O/T My new car buying experience

Since I don't have any over the fence neighbors to talk to You people will be my over the fence neighbors. I posted last week about my wife'a new Ford Edge we bought. Here is my broblem with the dealer. Everything went ok until we were in the little room signing papers. They produced a form I signed saying this car had already been regestured to someone else. Meaning it had been sold and returned. The car had 500 mi on it when I drove it. That is the time they should have said it had already been sold, and returned. The excuse I got for the milage was, the salesman sometimes drive it home. If I had known the car had already been sold, I would have had a little more bargening power, on the price. What do you think? Stan

You could have tried, but they wouldnt have haggled much. Work for a dealer and know how those things go.

Wouldn't have bought it, period. Dealers who allow the salesmen to drive the "new" cars home shouldn't get business.

A new car is driven by ME only.

You got mini-screwed. Technically, you're not screwed, but they screwed you a little bit. They should have told you in the first place, so I would make that KNOWN to them.

If it was within 3 business days you can still take it back, some states within a week. If you don't notice anything wrong with it, no big deal. But next time you'll have more nads and know-how when dealing with those people.

If the car had been registered you bought a used car. I would have gotten up and walked away. A car that is driven by a salesman or used as a demonstrater usually has dealer plates on it.

That is exactually what I intend to do. I am going to start at the botton, so everyone knows how I feel. I don't expect much from them. After the sale they said to make sure you fill out the questioner Ford will send you, which I intend to do. Stan

you are the owner of a used car .....

Decide in hast, regret in leasure. Compared to my dumb moves this is a "oh well". At least you can blame your wife. Not out loud.

I"m afraid you got screwed. If your within the "contract revoke" period - take it back! You paid for a NEW car...get what you paid for. A DEMO or PROMO car is not registered...its still a manufacturer car until its sold. What you got is either the car of a customer who could not afford the financing...or somebody else"s problem car that they picked up on quickly and raised enough stink with the dealer to get an exchange.
Also for what its worth...if you decide to unload the car in a year..the buying dealer will pull a registration history and surely take that into account when they make the offer back on its value. Regardless of 500 or 5000 miles...unless its less than 20miles I consider its "cherry broken" and USED. YMMV

If the car has been sold and then returned, well you just bought a USED car with only 500 miles for a new car price.

All of what the others have said is true but one thing that comes to my mind is the financing. If you didn't pay for the car with cash or a bank loan that did not hold the title than you financed a used car. Your rates will be almost 2% more than a new car. I would have that dealer take that car back or I would drag their dealership name through the mud.

This happened to a friend. The car had already been titled and registered in Pennsylvania. The car had been returned and was resold in Maryland where it was legal to sell as new. It was a lemon and as the laws in MD go, he had no recourse. He has since paid the 37000 dollar car off. He actually was only able to drive the 2002 Ford Explorer XLT for 2 and a half years. Problems in the first 2.5 years were 2x tranny, rearend, paint, coil packs, and ABS. He was a dyed in the wool Ford fan, but has since bought his 2nd new Chevy. I am sure that this is an isolated case, but it does happen...

Feel for ya, see if you can take it back. Apparently the first guy did...

Aaron

1-800-Mr. lawyer! AND 1-800-Better Business Bureau! Infact I would go back there with my lawyer standing right next to me. I would do it like... tomorrow!

Pitch is right. I was a GM salesman for several years, and when we salesmen drove a new inventory car for any reason, we simply put a dealer plate on it. There's no reason to title a new vehicle until it's actually sold.

Even new cars that are demo'd, driven by the dealer principle's wife for a couple of months, or whatever, are never titled--until they're sold. Sorry, my friend, you bought a used car, and the time to have raised a fuss was when you were doing the paperwork and found out the car had already been titled. But, that's the exact time a buyer loses a little self-control; he's sitting there thinking about how he's going to look to his neighbors, etc. And dealers count on that to sneak things past him.

That's why I'm not selling anymore. The dealer I sold for hired a couple of high falutin' consultants from back East to try to grow our friendly, small town dealership into a mega-dealership overnight, and I simply couldn't stomach the stuff they expected us salesmen to do. Half of my customers were people I'd known most of my life and I wanted to be able to interact with them in a friendly manner whenever I met them.

BTW, on the flip side, last winter I bought a seven year old Chrysler Town & Country mini van that still had the MSO (Manufacturer's Statement of Origin). It was seven years old and had never been titled. The local Chrysler dealer sold it to a trailer dealer who also had a used car dealer's license, and whenever he wanted to use the Chrysler he put one of his dealer plates on it. He traded it back to the same Chrysler dealer without ever titling it.

Back to the original problem, I would say report it to the State DMV, and call the Ford Motor Company's Customer Service hotline and yell your head off.

You need to have a nice set down meeting with the General Manager of the dealership and tell him you are not happy and give him the chance to make it right, and tell him if he does not you will contact the Attorney General of your state and claim fraud. (It is an election year and things get fixed a lot quicker than normal) A call to your local state congress person won`t hurt either. Remember smile and be nice! They will have you on security cams and will show them in court if the AG takes it that far.

