Bought New Z -undisclosed damage
 

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.

I would lawyer up. Undo the deal. Because you don't know if there is other damage under the car that may show up later. They sold you a damage vehicle and didn't tell you. :mad:

OP that sucks. If it were me, I would get my money back.

Make them take it back... Not worth the trouble. Another car will pop up

i would return the car and just find another new one. Z isn't really selling like hot cakes... I am sure you will find one you like.

Tejas Z,

Have them take the car back and return your money.

You've been lied to and stonewalled every direction except inside out by this dealership, hoping to frustrate you to the point where you will give up and accept a less than reasonable compensation. Don't accept one from them. They obviously can't be expected to honour their word.

If you accept any resolution from them ... you'll regret it down the road, and end up enjoying that car far less. You may end up kicking yourself if you do.

There are lots of other "new" Z's out there, even if you have to drive 500 miles to get it.

:iagree::iagree:
Does not matter what the story is or how it was damaged!!!! They might want to get their story straight before court date. Hope the best of luck for you on this.

Different states have different percentages worth of repaired damage that they do NOT legally have to disclose when it comes to brand new cars. Google it. My car had damage done to it as well. I don't know how much or extent of damage repaired, but the salesman actually stated in New Hampshire anyway, it can be up to 25%. If under 25% they don't have to disclose it, and is sold as a brand new car.

Thanks for all of the replies and advice. This helps move me off the fence and in the direction that my gut told me to go when I first found out. Amazing the depths some dealers will go to in order to move a car. Live and learn I guess. Would have never thought I’d experience this with a brand new car.

From what I can tell, it’s 6% of MSRP in Louisiana.

Yeah, it stinks. I questioned mine when I went to do my first oil change and realize the front fascia had been off and not reinstalled correctly. If I remember correctly, the fender liner and front fascia were bolted reverse of what it should've been. My hunch with mine is that it was test drove and drove over a curb.

A nearly 25% discount on a fairly desirable car, in some parts of the country hard to get even 7% off, should have been your first clue that something was wrong.

Just take your money back and buy another new Z. There is no paint better than factory paint.

didnt they have to disclose a carfax and have you sign that when you did your papers? I had to here in NC. I looked at the carfax beforehand as well. Not that a carfax has evertyhing, but just curious. If it were me i would shove the car back up there butts and move on. Resale will eventually show a glitch on a carfax - or now that it is posted here on the forum - everyone knows and you will get beat up if you ever go to sell it. Send it back...write a nice long review on yelp.

Contact dealer and tell them they have 2-3 days to straighten things out or you are going to sue them. They have already jerked you around long enough.

:iagree:

Unwind the deal and also sue them for all the time you spend dealing with it. The dealer is shady, the salesman a lying scumbag and Nissan USA complicit in the whole affair.

When the revolution comes I hope they are among the first against the wall.

It can take over 6 months before things show up on carfax. Being a new car at a dealership. They don't have to report it. They can cover it up. Which is what they did. :(

This. Why bother going through the hassle of having a body shop fix your brand new car? The whole point of buying new is that it's.....well new.

Also keep in mind now that the history is unraveled, there is further diminished value on top of the depreciation hit you took the second it drove off the lot. This will always be there regardless of how well a body shop repaints.

get the money back, no need to go through the lawyer cause it will cost you more time and headache.

after the whole thing is done then write this story on public media and google reviews.

let the public knows is always better than just letting the judge knows. :icon18:

Return the car to the dealer. But first, report the damage to carfax. Then delay the return to give carfax time to update.

Drove 5 hours round trip to dealer today to unwind the deal. They continued to push lifetime paint warranty and lifetime mechanical warranty. Told them I wasn’t interested. Offered to repaint whole car. Again, not interested. Chicken *hit dealership owner wouldn’t see me, so salesman was the go-between. After about an hour of arguing, ended up that the ultimatum was either work with them on a payout (likely in the $6k range) or get lawyers involved. Salesman first claimed that disclosure threshold was 15% in Lousiana, then later parroted the owner claiming it is 20-25%. I called BS, showed him the statute on the state’s website stating a 6% threshold, and asked him to think about this carefully and perhaps talk with the owner before continuing on the path of resisting the unwind of the deal, as it was about to get very costly for them. He said the owner wasn’t going to budge. I decided it’s time to quit playing nice and lawyer up. Walked out and drove the Z home. Lawyer suggested talking to LA Attorney General’s office first, as there is an entire division dedicated to nothing but auto fraud. This kind of fraud must be prevalent in that state to have a dedicated division for just that? Lawyer stated that 9 out of 10 times the dealer will cave once the AG Office is involved. We’ll see. If they don’t, lawyer stated that the case is solid and we’ll nail their collective a**es. I’m amazed at the stupidity of the salesman and dealership owner. I guess they operate like this and most people are happy to get paint “corrected” and a “lifetime mechanical warranty” once they start talking about lawyers. Not.this.time.

