The in-laws asked us if we could go with them to purchase the car that afternoon, but we were not able to go that day, because of prior commitments. We told them that we would be able to go the next day if they would wait, but they were not willing to. They insisted that we were not needed because they had bought many cars before.
They went to get the car and still had to argue in order to get the True Car price. That seemed very unusual to me, because one of the great advantages to True Car is that the dealer agrees to abide by the True Car price so there is no haggling.
Then they told us that the car had damage to the hood, and the dealer had offered to repaint it, so they would have to take the car back to the dealer this week for that to happen. That was a red flag, so we went over to their house and noticed that the car had over 5,000 miles already on the odometer. The paperwork stated that the car had 28 miles at delivery. The dealer hid it from my in-laws by leaving the odometer set on the "trip" odometer in order to hide the true mileage of the car.
I called the dealer and they said to bring the car in, and they would fix it by simply correcting the paperwork. I told them that this was unacceptable, and I wanted them to reverse the sale, or I would be contacting an attorney. They said that since I mentioned attorney, they would no longer speak to me. He also pointed out that the contract has an arbitration clause and I can't sue them anyway.
We called the cops, and they told us that it was a civil matter and stated that cops don't get involved in civil matters. Like most cops, he is lazy. It is a felony in the state of Florida to misrepresent the mileage of a car on the odometer disclosure at sale.
The dealer called us an hour later and apologized. They said that they would contact the finance manager to see if the sale can be reversed. We will see.
3 comments:
5,000 miles on the vehicle makes it USED. This is fraud
Technically, if the vehicle has never been titled, it is still new. Still fraud if they try to hide it, IMO.
Damaged and with 5,000 miles on it.
Sounds like one of the salesmen drove it as his personal vehicle with dealer tags, or someone is committing title fraud over the vin number.
I'd check out that vin# with the cops, not one of the lazy ones, one of the good ones.
Heck, for all you know, it was one of the water-damaged ones from some storm last year after the 2019 model year was released. Maybe one from the midwest floods this year.
I wouldn't touch that car without an independent mechanic's inspection.
Post a Comment