Bought New Z -undisclosed damage

Tejas Z

Not the first post I had hoped to write......So after growing up with a 260Z in the family and loving it, I decided it was time to buy a Z of my own as a weekend car. Something I had put off for years while kids were young and we had more important priorities. Shopped for months to find the right car and deal.....a brand new Gun Metallic Sport/Tech 6sp. at a dealer 2.5 hours away. Awesome! $38k sticker, negotiated a $9k discount. Went to pick up the car, and upon getting in to leave the shipping fuse warning light was on, but all gauges, etc. functioned. Their service department was closed (Saturday), so called my local dealer and they said no problem, drive it back to a Houston and we’ll address it. Drive it home and love every minute of it! Took it to local dealer the next day, at which point we also noticed driving light wasn’t working. Service tech called my attention to fact that the fender liner had OEM replacement sticker on it, which doesn’t come from the factory that way. Bumper cover had no overspray on inside, which he said is always present if painted at factory. Wiring harness for driving light was unplugged, hence it not working. Harness had a random wire coming off it that he couldn’t identify, with electrical tape affixed. Upon closer inspection of paint, it had indeed been resprayed.

Service writer did me a favor and called the dealer that sold it to me and was able to get them to give him confirmation of a body shop repair order on the car and the order number. A copy of the order was then requested but never sent. Body shop stonewalled at that point. I contacted the salesman and informed him of what was discovered, and that I was aware it had previous damage that was NOT disclosed. He played dumb and said he knew nothing about it but would look into it. Ten minutes later he called back to tell me that it had indeed been repaired due to “ lot damage”, his story was that juveniles backed another car into my 370Z after hours upon gaining access to another vehicle, and a police report was filed. Requested a copy of the damage report and work order, which never came. Had my body shop confirm the front bumper had been repainted, along with the entire driver’s side of the car. I hadn’t really spent much time with the car yet due to work and family commitments, so assuming I was buying a factory fresh car I didn’t do a close inspection of the car and paint. It’s a new car after all, and we were on a tight timeline to get back home to make a bday party for a friend. Not a pleasant surprise.

Told my salesman that I would like a check to cover the cost of my body shop to repaint the same panels they had sprayed, or they could unwind the deal and take the car back. After all, the dealership committed fraud via non-disclosure. Legal precedent is in place, and I noted that it could get expensive for them if I needed to pursue legal action.p to get this resolved. I provided the figure my body shop would charge to make it right again, which was $6500. Salesman said they refused that sum and offered a lifetime warranty on the paint. I’m not happy with that offer on what was suppposed to be a brand new car....so I declined. Salesman said they would unwind the deal, and offered to pick up the car in Houston since my schedule wouldn’t allow for me to burn another nearly full day round trip driving it back. Two weeks go by, and after multiple calls to obtain a pick-up date, no dice. More excuses. I left 2 messages for dealer GM, and one for the dealership owner. No return calls.

I contact Nissan Consumer Affairs and explained the situation, and they said they would contact the dealer to help seek resolution. A couple days go by, still no call from anyone, then a response from the salesman saying “I’ve been busy helping other customers”. Another call to Nissan CA, at which time I’m told my case has been closed, as dealer responded to her email saying they would contact me. Not exactly a resolution. They reopened the case after I explained that resolution had not been found. Got a call from them today to follow up and see if dealer had called. Yes, I had just gotten of a call with both the salesman and dealership owner. Owner offers lifetime paint warranty and lifetime bumper to bumper mechanical warranty outside of normal wear items. Not interested, as I’m 2.5 hours away from their dealership and want the paint corrected, not a warranty. I’m not going to pay to have the car driven on a flatbed to their dealership for mechanical repairs. New offer was made to respray the entire car using their body shop. No thanks, at present only half the car has bass boat Metallic when in the sun (bought on cloudy day), and I’m not interested in having the entire car look that way. Either my body shop I’ve used for 20 years repaints it, or we can unwind the deal. He asks what the quote from my body shop was (he already knew the figure). Gave him the figure and he requested the quote in writing so he could talk with his dealer body shop about it. I then requested (again) a copy of the repair work that had been done by them. He proceeds to tell me how the damage occurred....that a drunk driver had plowed into a half dozen cars on his one night after hours, doing $6k in damage to the Z. I noted that the salesman told me a different story, and he said that was a different episode. So, if you are still reading after I’ve written a novel, I’m seeking opinions on whether to keep the car and accept compensation (and possibly gets paid it repainted), or send the car back and unwind the deal? I’m truly conflicted as the only other exact car I've located (via Nissan Car Locator) is in California. I considered many other cars during my search, but in the end I kept going back to the Z. Not really motivated to buy another make/model.