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Durango Motors/Durango Auto Value (COLORADO)

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seashelle

New member
I purchased a vehicle in August. Had a collision in October. It was going fine, filed a claim with my insurance, was getting fixed by an auto body shop. Then I got an call from my insurance, about frame damage. Apparently the car had frame damage, and the reason they knew that was it was welded and painted over. The insurance stopped work on the car once they found frame damage, and told us to contact the dealer. The body shop suggested we contact the dealer as well because it was evident the car had frame damage, due to evident welding, paint, and crush zones on the frame. I contacted the dealership, there response was : they ran a carfax so there was no indication of collision damage. Thats it. And I was like okay, but I have proof that we were sold a car with structural damage, therefore I bought it as a total loss car. Basically, he was like I'm telling you our dealership would never sell a structural damaged car because we checked our carfax. My point was that yes "you" weren't aware but there is evidence the car you sold us has structural damage.

At this point I do not know what to do, or if I even have the right to get some form of reimbursement from the dealership.
 
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adjusterjack

Senior Member
I contacted the dealership, there response was : they ran a carfax so there was no indication of collision damage.
Run your own carfax. It'll cost you $40 but it'll be worth it to see if the dealer is lying or not. Unfortunately, if the carfax comes back with no record of the accident you would be hard pressed to prove that the dealer had any knowledge of the frame damage since dealers often get a vehicle in trade one day and put it out on the lot the next day without doing much of an inspection.

As far as I know, Colorado only requires emissions inspections and not safety inspections so lack of inspection might not give the dealer any liability.
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
At this point I do not know what to do, or if I even have the right to get some form of reimbursement from the dealership.
Colorado law does require dealers to disclose known material defects in a used car or face the possible loss of the dealer's license. That rule leaves you with two problems. First, of course, is that even if the dealer suffered the loss of the license, that does not help you get any money back. Second, the state would need to prove the seller knew before the sale of the material defect. That's going to be hard to do. That rule essentially encourages dealers not to look hard for defects because as long as they don't know about the defects they don't have to disclose them.

Of course, the dealer cannot commit fraud in the sale. So if you asked specifically about defects and the dealer knew of defects but lied to you and said there were none and the vehicle was in great shape you'd have a fraud case to pursue and that could get you your money back. There is a significant different between the dealer just being silent on the matter and the dealer actually lying; the former is not fraud, the latter may be fraud. If you were told before the sale that the carfax was clean and can prove that it wasn't clean as of the date of the sale then that could provide a basis for a fraud claim.

When buying a used car, always get the car inspected by an independent mechanic that you trust before you agree to the purchase. Did you get an inspection of the car prior to your purchase? If not, why not?
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
Carfax isn't all-encompassing. Primarily it mines the registration/titling records. It's good at catching odometer anomalies or in the case where a vehicle is salvaged due to a total loss, but there's no guarantee that other serious accidents or repairs are reflected. As pointed out, the dealer didn't likely get that car even from the person who was the last driver of it, so they're probably in the plausible deniability range of knowing anything more about the history than the Carfax (except perhaps if it was serviced previously at the same manufacturer's dealership, even then that's a reach).
 

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