I took my car to Bedford-Hills Acura today to have them fix some small stuff. I call up and ask if my car is ready and the Service Manager asks me if I knew that my whole car was at one time re-painted. Huh? He goes on to say that it may have been done at diffrent times but the whole car was re-painted at some point.

So I leave the office and I don't know what to do now. My car has 49K miles on it and I bought it a year ago with about 30K miles on it. I bought it from Princeton Acura in Trenton, NJ as a certified pre-owned. When I bought the car the guy said it had been in no accidents and all i could see was some paint missing from the front bumper and some scratches on the Lip(expected)

I plan on calling The dealer that I bought it from and expect an explanation. But what should I say besides wanting an explantion? What can I expect them to do? Sorry for the long post but I just thought you might be able to help me and give me some much needed advice. TIA

 

I have worked in the Automotive retail/service industry in the past. So from experiance you really can't do anything. Unfortunatly its "buyer beware" when it comes to buying a used car. Unless you have something in writting that states "the car was never painted" your pretty much S.O.L. The Dealer might not have had knowledge that it had been painted. Don't kill the messanger.

Mattj

 

what do you care if it has been repainted? are expecting somthing for it? I dunno I guess I just dont see the problem?

 

I, too, bought my R from Precision Acura in Princeton, NJ...Do you know who your salesman was? I've have always had great service from them and wish there was a dealer here in FL as good as they were w/ me.
I can direct you to the "more knowledgeable" people there, as some of them are definitely schmucks...

I don't think they would intentionally lie to you, they might have been unaware, but that doesn't seem likely if it was a "certified used car" as they usually have an inspection to be deemed "certified"

 

The "certified inspection" is a mechanical inspection, If the car was hit and repaired it can still be "certified"

It could be that the car was keyed on the lot or the paint was damage by "acid rain".......It might not have been hit only resprayed?

Mattj

 

BFD...drive it around for 30K miles and you'll want it repainted. My front bumber has already been repainted once, and needs repainted again. Too bad I think bras are ugly.

 

The main reason that I care is because my paint has allways had problems with it. Spyder web crack spot on the hood to just lookign thin or having imperfections in some spots and this fills in a lot of blanks as to why.

Jason- The guy who sold the car to me was Scott Steele. They were actually very nice (un-like another dealer I talked about earlier). I put a downpayment on the care before I saw it and drove all the way there and love it so i bought it. If you could give me anymore info it would be great. Thanks

 

Does BFD stand for what its no big deal?? The front bumper I don't care about. Its scratched to **** and thats expected. Im just want answers. Today when the dealer showed me the diffence in spots it was very clear that things I thought were not supposed to happen were not my fault and they may be due to a bad paint job.

 

BFD = big focking deal... not very nice to say, he paid out cash for a car and got something unexpected. the oem paint job is a pretty descent one...thin, but descent. the repaint might have been a maaco job and thats why the paint is flaking off and such...definately not cool.

 

0187-thats what I thougt it ment but didn't want to quote because I like my avitar And thanks for understanding. At least you don't want a maaco paintjob. If im having some problems at 50k I don't want to see what 75k looks like

 

I am not sure of the laws down there, but up here it is NOT "buyer beware" when buying from a dealer. It is the responsibility of the dealer to know what has been done to the car. You could get them to take the car back or come up with some kind of agreement/compensation with them, even if they didn't know themselves. Go and talk to the dealer and see what they say...even get an outside opinon. You should have some rights....

 

Thats what i thought. I take Business Law and I remember something about its the sellers responsibility. They are supposed to be the "experts" so they can protect the buyer and not try and rip him off. Im going to give them a call tomorrow because it is a little to far to drive down. I am just going to basicly tell them the situation and see what they have to say. Is there anything I am missing or should say to help my case?

 

Sucks that happened to your car but keep us informed with how the situation turns out.

 

Yes, Matt, I understand that...I simply noted this that if the inspection was performed then they could have known that it was repainted...

