Dear Readers,
I received this email and instead of deleting it, I thought it would be a good teaching opportunity.
Here’s the email:
Hello, would love to connect with someone about a car we purchased. We bought it without seeing it in person and the dealership didn’t disclose major damage to the vehicle. Is it a 2012. It was purchased as is. They didn’t disclose the following info: 1. Broken driver seat 2. Mold in the trunk of the vehicle 3. Air bag light turned on as soon as the car arrived at our home. We haven’t driven the car anywhere. 4. Has an aftermarket air intake which would mean the car wouldn’t pass California smog yet it shows the car was smogged in September of this year. 5. There’s also exterior damage that they grazed over in all the videos that were sent to us which is minor compared to the mechanical and bio hazard issues. We will be dropping the car off to have it fully inspected this week. Is there anything we can do to have the sale reversed? It’ll take thousands to repair all the damages.
To be clear, there is NO WAY I can help this person with a lawsuit. It is dead on arrival.
When you’re buying a used car, please do the following:
- I would always recommend buying from a franchise dealer, i.e. a dealer associated with a major manufacturer—an authorized GM, Toyota, Ford, Nissan, etc. dealer. My firm generally does not take cases from smaller independent dealers because these small dealers usually don’t have enough money to buy your car back and/or pay my attorney’s fees.
- I would always recommend getting at least some kind of warranty. When you buy “as-is”, this alone will eliminate about 95% of your rights under California law. Yes, you can still sue for fraud following an as-is sale, but your chances of winning are greatly reduced.
- I would always get an inspection of the vehicle from an independent mechanic before you buy. If the person who sent me this email had had the vehicle inspected before buying, they would not have bought it. Don’t rely on pictures—pictures will never tell you the whole story of the car.
- I would not buy from an auction. Yes, you might get lucky and get a good car but all auction sales are as-is and you generally do not get any realistic chance to inspect the car before you buy.
- When researching what to buy, you can go to the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) website to check for open recalls on the year, make and model of the vehicle you are considering. This is always a good idea.
PLEASE do these steps, or you are risking a lot of money on a car which, like the example above, is a disaster on four wheels.
— Bob Brennan