Who the heck returns a car? Now that's a new one to me.

Buy an import. Look for the J on the beginning of the serial number. US car companies want to sell you a car, the import companies want to sell you the next 10 cars. Hate to say it but i wont buy a car engineered in the US, and i am an engineer. Hate to see the big three dissapear, but what can i do, i have lots of medical bills, and cant afford to have a vehicle in the shop every couple months. try not to hate me, i make my financial decisions for my family stability.

I do have some old iron, which I love, and think that back then the US made a stout, reliable, servicable, rebuildable product.

Good luck all

I think it comes down to how the car was represented. If the car was sold to you as a new car and in fact it had been previously registered, I think the dealer misrepresented the car and you should be entitled to some kind of compensation. Either you get a new car, your money back or a substantial amount of money back. What do they say, a car depreciates 20% or more as soon as you drive it off the lot? Ignorance is no excuse for the dealer. In order for a contract to be enforcable, I think it has to be mutually agreed upon by both parties. Would you have paid full price if you knew the car was previously owned? Would you have rather had a car with only a couple miles on it for the same price. I'd be sitting down with the general manager of the dealership. They did a study of car dealers on a tv program, a few years ago, in Canada. Very few dealers got a passing grade. If it's a reputable dealership, they should do something for you. If not, write a letter to the editor in the newspaper or see if they have a troubleshooter on a local tv station. I don't think the dealer would want bad publicity. Their excuse it poor. It was not a demo. Even if it was, it should have been a few or several thousand dollars less. Dave

Are there any items on the car where the warranty is not transferable? Anything that is warranted to the original owner only no longer has any warranty.

I hope you got it in writing that the warranty starts at the 500 miles, titled before or not.

Since they have admitted the car was sold and registered to the first owner it's now a used car.
You may need to talk to an attorney. I would want a new car. Hal

I'd be making a whole lot of noise. The car was misrepresented to you. Ask them for an Oasis Report (Ford's warranty work report). This will tell you if it's a lemon that has been returned. If they won't give you an Oasis, post back and I'll give you my e-mail so you can e-mail the VIN#. I have a friend that can get the report.

My wife went to buy a new car. She negotiated with the salesman over this and that and had him doing the "I have to talk to my manager to get clearance" thing. He tried to sell he all sorts of stuff when they new she was wanting to get the thing out of the lot and on the road. At the close of the deal the sales man remarked "This isn't the first time you bought a car is it?" She replied" No and this isn't the first time you sold a car is it".

37chief,
I agree with most of the others that a) the car was mis-represented, i.e. you got mildly screwed b) you should call the Dealer managment, Ford Zone office AND your State's Atty General office about the shady tactics c) you may be able to return it under your state laws (or mfr policy)

I just bought a Saturn (picking it up today) and it has 84 demo miles on it. Been sitting a while on the lot (hornets nest on door hinge LOL). Saturn has a 30 day exchange on NEW cars. If Ford has the same policy, just walk back in and get an exchange since they sold it as a NEW car. I would guess that you probably got a better price on it than others on the lot with the same equipment, but the fact remains that you bought a USED car, not new. That car should have been put on the Dealer's Used Car lot.

There's lots of good ideas here, but if you
already signed the disclaimer i'll bet you're
out of luck.

Speaking of wives buying cars, in 1986 my wife went to a local GM dealer and looked at a 1979
GMC full sized Jimmy. By luck of the draw, she dealt with an "old school" salesman left over from the days when, if a woman began looking at cars you patted her on the head and told her to come back with her husband. She blew him out of the water. One of her brothers was along strictly for the ride, and he told me later he couldn't hardly stand to watch.

The Jimmy sat high enough off the ground that you could crawl under it without jacking it up, so my wife was crawling around under it checking for oil leaks, checking the exhaust system, etc. Believe it or not, the salesman was down on one knee beside the vehicle trying to tell my wife about the AM/FM radio.

Came time to talk price. They had it priced at $5995. My wife offered them $5300. The salesman went though the standard drill of checking with the Sales Manager. He came back and said, "The Sales Manager says we can let you have that vehicle today for $5700".

My wife replied, "You didn't understand me. I said I'd give you $5300". Before she left, she bought it for $5300.

The Oasis repore would be interesting to see. Thanks stan

(quoted from post at 22:14:27 09/17/08) Buy an import. Look for the J on the beginning of the serial number. US car companies want to sell you a car, the import companies want to sell you the next 10 cars. Hate to say it but i wont buy a car engineered in the US, and i am an engineer. Hate to see the big three dissapear, but what can i do, i have lots of medical bills, and cant afford to have a vehicle in the shop every couple months. try not to hate me, i make my financial decisions for my family stability.

I do have some old iron, which I love, and think that back then the US made a stout, reliable, servicable, rebuildable product.

Good luck all

Click to expand...

They still do, some are to ignorant to see it.

My 2002 F-150 has been in the shop once (aside from when I had dual exhaust put on it) for the cruise recall. Took all of 3 minutes and was free. Owned it for three years and have put 35k miles on it (61k right now), the truck would still pass for a new truck.