Sub'd. Keep us updated on how it goes.

Goes to show, it's always buyer beware and do your due diligence. Even if you're right, it's still a hassle and pain in the @ss once to undo you sign the deal. Good luck!

I bet LA has lots of sales like this due to floods. Auto fraud big business down there.

Don't forget to mention the name of the dealer and post a good yelp review once this is resolved.

I would undo the deal, you were supposed to get a new car, not a new repainted car. The paint will never ever be the same. Go get another one, this isn't the only Z out there.

Agree you're doing the right thing to unwind the deal with complaint to state and attorney working for you. Don't forget to post the name of the dealer when this is over. And good luck finding the Z you want.

this is purely dishonest practice. Hope it will work out well for you. Good luck.

Louisiana AG’s Office wasn’t of much help. Can file a complaint, but they don’t seem to be too concerned with investigating nor penalizing the dealer. Suggested I retain a lawyer and take them to court, or contact local law enforcement as they stated that this is the entity with the jurisdiction. I doubt local law enforcement is going to care or be of any help here. They are surely more focused on murders, tapes, violent crimes, etc than car fraud, which I get. Besides, the local podunk dealer probably gives to local police fundraisers or knows local officials and is “a pillar of the community”. I doubt an out of state individual from Texas (they don’t care for anyone from out of state) would get a fair shake, having lived in New Orleans for 2 years and seeing how some things work in LA. They will take care of their own.

:shakes head:

:mad:

:shakes head::shakes head: Sorry to hear this, don't give up!!

Lawyer up and good luck!

I would contact a local TV station and see if their investigators would be willing to help...I wouldn't think the dealer would like all of the negative exposure.

So at this point are you fighting to undo the deal, have them fix it, or have them pay you to fix it? Don't forget why you bought the car, you wanted a beautiful brand new 370Z. No amount of fighting will get you that from this car at this point... well maybe after a long legal battle, they might offer you another brand new car with discounts or something or maybe not. Just undo it, walk away from it, post the dealer's name, and get a real brand new 370Z somewhere else. It's their loss not yours.

This. Let people know which dealers to avoid.

This is exactly what happened to me.....except in Mississippi.

Car sat in storage for two years awaiting court date. Dealer finally offered to settle the day before court. Judge kicked case out the next morning stating, "The car looked new to him." Deal was off. I was Fuc#$d.

Diff states have diff consumer protection laws. Who knew you should do a PPI on a "NEW" car??

In some states.....judges don't even have to have a degree.

First choice (by far) would be to undo the deal. It’s apparent that won’t happen short of a judge ordering it based on the amount of arguing I’ve done getting me nowhere. They are arrogant enough to act like they’ve made a simple mistake, and I’m the jerk for pushing the issue. They are as crooked as they come.

Second, very distant choice, unloading it and taking compensation from the dealer to keep me whole. A friend at a Carmax-Type business just gave me a valuation of $25k with clean Carfax, $20k with “unclean” Carfax. It would take a $7k check from the dealer to stay whole taking sales tax into account. Ugly.

Very sorry to hear that you had to manage through this as well! Definitely frustrating and has me seeing red every time I think about it.

Sounds like you have them by the Nut-Sac,,,if it isn’t a big deal to them-it shouldn’t be a big deal to let you swap it for another New one of your choice-even if it’s at another dealer.

Would be nice, as I know where another example of the exact same car I bought resides, but I don’t see the scumbag dealer working with me on it. Going to keep on them about a resolution, but am questioning how this will conclude. Have list of consumer protection lawyers in Lake Charles, so may start contacting them tomorrow to see who’s hungry. May be worth $200 for a demand letter stating that I’ve retained their services. I imagine most don’t take it even that far so perhaps it will be an attention getter.

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I went to FB and can't find your post to like. Can you provide a link? (Under edit......OH wait, I just found it. Duh.)