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Friend Bought Wrecked Car. No Accident History in Carfax. What Are His Options?

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C

confuse-ius

Junior Member
New Jersey

A friend of mine recently bought a what-he-thought-was-a-great-deal, previously-owned Mitsubishi Lancer from a Subaru dealer. Now he saw a better version (better engine, certified pre-owned, etc) of Lancer in a Mitsubishi dealer and wanted to trade it in. When the dealer was performing an automotive paint inspection of his car, the thickness of the painting is not the same as the standard used by manufacturer. They suspected one side of the car had been repaired and re-painted.

Before he bought his car, he did do an adequate research: run the carfax history, etc. There was no accident history listed. It appears that the person who sold the car to Subaru dealership, got the car into an accident, didn't report the accident, fixed it himself, and sold it.

What are his options? Can he get a full-refund from Subaru dealer?
Thank you in advance for your advice.
 


A

Antigone*

Senior Member
confuse-ius said:
New Jersey

A friend of mine recently bought a what-he-thought-was-a-great-deal, previously-owned Mitsubishi Lancer from a Subaru dealer. Now he saw a better version (better engine, certified pre-owned, etc) of Lancer in a Mitsubishi dealer and wanted to trade it in. When the dealer was performing an automotive paint inspection of his car, the thickness of the painting is not the same as the standard used by manufacturer. They suspected one side of the car had been repaired and re-painted.

Before he bought his car, he did do an adequate research: run the carfax history, etc. There was no accident history listed. It appears that the person who sold the car to Subaru dealership, got the car into an accident, didn't report the accident, fixed it himself, and sold it.

What are his options? Can he get a full-refund from Subaru dealer?
Thank you in advance for your advice.
Click to expand...
No he cannot. So what is wrong with the car other than no one knew it had been in an accident?
 
A

acmb05

Senior Member
Antigone*of*Greece said:
No he cannot. So what is wrong with the car other than no one knew it had been in an accident?
Click to expand...
Probably nothing, However they won't give him squat for a trade in on it.

OP, he may as well keep the car he has or he could sell it and not tell anyone it MAY have been in an accident. He can't return it Although the car lot that sold it to him should have spotted this when they inspected the car before selling it there is way to know if they knew it MIGHT have been in an accident. It could have very well been keyed or scratched some other way and was repainted for that reason.

Carfax, at least to me is not really worth it because Not everyone reports to it so you can never know if it is accurate or not.
 
M

Mass_Shyster

Senior Member
How does one determine the thickness of automotive paint?

It seems to me that if the only indication that the car had been repaired is the thickness of the paint, it must have been a fantastic repair job.

I suspect that
a) The paint went on that way in the factory or
b) The dealer doesn't want to take the car and wants to make the customer sorry he bought it from a Subaru dealer, so has made up this tale.
 
C

CraigFL

Member
Measuring the thickness of the paint is a legitimate way to determine if a part has been repainted and/or suffered damage. There are available tools to directly determine this. But, repaint may have been done at the factory or at the dealer due to handling damage and therefore may not represent major damage without other evidence.

If you can support major damage done and you used Carfax as a paid service, you may be eligible for the Carfax warranty. As with most of these services, they are just one more source of information and not the end all for car information since they can only go on reported incidents.
 
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