We are considering a new vehicle purchase and would use our current vehicle for trade in. One of the main reason to move to a new vehicle is after taking it to the dealer a few months ago for servicing and the investigation some shifting issue the diagnosis was… “this would continue, blah, blah a new transmission will be $$$”
My question is when I take it for trade what is my obligation to tell them that depending on how you are driving the vehicle you may notice this behavior when the transmission is moving between 3rd and 4th gear - I say depending because if you go to manual you can avoid it by your shifting pattern; or if you are a “lead foot” you power through it since the revs are high already.
On one side there is the your conscious, karma, morality etc. On the other hand the dealer is obviously going to drive it and they should be doing their due diligence in evaluating the vehicle.
They are experts. You don’t need to tell them anything. If they find it, that’s fine. If not, too bad - or maybe the issue isn’t as bad as you portray it. But since they are experts, they can figure it out. Don’t confuse consumer rules for those that apply to dealers.
I don’t know what age vehicle you are trading, but if it is an older vehicle, the dealer will probably send it to the auction anyway. Dealers have appraisers who look over the cars and sometimes, particularly if it is a newer model may do a test drive to see what they may have to put into the car for resale. A new car dealership has at least four departments: 1) new car sales; 2) used car sales; 3) service; 4) parts. If the dealer has a body shop, this is a fifth department. If you are buying a new car and trading in a car, two transactions take place: 1) you are buying a car from the dealer; 2) you are selling a car to the dealer. In the event of a trade-in, the used car department gets involved. This is the department that buys your car. The used car appraiser may detect a problem with the transmission. The manager often knows how to get the work done less expensively than you can. He has a list of shops where he sends cars for different things. It is often not the service department of his own dealership. He also may buy cars from the auction or even from private individuals for resale–not all the used cars at a new car dealership come from trade-ins.
For you, go to the dealer and strike your best deal. The used car managers know what they are doing or they don’t last.
You say nothing to them. Just like it being incumbent upon a walk-in customer to look over, test drive, or inspect a car before they buy it it’s also on the dealer to do the same thing before figuring any trade.
You did not state what kind of vehicle you have and the mileage but if it has some age and miles on it then it’s pretty much irrelevant because the car would be a wholesale unit and the dealer flat doesn’t care what’s wrong with it. They’re going to dump it at auction or a wholesaler will come around and snatch it up.
If this is an older car the dealer would probably not even test drive it, they just take your keys away and park it in the back of the lot so you have to buy a new car. They pay you value of scrape metal or less. Be more careful not to be taken when you are buying your new car.