RUDE AWAKENING- Dealership sold me wrecked truck with clean title?

You or I have not seen the signed documents. I'd guess the dealer has zero liability in this.

 

Good luck with that.

 

If I didn't get a full refund, tell them that you will see them in court. They are putting not just you in danger but the person you're going to end up hitting because of this junk truck. That’s a lawsuit you would almost definitely win.

 

I would probably try and go to toyota corporate at this point.

 

I forget most of you guys are young. Y'all have plenty of time and energy to spare.
Me, as I posted. Negotiate your best deal. Move forward. Enjoy life.

 

Even if they have no liability to the customer; (which I am positive you could make something stick) they do have a liability to the Toyota Corporation to sell vehicles that meet their CPO standards. If they were to be notified that this dealer is selling vehicles that do not meet their specifications they will be sanctioned.

Additionally look at this ad campaign Toyota is running: http://www.toyotacertified.com/tales-of-the-uncertified/ they don't want any negative attention.

 

Doing this from my phone so apologies for the patchwork posting. Here is their 160 point inspection checklist. Their preowned certification guarantees the vehicle, if needed, was reconditioned to within toyota specs.

160-Point Quality Assurance Inspection

• Each Toyota goes through an exhaustive 160-Point inspection to ensure it's worthy of Toyota Certification.
• Reconditioned to Toyota's exacting standards by factory-trained Toyota Technicians.

I don't know if you have any grounds to move on or not. The dealership will likely state the vehicle falls within their guidlines of certified preown and I'm sure carfax will fight you just as hard if not harder.

There's a lot of fine print outside of the normal fine print that will need to be digested and interpreted.

If you really want to persue a loss on diminished value or some sort of negligent act by the dealership you would be best served starting with a complaint to your states Attorney General and filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Step after that would be with a local news station, most have consumer reports, or something to the effect, that if it is slow or they feel like it is newsworthy they'll conduct a public investigative report.

Good luck with whatever route you take. Will likely be an uphill battle though.

 

That plan of attack doesn't apply to the OP's battle.

The OP doesn't have a 'lemon'. Several steps have to be taken for a vehicle to be deemed a lemon.

 

You would have needed to register with carfax within 90 days as well as other disclaimers for their "buyback" guarantee.

Conditions
The vehicle history report must be run prior to purchasing the vehicle, and you must register for the Buyback Guarantee within 90 days of purchasing the vehicle. After buying the car, if you receive notification that it has a branded title, Carfax requires the notification be received from one of the data sources they use.

 

Okay defective, previously wrecked. Whatever YOU WANT TO NAME IT. I've seen it done and it works

 

Life throws you curve balls. Some are strikes. Some are off the plate and still called strikes...

You can spend time stewing and argue with the ump. Or stand back in the box and take your swings.

 

Subd

 

I just wanted to chime in without a truck update. Wanted to say thanks for the advice and support. Though my nature is to say fk it, move on and take a loss i'm going to keep pushing forward solely due to comments in this thread and I demand good customer service. Of course i don't want to lose thousands on a diminished value truck. I think there is a solution where myself and the dealership doesn't take a hard hit. Did I make some mistakes in the buying process? Absolutely. It's not the first time I've given my trust. From what i like to think i'm an honest and fair person. That's when you get hit the hardest with a stab to the kidney. I will be very happy if this thread will help at least one person. I honestly didn't think it would get to 2 pages. I get a kick out of the sign comments. I'm part owner of a print company. I could direct mail the whole city and wrap my truck tomorrow for next to nothing but time.

So again, thank you for the information and advice. I might even make an avatar pic. Let's see where this goes.

 

To the people that say you can't prove the damage, you have a Carfax report that shows and accident on 07/2013. He purchased in 08/2014. So the dealership either A. Didn't inspect the vehicle as Toyota requires for CPO, B. They did inspect and didn't care about the damage, or C. Repaired it themselves and did crappy work.

In all three scenarios the dealership fails.

However, saying that, I think your recourse is minimal legally, but getting Toyota corporate customer relations involved or threatening to call your local TV news to do an editorial on unscrupulous car sales practices and specifically telling your story with details are your best course assuming the dealership doesn't do anything on an attempt to make this deal whole.

 

Reading and comprehension 101 states the following from the OP

Carfax:

07/26/2013 Damage Report Accident reported
Vehicle involved in a sideswipe collision
with another motor vehicle
Minor left side damage reported
Minor right side damage reported
Airbags did not deploy
CARFAX began reporting this information on 02/04/2015.

I bought it 8/14/14

Notice the bought date compared to the date carfax started reporting it.

So,

1. They had a clean carfax and no need to include such info

2. They did their own 160 point inspection and verified everything was within toyotas specifications.

They key point is going to be proving that the dealership had knowledge, prior to the sale, the vehicle was damaged and repaired. And if it can be proven the vehicle was indeed damaged and repaired, yet title was clean, does that still fall within the 160 point inspection preowned guarantee?

No dents, color matches, no scratches, frame within spec, body lines match etc....

It's going to be an uphill battle to prove the negligence, OP has to show a higher probability the dealership did wrong. The dealership only has to make the OP prove it.

 

San Antonio...which dealership? I've bought multiple Toys from Cavender, Red McCombs, and North Park (back when they were in Boerne). I would expect this from Red, which is why I always went to Cavender for maintenance.

 

it's red..

 

Figures. They care more about how many new butts they can get into their showroom chairs. Cavender (to me, anyway) seemed to care more about the people in those chairs. Very impressed with the service manager, and they took good care of our recall work.

Feel for you. Good luck. For my $.02, fair resolution would be a backdated discount related to the fair market condition of the truck at purchase. $2500 rebate check sound about right to you?

 

I think that would be fair and will mention that as an option. I think they would more than likely try to do the buy back through carfax since they are member. If they do anything at all. That way they don't take that much of a loss.