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xman
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There is a demo vehicle that a dealer is trying to sell for a good price, but it has some minor body damage and needs to go to body shop before they sell it. Is this something that Honda should prevent a dealer from selling as new? It has never been registered.
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San-LC
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So, are you saying that the dealership should purchase the car, then sell it so it shows up as "previously owned"? All "new" means is that the car was never registered and never had a title. Technically, ALL cars are "previously owned" as the dealership must first purchase the vehicle from Honda. It just depends on your terminology. If Honda gets reports that the dealership is damaging a significant number of vehicles pre-sale, they may revoke the franchise.
In this case, the dealership has discounted the vehicle, and will repair the damage before the sale. That sounds fair to me. It would be a bit shady if they didn't report the damage and didn't discount the cost, but I don't think it is illegal since they are restoring it to 100% condition.
However, a dealer CANNOT sell a vehicle with a salvage title as anything but "salvage."
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Mr. Taggart
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Different states have different rules but if the damage is a certain percent of MSRP then thay have to diclose it. They also have to disclose if a car has been flooded. If you ask if a car has been repaired then they have to disclose it as well.
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sennaFAN
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As the vehicle is a demo vehicle it is already a used car in effect. You are obviously saving on new price so as long as the car is repaired by an authorised bodyshop then it is both fine and perfectly sound business practise.
Remember 'new' cars can be accidentally damaged prior to delivery and repairs are more common than you would believe.
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eneka
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There was an incident with a cargo ship that tipped and damaged ~400 BMW's, about 100 were totalled while all the others were fixed and sold as new.
http://blogs.motortrend.com/massacre-at-high-sea-bmw-m3-and-1-series-coupes-destroyed-1510.html
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TonyEX
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xman wrote:
There is a demo vehicle that a dealer is trying to sell for a good price, but it has some minor body damage and needs to go to body shop before they sell it. Is this something that Honda should prevent a dealer from selling as new? It has never been registered.
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In California, a vehicle that has never been registered is considered new. I suspect this is the standard law in the US.
But, if it had damages, ie: port, press car, R&D, demonstration vehicle damages, then they have to be disclosed.
We bought a port damaged car once, it had major roof damage but it was fixed to factory specs and we saved a TON of money. We had no issues with the car and the second owner (a friend's son) went on an put 200K miles on it with no issues (I suspect the car has more miles by now but that's the latest I heard).
We've also bought a couple of "new" cars that were either press cars (*) or R&D and we got huge deals on them as well. We put lots of miles on them we no issues.
I'd say that if the dealer's demo car has minor dings and if they will fix them right then you can get a huge discount on an essentially new car with a warranty.
(*) We were adviced once to only buy the "red" and "black" press cars, those are used for pictures by the photographers. Never buy any other color press car as those are the ones taken out to the track for measurements.... that's why we passed on the Suzuka Blue S2K.... press car... wrong color... repaired track damage... who knows what else? ;-)
Hmm... what was the color of the Press Accords Shawn was driving? Trust me, you don't want to buy those, nothing about Shawn, but those cars saw a lof of press hands, everyone trying to push the car.
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TonyEX
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Flooded vehicles are excluded... can not be sold as new regardless. I think this law was passed after Katrina?
If BMW did indeed fix those vehicles and sold them as new they had to disclose the repairs, huh? Otherwise they'd face liability.
When you sell a used car to a dealer, they check for repairs... the manager will walk around the vehicle and "feel" the inside of all fenders, look around the door sills, A|B|C panels, the trunk and under the hood. Most repairs done after the car left the factory will be noted. So, if you bought a "new" car without such damage being disclosed then you'd be incurring monetary damages.
Also, I don't believe that any damage repairs done by the manufacturer or the dealer on a "new" car will show in the CarFax.
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HagerstownHonda
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No matter how careful we try to be as a dealership (Hagerstown Honda in Hagerstown, MD) it is unavoidable that occasionally a vehicle will have a bumper scrape or dent or ding. By policy at our dealership, any damage is fully disclosed to a customer prior to purchase (regardless of amount of repair) and we work with the customer on a one-on-one level to compensate for the level of damage that the vehicle received.
Xman, if you are not comfortable with the vehicle that was damaged, walk away from that particular vehicle and find one that is newly delivered from the factory.
I can tell you from personal experience (Sales Manager at Hagerstown Honda) that I am always willing to warrant the repair on a vehicle in such a situation for as long as a customer owns the vehicle, ensuring that the repair will weather and wear to the same degree as the rest of the car. I would imagine the dealership you are looking at would do the same if you requested them to do so.
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eneka
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TonyE wrote:
If BMW did indeed fix those vehicles and sold them as new they had to disclose the repairs, huh? Otherwise they'd face liability.
Also, I don't believe that any damage repairs done by the manufacturer or the dealer on a "new" car will show in the CarFax.
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I believe they were fixed prior being sold to the dealers, BMW contacted the owners of the cars that were sold/pre-ordered/shipping from European delivery and they were able to not accept the car and cancel the order if they wish or wait for new production.
BMW's Elizabeth Receiving facility is known to be able to fix the car back to factory spec.
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