A new car becomes a used one the minute it’s put into service by the dealer as a demo and the warranty period begins on the date it becomes a demo.
The cut and paste from the Federal Trade Commission below.
Previously titled or not, any vehicle driven for purposes other than moving or test driving, is considered a used vehicle, including light-duty vans, light-duty trucks, demonstrators, and program cars that meet the following specifications:
• a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of less than 8,500 pounds;
• a curb weight of less than 6,000 pounds; and
• a frontal area of less than 46 square feet.
The husband or a borrower of the car or a third party who damaged the car could also have had some quick and dirty body work done without you knowing about it. I have seen this before more than once.
I know of a similar circumstance where a borrower for the weekend (nephew) took the car and got hit and had a Q&D body repair, never told the owners.
This car is desirable enough so that most people will not care about the body work. Sell the car and tell the potential buyers that the car had some altercation in the right rear.
@db4690 Not that I know of but they are usually in the 3-5,000 mile range or they really lose value or are the previous model year. I wouldn’t buy one myself though. Cars are titled by states not the feds so it would vary by state and not sure what the FTC would have to do with car titles except maybe warrantees.
My parents bought a station wagon in 1971. When we went to pick it up at the dealer I noticed the letters across the tailgate read “FOD”, with a space where the R should have been and no evidence it had ever been there. We left it so the dealer could fix it. Reselling a Fod might have been tricky.
I don’t think the transposition of the D and T means anything. Could have been a factory error or it could have been a prank. It’s not hard to remove badges. The condensation means nothing. I’ve aeen that in plenty of lights that weren’t in accidents. Just means some water has found a way into the light. Fingerprints? No way of knowing how long those have been there. If the dealer damaged the car, figure three years.
It may all be much simpler. The dealer noticed a burned out bulb and replaced it, doing a sloppy job and leaving greasy fingerprints (and maybe moisture). I wouldn’t consider that evidence of an accident. In any case, you bought a car represented as new with no noticeable defects. You have every right to say it’s a one-owner car and hasn’t been in any accidents.
I bought a 2009 Cobalt LT about this time of year in 2010. One of the reasons I bought that particular car is that it was over $1000 less than any other Cobalt on the lot because it had over 400 miles. The dealership was going out of business and GM would only take back cars with under 400 miles. If a car has more than 400 miles, GM considers it used. Yes, a salesman told me that, but he had no reason to lie about it IMO.