of advice,
...doubt I'll get anywhere after his last comment of "why should I pay for it."
Tell him 'because it's the law' . Sale of Goods Act : goods have to be of merchantable quality ( in relation to age , mileage , price paid etc ) ....doubt I'll get anywhere after his last comment of "why should I pay for it."
Presuming you paid fair market value for an undamaged car , it turns out you were sold a vehicle with a defect which you wouldn't have accepted had you been aware of it at the time of purchase . For a prestige car , purchased from the main dealer at market value , court would most likely agree this is not acceptable - go in softly softly first , but if they try to mess you around make it clear you will take legal advice and proceed from there .
Not your fault or problem that they , and you , weren't available of the sub standard repair at the time of purchase - he has to fix it - them's the breaks .
was it sold as 'approved used' or any terms along those lines, that is the sort of thing you normally get from a main dealer
I would point out that you bought from a main franchised dealer, you paid a higher price than you would have expected to pay for a similar car from a non franchised dealer, because you were led to believe you would be guaranteed a car that had been maintained to the manufacturer's standards, and certainly not one which was subject to damage which was not properly repaired.
I would point out that you bought from a main franchised dealer, you paid a higher price than you would have expected to pay for a similar car from a non franchised dealer, because you were led to believe you would be guaranteed a car that had been maintained to the manufacturer's standards, and certainly not one which was subject to damage which was not properly repaired.
Pontoneer said:
Tell him 'because it's the law' . Sale of Goods Act : goods have to be of merchantable quality ( in relation to age , mileage , price paid etc ) .
Presuming you paid fair market value for an undamaged car , it turns out you were sold a vehicle with a defect which you wouldn't have accepted had you been aware of it at the time of purchase . For a prestige car , purchased from the main dealer at market value , court would most likely agree this is not acceptable - go in softly softly first , but if they try to mess you around make it clear you will take legal advice and proceed from there .
Not your fault or problem that they , and you , weren't available of the sub standard repair at the time of purchase - he has to fix it - them's the breaks .
I'm pretty sure that in a small claims court it would be hard to argue that peeling paint makes the car unfit for purpose. It's two years old and accident damage is a strong term to use for what could have been a supermarket scuff that has had a smart repair.Presuming you paid fair market value for an undamaged car , it turns out you were sold a vehicle with a defect which you wouldn't have accepted had you been aware of it at the time of purchase . For a prestige car , purchased from the main dealer at market value , court would most likely agree this is not acceptable - go in softly softly first , but if they try to mess you around make it clear you will take legal advice and proceed from there .
Not your fault or problem that they , and you , weren't available of the sub standard repair at the time of purchase - he has to fix it - them's the breaks .
sfella said:
I'm pretty sure that in a small claims court it would be hard to argue that peeling paint makes the car unfit for purpose. It's two years old and accident damage is a strong term to use for what could have been a supermarket scuff that has had a smart repair.
That's why I used the merchantable quality parameter rather than fitness for purpose , nor at any time did I mention accident damage .The argument is that what was delivered in relation to what was paid is not acceptable , and I think most judges would agree
Two years old and minor accident damage is probably acceptable and not grounds for complaint.
Two years old and minor accident damage which has been poorly repaired is probably not acceptable and should be remedied with legal enforcement if necessary..
If you buy a car that is cosmetically as one would expect for an two year old then not withstanding any harm you do to it, it's reasonable to expect it to say that way for a while.
Two years old and minor accident damage which has been poorly repaired is probably not acceptable and should be remedied with legal enforcement if necessary..
If you buy a car that is cosmetically as one would expect for an two year old then not withstanding any harm you do to it, it's reasonable to expect it to say that way for a while.
Bit of an update: manager came back to me on the phone and said the were outright refusing to do anything else and told me to return their courtesy car immediately.
So after the call I called Mercedes UK (thanks! abitlikefiennes) the girl said she'd call the dealer and get some info for me, when I went in they had changed their attitude completely. I seen an actual manager, or a 'leader' as they call them, the 'manager' I spoke to was just another guy at the service desk - they're all called 'managers' going by the cards.
Anyway they're refusing to fix the bumper (I've done 20k and he's saying the patch is due to stone chips+jet wash), but he assured me the car has never been in an accident and repaired and it's most likely just been repaired at some point. He's offered to get an external inspection done to ensure no accident and they're paying for it.
It's not great, I'll still need the bumper resprayed but to be honest as long as the cars not been in an accident I'll have to make do.
So after the call I called Mercedes UK (thanks! abitlikefiennes) the girl said she'd call the dealer and get some info for me, when I went in they had changed their attitude completely. I seen an actual manager, or a 'leader' as they call them, the 'manager' I spoke to was just another guy at the service desk - they're all called 'managers' going by the cards.
Anyway they're refusing to fix the bumper (I've done 20k and he's saying the patch is due to stone chips+jet wash), but he assured me the car has never been in an accident and repaired and it's most likely just been repaired at some point. He's offered to get an external inspection done to ensure no accident and they're paying for it.
It's not great, I'll still need the bumper resprayed but to be honest as long as the cars not been in an accident I'll have to make do.
Get your wallet out have the bumper resprayed (get your bonnet done while your at it) have 3M Film applied to the front end & you won't have to worry about it in another 2 years.In the origonal post he said that it was accident damage repair, and they acknowledge that they sold it like that
but given the time scale and the mileage, and what they have said since, it sounds unlikely they would ever have actually said that, and if it was, very unlikely they'll still admit it.
but given the time scale and the mileage, and what they have said since, it sounds unlikely they would ever have actually said that, and if it was, very unlikely they'll still admit it.
clarkey said:
You've done 20,000 miles - how can the dealer be sure that you've not damaged the bumper and had it repaired poorly? I could understand if you'd had it 2 days, but they won't pay for it when you've owned it for so long.
Happens quite a lot, we've had people bring cars back after weeks/months with damage and say 'it was there when I picked it up' which obviously it wasn't.OP has done 20k, he can't prove the repair was there and the dealership can't prove the opposite. It's stalemate and really it's not going to just get fixed for free.
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