ReBornGSR...Talk to Ronnie Dubows (sales). He should remember me, although it's been a while (bought my 98 R from him) He is very straightforward and should be able to help you out...I sort of remember the name Steele, I think I know him too, but can't place the face and name...

In NJ, I don't believe that it's the buyers responsibility to find out whether or not it's been repainted, there should be something that the dealer has to disclose this information. See what they can do for you, maybe they'll be willing to work something out. Try this, if it doesn't work, take it to the customer service 800 number.

PS. Make sure your paperwork doesn't say somewhere that it was repainted and you signed it, then you're definitely screwed...

Hope this helps

 

Up for the morning people...

 

If the paint looks good, why even bother calling them? A repaint doesn't always mean the car was wrecked. It could have been keyed, had a series of dents/dings, or the previous owner was a fanatic and repainted it due to minor blemishes (i.e. orangepeel etc.) A certified pre-owned has a vin check (similar to carfax) before Acura will "certify" it. The dealer has to get the car inspected in order to do so.

 

sorry to hear about the paint job on your car. Maybe check the BBB website ( http://www.bbb.com ) for info on what is proper when it comes to automobile transactions

OT: Good job at the WSCC Autocross !

 

I think you need to determine if everything is mechanically sound, and in correct shape. If all the panels line up, and your frame is straight, etc, etc... but it's JUST the paint that's fucked up, wait a year or two and repaint it.

In between now and then you're probably going to get rock chips, dents, scrapes, scratches, etc.. I know it sucks, but if you do get it painted you'll feel like you're driving a brand new car right off the lot.

..IMHO.

 

As far as I can tell there is no frame damage and the body is fine and the local dealer didn't say anything about frame damage just the paint job.

My complaint about it is that my paint has ALLWAYS chipped really easy and my headlights are all fogged up and my Local Acura is blaming it on the previous owners accident more than 20k miles ago. A feew members have seen my car and its paint is messed up. I am starting to get cracks in my hood. My paint looks like its speclked with white form all the chips in it. Im guessing its only showing up now because any paintjob(even a crappy one) should last about a year. And now I think its just starting to go down the tubes. I would hate to see what It looks like in 20k miles. Im just mad because I allways thought it got scratched/chipped/swirl/cracked easy and now I think I found my answer.

I just called the Acura dealer I got it form and my salesman is checking on it for me. I don't know what that means but I am waiting for a call back. I also foud the previous owners name and address when I was looking through all my papers from the sale so if I don't get any answers or they say its not true I am going to give him a call and see if he helps me out.

Dave- Thanks. The auto-x put me in such a good mood but all of this has killed it.

 

If you have to take it this far, try this:
If you have the 'original' title (the one that is signed on the back by all of the previous owners including the original owner when they sold it), it will have the previous owner's name on it. You may be able to contact them to see if they are the ones that re-sprayed it. If not, you've got an issue with the dealer. If so, you may want to ask if they notified the dealer.

If you don't have the 'original' title, you may still be able to do a background check with the VIN number.
Know anyone at the DMV?
Just my sneaky mind at work.
Hope it helps.

 

I allready have his name and address from the leased vehicle return receipt and odometer disclosure statement. So if the dealer gives me the run around I am going to try and contact him to try and see why the car was re-sprayed and if it was a Macco job or something

 

Just realize, he really doesn't have a dog in that fight since he's now out of the deal. Just because he didn't tell the dealer about a paint job, doesn't mean he owes you anything. Your fight is with the dealer.

 

Yeah I know but maybe he would be nice and help me try to get it fixed. But he is really old and a Type-R owner. The dealer said when I got the was car that the previous owner was 90(yes 90 years old) and this was backed up by anotehr h-t member(forget who) that saw him at the dealership with his R.
The Guy who sold em my car said he was going to check on it and I am going to give him another call tomorrow to see what he says.