Hello, this is my first posting to this community and i hope you can help. i recently bought a gently used honda crv with about 7000 miles on it. 2007. about 3 months ago. i agree to get a fancy car maintenance packaged from the dealership where i purchased it, ie not a honda dealership. i have been very busy and just brought the car in for the initial detailing, supposed to protect the interior and exterior etc… i wish i hadn’t purchased it. but i just drove the car home and found multiple scratches on the back -hatch type door and an area about 3 inches in length by 1/4 inch wide where the paint was actually rubbed off! this was not there when i purchased the car 4 months ago, and either they polished it too hard, or there was some paint poorly applied to a scratch that came off with the polishing… either way not a good deal. the dealership is closed but i immediately sent them an email detailing this problem. what is my recourse. i live in massachusetts.
Hopefully the dealership will own up to the problem. Otherwise, if its like any other dealership in the nation, you’ll have a tough time proving the damage wasn’t there when you brought the car in. I worked at a Ford dealership for a few years long ago and many unscrupulous people would claim we damaged their car while it was in for service - if they had proof that we damaged the car, we would gladly pay to have it repaired. But proving the damage wasn’t there was near impossible.
I was going to have my wifes older Accord detailed once. I went to the place and looked around. The OLDEST person there was 19…MOST were 16-17. They could care less about doing a good job. I’ll bet the kid doing the detailing is about 17.
Take it back the place that did the work and DEMAND they repair it. In fact demand the car be repainted. If the dealer refuses…then contact the Mass Attorney General.
Your new car is clear coated. Clear coat scratches can usually be polished out. Have a reputable paint shop evaluate.
You may have a very difficult time proving anything on a vehicle you’ve owned for 3-4 months.
An '07 model CRV with only 7k miles and it’s been sold by a non-Honda dealer already?
If this is the case it could mean the car has been through an auction already and I’d want to know WHY a near-new car went through an auction?
Been hit before and repaired? Rolled over? Hurricane damage? Who knows?
There has to be some odd reason why a 7k miles CRV is sitting on an independent dealer’s lot.
OK4450 made the exact point that I was thinking. A nearly new car on a sales lot of a dealership that does not sell that make of car would be a major red flag for me. Who knows what this car went through before it got to this dealership for resale? Carfax may give a clue, but I wouldn’t depend on it.
Carfax is not the best thing I almost brought a truck once. I did the carfix thing and they said all is good. The dealer is the one that told me it was a GM buy back do to motor trouble which GM fix then sold it in a aution thanks to that dealer. I did not purchase the truck.Heres what everybody should do if the dealer will let you Take the used car/truck home and wax it sounds funny but you get to see what you are buying. I have done this for many many years and it works.
i suspect the car had some autobody work at some point, and the paint that got rubbed off, in your recent polishing, was close to the repaired area. they likely didn’t prep the area well.
the problem with this dilemma is it is just about impossible to place the blame on the recent wax job, since the underlying paint issue is the real problem. you bought the car with this issue (you just didn’t realize it at the time!)
it is not unusual for car that have been resold to have minor touchup jobs doen especially in the trunk area luggage, bags and strollers etc etc ding up the cargo door area.
by any chance did you have a pre inspection done by a local mechanic? that may have found/confirmed the presence of repairs and prior damage.
It’s relatively easy for an untrained 16 year old kid behind a buffer, to scratch and burn through the clear coat. The clear in the damaged area needs to be replaced and its possible the rest can be polished out. They owe you the repair at a body shop but there is no reason to re-clear the whole car without looking at it.
Why is such a new car already a “used car” ??? hmmm. As others have questioned here, those scratches may have already been there – and slyly covered up to unload the “used car” as much less damaged than was true. . . . .do you remember the “sharpie” commercial about the student driver with a fistfull of colored markers hanging from the rear view mirror ? I wouldn’t blame the dealer, I think the detailing simply exposed covered scratches already there .