Toyota matrix 2007 147 000
I just bought a used car with a warrantee of inspection. I had my mechanic check the car, it failed due to a bad strut.
The dealer agreed to repair the strut, but with a salvaged part. Also, only one side, and with no alignment.
This also means he put a on bogus sticker in the first place
What would someone do in this situation? Is this leagle?
Thanks
Thatâs why you have the car inspected by your mechanic BEFORE you buy the car.
Is it legal?
Probably
Is it either safe or ethical?
Absolutely not, because struts should always be replaced in pairs.
The chance of that salvaged strut having the exact same amount of wear as the one on the other side is somewhere between slim and none, and that means potential handling/road holding problems.
Note for the future - many used car âwarrantiesâ are pretty much worthless. Unless you have something in writing that says they have to repair worn suspension items with new parts, youâre out of luck. I wouldnât want one used strut. How about you ask them to replace both with new parts you buy? Not ideal, but better than one used part.
Why would he do this? Because doing it right cuts into the bottom line and he canât have that.
It happens. The alternative would be to give the car back to the dealer. (Thatâd probably get you a pair of struts.)
I dropped State Farm insurance for this same reason. My wifeâs car was hit by another SF client. They wanted to put a junkyard bumper, that had been straightened (still had grind marks) on a car with 6,000 miles.
If this dealership pulls stunts like replacing just one strut and using a junkyard part, do you really think that they would give the OP a full refund?
Very doubtful, IMHOâŠ
maybe they replaced 3 things like that the day before you appeared? this is how they do business. they probably wont put new parts on just for you. they sell strut assyâs at the local boneyard for $25 or so. lots of cars there have been picked over. so there is evidence of folks using worn struts.
When you buy a car with 148,000 miles on it you have NO idea whatâs been done to it. For all you know there are salvaged parts from 16 vehicles already. Whatâs one more? And even if some parts are actually original equipment, they are certainly very used at this point.
I donât know what the law is there or if he had it in writing. We
returned a car 2 days after purchase and got a full refund.
You were very lucky, or have very unusual laws where you live. There is normally no right to return a car.
Many extended warranty contracts are written to allow for the use of used parts, this is only practical for engines and transmissions.
When dealing with suspension damage caused by curb or median impact some insurance companies will only pay for a used âcorner assemblyâ, strut, control arms, spindle, hub and bearing. A corner assembly for a late model vehicle can be purchased for $200, factory parts can easily exceed $1000.
Given the age and mileage of the vehicle I doubt that a dealership sold this vehicle. This is one of those two bit warranties that skimp on repairs.
Not at all. Depends on what guarantee he had⊠but one should
always have a car inspected before purchase. We almost learned the
hard way. I had to contact corporate headquarters. Itâs a huge
chain and had problems with that dealershipâs sales tactics. (The
salesman âaccidentallyâ forgot to write his guarantee in the
contract, until I pointed out his error.)
You were very lucky, like I said. The vast majority of car sales have no guarantee of buy back.
And you got your money back? Or credit on a different vehicle? Thatâs different.
Oops, didnât see your reply.
Yes, we were fortunate. Sorry⊠got 2 stories mixed. The one I caught was a windshield and corrected the contract before sale. The first was a used car where we had (I think it was) 72 hour satisfaction guarantee, then the dealership balked and tried to do in-store credit. I contacted corporate headquarters and they straightened it out⊠then changed wording of their printed ads. That was on a K car and they made a moderately expensive repair.
Itâs what you have in writing that counts.