Wonder how you think moving all the engineering jobs overseas will help your money situation?


As far as returning the car goes you have an uphill battle, I think it would be like trying to return it because you don't like the color. Them saying "well you knew that all along" would pretty much silence any argument you can throw at them. Asking questions about the milage should have happened before you signed anything, and for $25 you could have gotten a carfax that would have told you everything that had happened to the car, a small fee when considering the thousands you are spending on the car.

Ford won't be sending you a questionaire because you didn't buy a new vehicle from them.
You don't know that the vehicle you just bought wasn't damaged in a flood, and if it was your warranty won't cover any losses that arise becasue of it...neither will your insurance company because the loss stems from an incident prior to their coverage.
If you didn't pay "NEW" price and are happy with what you ended up with - good enough.
If you agreed to the price because you thought it was a new car and aren't happy - go get 'em!

If I do not get 300,000 miles on each vehicle before either car needs minor repairs, i will be dissapointed. back in 92, my 83 honda accord had 175,000 miles before the gas tank fill tube rusted out. Dealer fixed it free of charge, asked me if i was interested in a new honda, which I replied yes, when the old honda wore out. Still driving the honda with 324k miles on it. it starts in any ohio weather, which is not that rough, but does see its share of fluctuations.

I just got tired of dealing with shifty auto sales practices like described above. I have friends who bought new hondas, then after a couple months had a life change so that their vehicle no longer suited their needs, they brought the vehicle back, the dealer tore up the lease, and said which vehicle would you like? Again, the person picked another honda because they felt the dealer had treated them fairly, and they have been driving hondas since then.

sellers end of the loyalty bargin is something that the former big three car companies do not do not understand.

I guess from reading the news, we are in need lots of honest bankers in this country. Currently, that takes less than a bacheolors degree in finance, and is easy enough to get into with average high school grades.

Looks to me like portions of the country are getting a bit soft. History has shown that soft countries do not survive any longer than their soft economic structure.

I still like my old US tractors, but i think that they were built back when people had respect for each other, and each others job, no matter what the position. I see disabled people come to my office location and pick up paper, and do the landscaping maintainence, and I go out of my way to tell them "thank you", and the "landscaping looks great", because they at least have a desire to do work for money.

If we want to turn this country around, then it is up to everybody who lives here, to make that happen.

a gal friend of mine had a new car with standard shift, and was in an accident in a different automobile. basically, she was unable to work the clutch properly, so the dealer took the relatively new car back, and signed a new lease for her automatic shift automobile, and tore up the old lease, No additional charges or fees for the other vehicle, no penalties, no hidden charges, no hassle. New lease on a car she could drive more comfortably.

Their family has since purchased 4 or 5 additional vehicles from the dealer.

Again the import automobile companies are trying to sell you the next 10 cars, not just the one you are looking at. So they lost a couple bucks on the first deal, but they gained a loyal customer, and his family, probably for life, if not several generations. That is the difference between integrity, and the shady practices that are described in this posting.

I would truely like to purchase a vehicle made in the US with US parts, labor, transportation, and all the things associated with manufacturing a vehicle like buildings, roads, power, food, mortgages, etc, but it is difficult to get people in the us to really have dedication to their work, no matter what they are paid. I myselfe donate labor to charity, and to start up companies, without pay, because I am learning, and helping others to learn.

My 14 and 15 yr old neices and nephews want $8/hour to do simple tasks, and when i ask them to sort out steel from aluminum metal, they tell me they cannot tell the difference!

I worked for my dad for free for many years, and what it paid me was the knowledge of how to get the job done, and do it quickly and efficiently. My raises and promotions are a direct reflection of these learned skills. Thoes skills have helped me throughout my college, single, and family life, and they are more valuable than any minimum wage, or any wage as far as that goes.

I am not trying to disagree with anyone, just posting my experiences. I am happy with what I have, but I will buy import cars, and old tractors until I am convinced otherwise. I am confident that I can always get a job, or go back to school to learn a new trade. I may even retire to my farm when I turn 55.

Sat on a jury one time in a civil case on this very thing. Took over 8 years to get it to court. 96 Dakota had been setting for the whole time because they quit drive'n it when they found out it was used. Went on and on and on. Trial took over 12 hours.

They did not get anything from the dealer.

Don't know what to tell you.

Good luck.

Dave

The man that replaced me at work bought a Mercury SUV and had problems with the brakes squealing when braking. They had it back to the dealer numerous time for the same problem. The dealer took it back under the lemon law and they got another vehicle. No problems with this vehicle so far. Hal

Worst deal I ever saw: Relative was b uying new Buick. No trade in. Dealer was charging $2000 for lack of trade in. Called em every name in the book and then some. Told Owner find me a 9 year old kid to show them how arithmetic works. Don't charge for no trade in. Lotta people swear by this dealer, but I was there and saw the papers. Tried to get them but business mgr. tore them up real fast. Dealers and salesmen, the bottom of the barrel. Car dealers anyhow. Guess norm is 5 or 6 lies per sale. I think maybe you have to accept 3 or no deal. Gotta go and bite some railroad spikes.,