Found out my 3500 has a dirty carfax

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MeatCurtains

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Different laws in different states. As I posted, I believe in NJ it is illegal to sell a vehicle with frame damage.
He would have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the dealership knew about the frame damage and didn't disclose it when specifically asked about it. Good luck.

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huntergreen

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He would have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the dealership knew about the frame damage and didn't disclose it when specifically asked about it. Good luck.

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As I said, varies from state to state. NJ has a used car lemon law.
 

MeatCurtains

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Most places have some form of lemon law. However it isn't for an indefinite period of time. If you have links to anything that states otherwise I would be happy to read through it.

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rwreuter

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According to Carfax My 2011 Ram 3500 was purchased new by a commercial company in 2011 from my local dealership. Looks like this company did most their service at this dealership. According to CarFax the the truck was In a major front end collisions with structural damage in May of 2013 and it was fixed in Aug 2013. The truck was sold back to the dealership in May of 2014 and I bought the truck in June of 2014. This accident was not reported to carfax until July 2014 after I bought it. I found out all this when I went talk to a different dealer about downsizing to a Rebel.

I feel like the dealership did know or should have known the entire front of the truck had been replaced and there was structural damage. There was no record of air bag deployment. I have contacted an attorney, but being the holidays I am waiting to hear back. I will not mention the dealer yet because I should give them a chance to make this right. The trade value of my truck was more then cut in half because of this Car Fax.

The Truck while having its minor problems has been fine. It has been chewing through tires about every 30k miles but I figured that was the weight.

What is your opinion on the matter?


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The dealer sold it and then repurchased it as a trade in....you said you "feel" like they knew. What indications did they give you that led you to believe they knew something and didn't tell you?

I am not sure how they would have known of an accident unless it had a salvaged title.....as an owner who wants to trade in a vehicle, I have no intention of revealing it was in an accident. All that would do would be to lower how much I would get for the trade. Honest, probably not, but I am not going to volunteer information that will hurt me. If they ask, that is a different story.
 

Ricks Ram

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I think the biggest issue here is that people trust Carfax to verify that vehicles have not had damage before purchasing. I have always thought Carfax is always something you should get to help verify a vehicle may not have been previously damaged but definitely doesn't prove it hasn't been. If any vehicle damage is not reported to the insurance company or through other means and the owner just pays to have it fixed or fixes it himself there is no way Carfax would know about it anyway. I had a friend that bought a beautiful Corvette with super low miles and spotless Carfax. I ended up doing some custom work on it for him a few months after he bought it. After taking the car apart it was obvious that even though the car had been very well repaired it had been in a major front-end Collision and the accident was not reported. That being said it does seem very odd that the incident wasn't reported to Carfax until almost a year after the accident. Something just doesn't seem to be correct here. I have no idea if he's going to be able to recoup any of this or hold the dealer responsible but it would seem to me that if the dealer did the repair and then provided him with an inaccurate Carfax when they knew the truck had been damaged he would have some type of legal recourse. The biggest question is to find out who did the repair and go from there. I would assume that if the dealer did not do the repair it would be very difficult for him to prove that they had any idea that the truck had been damaged previously.

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Docpaulo

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Most bill of sale forms include an as is disclaimer... in most cases that is binding...

Caveat emptor is what most used car dealers rely on...
 

TMyers

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Look at this on a smaller scale. Say I purchased a prepackage item from the grocery store. Only later, once at home, do find that the package had hidden damage causing the product to be bad or not good quality. Should I not expect the store to make it right? The store will give me a refund then ask their vendor to make it right to them.

How is a truck any different? If the damage was hidden, and has not been corrected to OEM specs, then the dealer should be responsible. Then, after the dealer makes it right to their customer, the dealer should seek restitution from the party that traded it in without full disclosure.

If it was just a small fender bender and it was repaired, I don't see this as being a big deal. However, if the accident was bad enough to have "Branded" the title, I would ask the dealer to purchase the vehicle back from me for what I paid less an agreed upon amount per mile that I used the truck.

I would take the truck to an unbiased shop and get them to look at it. I would also see if a police report was done for the accident. I'm sure the OP's attorney will do this.
 

Pull Ya

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Do a little research regarding "Disclosure" when buying a vehicle or selling a vehicle. This may vary from state to state. The information you obtain may guide you in your decision to hire an attorney or not. IMHO you can do the research or pay an attorney God only knows how much an hour to do the same research--probably $250-$400 an hour. Find a law library and spend a couple hours----
Jay
 

Hero

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Do a little research regarding "Disclosure" when buying a vehicle or selling a vehicle. This may vary from state to state. The information you obtain may guide you in your decision to hire an attorney or not. IMHO you can do the research or pay an attorney God only knows how much an hour to do the same research--probably $250-$400 an hour. Find a law library and spend a couple hours----
Jay

Try Car Fax also,they advertise a buy back policy. I don't know the time limitations on it...


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PaulTGarrett

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You can always do what my friends and family did when my daughter bought a lemon car and CarFax and the used car dealer just blew her off...

Take to social media... All of our friends and family called that dealer and brand of vehicle everything but white and Christian... On every social media platform we could find. And we did it on their pages, linked them to our pages, every time we logged in. We called every TV station's investigative reporting line in town, called radio stations...

It got their legal peeps involved, threats to sue us, etc... Which of course we just reposted online to show their bullying tactics... Then I showed up at the dealer with a TV crew... We were there on our lunch break, not to actually interview them... Just the news crew doing me a favor... LOL

It's amazing how quickly they decided to buy back her car...
 
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