Damaged new car! Opinions please

For me it would depend on:

  • How much is "refund him some money"? A couple of £k, nope, 30%+ I'd consider it (depending on the extent of the damage)
  • Whether I was planning to keep the car - you say it is on finance; if it was a lease/PCH/PCP where I'd just be handing it back at the end, then any loss of value is irrelevant, so it would be down to whether the repair affected my enjoyment of the car, but if it was e.g. a personal loan, HP or PCP and I was planning to pay the balloon payment to keep it, I'd be a lot more fussy.
  • Whether it was actually written off or not (if it was then the refund would have to be a hell of a lot higher!)

Bear in mind if it has been written off then he may find getting insurance an issue, or end up paying higher premiums (quite a few insurers ask if the car has ever been written off)

I don't think paint colour matching would be so much of an issue, as - given it's brand new - the paint won't have faded due to weathering, and assuming it's done by the manufacturer (I'm not sure how it works in this case?) then the paint should be identical to the rest of the car (obviously if it's done by a 3rd party bodyshop then this may not be the case)

Several people have said you have to declare it when you sell, as a private seller, this isn't strictly true. If asked then yes you have to tell the truth, and you can't lie and say "never been in an accident", but it's not information you have to volunteer.
 
Presumably need to decide fast, accepting a loan car could be taken as acceptance of then taking the repaired car,
accceptance of a loan car, if they can actually source a new, new car, would be a better proposition though.
 
Not a chance I'd accept a car with significant repair work as a new purchase even if done to a high standard - they are just never the same never mind future resale considerations. If it was just a bumper or something like that another matter.

It is 100% their problem at this point - although dealers being dealers will probably be hard to work with and pushy now they have you/them on the hook. In 20 odd years I've only found one dealer who (mostly) keeps the same level of service after sale as the impression you get walking in the door as a prospective buyer.
 
Sounds like they are trying to pull a fast one here (not sub 10 seconds) :D

Would you buy anything else brand new that was damaged before delivery and then still want to pay full price?

If yes, wow, if no, there’s your answer.
 
Scania said:
Sounds like they are trying to pull a fast one here (not sub 10 seconds) :D

Would you buy anything else brand new that was damaged before delivery and then still want to pay full price?

If yes, wow, if no, there’s your answer.
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Wanna know a secret? I employ a guy whose previous job was at a major automotive manufacturer. His job was to repair damaged vehicles prior to dispatch from the factory.

That new car? It may well have been trashed during production or storage at the plant.
 
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Get him to get stuff in writing too, I bet if they say it's not been catotogarised (I know dodgy spelling, but spoken rather than written), I bet they'd deny all knowledge at a later date.
 
Feek said:
Wanna know a secret? I employ a guy who's previous job was at a major automotive manufacturer. His job was to repair damaged vehicles prior to dispatch from the factory.

That new car? It may well have been trashed during production or storage at the plant.
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Damaged at the factory such as dings and scrapes yes , certainly.

Once that car is on the top deck of an HGV transporter, especially at the front, then whacking trees, bridges, buildings is far from uncommon and the car in question rarely escapes serious damage.

I remember a fair few years back looking around a line of trashed e39’s at BMW’s distribution centre, each one had come back from a delivery that had encountered a “problem”….

This is far from a rare occurrence.
 
New cars get damaged or require recall work before even the dealer gets it and the dealer is not routinely notified so may never know.

The manufacturer puts a hold on the cars while Bodyshops and workshops repair them. This can happen at any time during the transport process so it won't necessarily be rectified at the factory... It can be done at the various ports it passes through.
 
No way would I accept a damaged 'new' car. The experience of it would be forever tainted because he now knows and the damage sounds substantial. Technically it would no longer be a new car for which he is paying for and taking the depreciation double whammy.
 
nlel1975 said:
When I claimed on the insurance for a car park incident I had with my old 107 it came back looking better than it did before, mind you they used a very reputable repairer and most definitely not the cheapest.
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Was it in a poor condition prior to the repair? 107 comparable to a repair on a high end Mercedes or a Porsche?
 
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