Trade In Honesty

Johns_on

Hi ,

I was rear ended last year and the guy who hit me got the car fixed for me without me having any involvement (I know , seems naive now) Seemed like a good job and hasnt given me any problems apart from the boot being a little stiff to open. I want to trade in my car , but the 2 salesmen spotted the repair job and said they would only give me 9k instead of 10k for my car as they claim they would need to fix this up . A 3rd salesman failed to notice and didnt ask me if there was ever any repair work done . He's offering 10.5k . My question is , am I legally obliged to say anything ? Is there any comeback against me if I dont say anything and they decide later that its a big deal ? He has had a look at the car and said he was happy to accept it as a trade in . This is a large Well known dealership and I'm trading in one of their brand cars . I'm a little worried about this , but it is a good deal.

Thanks for the advice ....

Henry Ford III

You have no responsibilty to a dealer, other than a moral one.

kluivert

Are you a moral person.

If he asks I suspose you can tell him.

I was at Toyota dealer looking at a second hand Corolla, I noticed that the front bumper was new and badly resprayed, I asked was the car in a crash, he said "not that I am aware of", he asked why I told him - bad paint job, I asked him to go find out the manager had to come out and ask what was wrong, I told him that I think this car was damaged and that his sales man wasnt very forthcomign with any info.

Found out that the car was driven by an old lday who had rear ended another car slightly.

So moral of the story it works both ways.

f22

All I know is that while buying a new vehicle, the purchase form has a check box asking whether the trade-in vehilce has suffered any structural damage, whch denotes chasis or engine damage accoring to someone I know in the trade.

Legally you must admit to the above, but cosmetic damage is a different story once it has been repaired properly.

Johns_on

Thanks for all the advice . I feel mildly guilty , but the stiff boot opening has never bothered me and doesnt take away from the look or functionality of the car in anyway , also , if they really wanted to sort it , I'm sure it would take them all of 20mins .

bman

kluivert wrote: »

Are you a moral person.

If he asks I suspose you can tell him.

I was at Toyota dealer looking at a second hand Corolla, I noticed that the front bumper was new and badly resprayed, I asked was the car in a crash, he said "not that I am aware of", he asked why I told him - bad paint job, I asked him to go find out the manager had to come out and ask what was wrong, I told him that I think this car was damaged and that his sales man wasnt very forthcomign with any info.

Found out that the car was driven by an old lday who had rear ended another car slightly.

So moral of the story it works both ways.

Just as a matter of interest, does the buyer have a come back against this? If the dealer says it wasn't involved in a crash and you later discover it was can you bring it back?

-Chris-

As I understand it, it's all about good faith - as a seller I can say that the car has never been damaged if all my information says it's never been damaged (and my information is coming from the previous owner and my inspection of the car).
It's only if I know that it's been damaged and I lie that I'm in legal difficulty.

Also, F22's right, you'll be asked when you're signing the order form if the car's had any major structural damage AND if it's had any body repairs (two separate questions). If you've gotten away with it thus far due to the salesman not paying enough attention, all well and good, but as soon as you sign that contract saying that you KNOW the car's never been damaged/repaired, you're in legal hot water.

Also, if I assessed a car and didn't notice a repair job and offered a cost to change, but then spotted the damage at a later stage (even at trade-in stage), I would feel within my rights to halt the whole process until I was satisfied that all was kosher with the car and that the seller hadn't misrepresented it to me.

Be honest, expect the same from the salesperson. If anything goes wrong, it's the person who's been "lying" that gets the sharp end of the legal stick.

MarkN

All depends on the job involved I think.

If you've crashed or been crashed into and you don't say, that's pretty scummy. Same as clocking a car IMO.

If someone scuffs your bumper and you have a sprayed without any body damage, I wouldn't see the point in telling a buyer - no matter how little the scrape was, they will now suddenly think your car has been written off and stuck back together.

--amadeus--

A looong time ago (in a galaxy far, far away) I was trading in a Vauxhall Corsa against a brand new Megane Coupe. The salesperson (who only sold brand new cars) looked at the Corsa and was happy with it and we agreed a deal.

Day of handover and when I went in I had to take my Corsa to the second hand section of the dealership, where they spotted straight away what the first guy had missed. My car was ex British School of Motoring and as such was worth less than book value.

Now I operated on a "not asked, don't tell" basis and the dealership were happy to honour the original price because I was buying a brand new car. From the looks being given from the second hand specialist to my salesperson though feathers were going to fly!

Moral of the story is that when you go to actually hand the car in there may well be a more through examination of the car. As a marque specialist they will spot the boot at that point and alarm bells will ring - "if the damage is so minor why not tell us, must be major" will be the train of thought.

You can just front it out ("nope, always been like that") but it's a gamble. So do you feel lucky?

Johns_on

Thanks to everyone again for their advice . The downside of being straight with them is that no matter how minor it is , its an automatic reason to reduce the trade-in value by whatever they feel like . I've decided that I'll go with the honesty method as I really dont want it hanging over me . It's a lesson learned to get things sorted properly in future especially when someone else is paying !!

Guy:Incognito

Henry Ford III wrote: »

You have no responsibilty to a dealer, other than a moral one.

If you bought the car from the dealer and noticed though, you wouldnt be long going back to complain, most likely giving out about the dealer at some stage.

Kimbot

If they ask you if it has been crashed then you are legally oblidged to tell them.

Same goes for them.

Henry Ford III

Stekelly wrote: »

If you bought the car from the dealer and noticed though, you wouldnt be long going back to complain, most likely giving out about the dealer at some stage.

Absolutely true. Dealers make plenty of money on every tranasaction. The odd time they'll loose out.

I've yet to see one who has hit hard times :rolleyes: