Just picked up my car from service getting the brakes looked at. While waiting I was looking at the new 09' convertible so I had my car appraised. The pre-owned manager comes out and asked me "When I had the car repainted." I chuckled a bit. He said " No really, the left quarter panel was replaced and repainted." Sure enough, the driver side door had a crease from where the tape was placed and you could see the second coat of enamel.

Let me state that this car was delivered with 56 miles, brand new and has never seen the inside of a body shop. They said that sometimes mini's are damaged in the factor and that they will "touch -up" the car before being delivered. WTF!!!!!!! Cosmetically it looks absolutely perfect. But what about the resale value!! When and where the hell did they repaint the car and how come I wasn't made aware of it before I purchased it!!!! They are "tracing" the car to find out more but so far nobody knows what the hell happened. Anybody hear of this before?

 

wow.. That suks!
Never heard of such a story... and definitely NOT expected when you pay how much you pay for these cars..!
How come this one had 56miles on delivery? was it being used as a test-drive car?

 

It could have been damaged on the boat and fixed at tho port.

 

This is a common occurrence. Cars damaged in transit end up at the factory prep center, where they are gone over closely for any damage. Repairs are done on the spot. This is a factory operation, so generally the quality of repair should be nothing short of excellent.

 

Apparently, when docked at the port awaiting delivery, my car was damaged in a violent storm. They had to replace the bonnet.

My dealer said they had to fly a new bonnet from England to S,C. where the car was docked.....delayed delivery for 2 weeks. I really don't know if they painted the bonnet in England or painted it at where it was docked, but if your car was damaged before delivery, they may have repaired it at the dock, instead of sending it back to England. My dealer said if the car was damaged more that 10%, they send it back.

 

Ducatismo - is your car Chili Red by any chance? Long story, but a friend of mine was given a BS story about the MINI he ordered being "totalled" the day it arrived at the dealership. He had to wait 6 more weeks to get a replacement. I always wonder if they repaired his original and resold it.

56 miles is a heckuva lot of miles for a brand new car. Most of ours had less than 5 when we picked them up. It might be worth paying for a Carfax report. It should state any repairs. You might want to just do a Google search on your VIN. It'll take you to the Carfax page where they'll try to soak you for $29.00, but the page will tell you how many "incidents" have been reported on the car. If it's more than one, I would order the report.

 

Definately not the first time this has been posted. I even looked up when you made the thread as it sounds exactly like others.... I forget what that guys outcome was though

 

here you go

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...on-center.html

 

If your car had 56 miles on it it's possible it was damaged when it was being used as a demo, or when it was swapped with another MINI dealer. No way a newly delivered MINI should have more than a couple of miles on the odometer.
If you believe that the value of the car has been diminished, document your case and take the dealer to small claims court.

 

That's a lot of miles, mine was at less than 3 miles including the trip they took to fill up the gas tank.

 

My door got dinged and had to be repaired at the VDC. Only a two day delay, but it's in the record of my order with my dealer, or at least it should be. If it's not, I have the emails still. So if something like this arises for me, I'll have proof that I didn't do it.

Oh, and I took delivery of mine with 10 miles on it.

 

I would definitely question the Dealer a little harder!! Maybe even contact a Lawyer to see what your options are. Even if you have to wait for "another" MINI that option might be open, it wouldn't hurt to ask, after all you've paid Full Boat for a damaged MINI and was not even made aware of that fact.

Good Luck!!

 

If the damage done to your vehicle was extensive enough to cause the dealership to give you a lower appraisal because of it, then I'd argue that more than 10% of the vehicle was damaged! I am sorry to hear about your experience. I have a feeling more of our vehicles are damaged in shipping than we realize. I know personally, I have never taken my car to a dealer and picked it up in the same condition. There is always a weird scratch or a ding somewhere. Last time they gouged my window tint and never told me. I noticed as soon as I got in.

56 miles is an odd number of miles... not enough to be a demo car, but a little high for a new car. Odd! No matter really... your car was damaged, it got fixed, you were not told, now it is coming back to bite you in the ***. None of that is your fault.

 

Your dealer might also buy the specific car you want from another dealer. In that case, very often they need to drive your car back from another place and add some additional miles to the odometer.

 

Just found the same thing happened to my car. I was at the dealer dropping off my car for the clear bra. They had out my service info and the 2nd page was a car histroy showing paint work done at the port. As far as i can tell they did a good job and wouldn't of noticed it unless pointed out. Not sure if i can even notice it now even though i know about it. Though this does explain why my car went from an April delivery to May 1st.

 

I had that happen when I purchased my Miata years back. The dealer noted that the exact car I wanted was at a diffrent dealer and they would drive it up and noted that it would have about 40-ish miles when I took delievery. If I didn't like it I could wait for a flat bed to trailer it, but would have to wait. I decided it was OK (I was made fully aware of the excess miles and had documentation BEFORE signing on the dotted line).

 

Yea iirc, a new car can have up to $2k in damages without having to be disclosed by the dealer, and I believe thats just damage caused at the dealership, if its the factory, or in transit (ie before it actually has a title), I would imagine they could get away with even more.

 

What I find funny about all of this is that if you bought a Coffee Maker from Wal Mart and you realized after using it for awhile that someone else had broken it then they put it on the shelf and sold it as new, you would have no problem getting a refund.

I took a plasma tv back to an electronics store because it had some ghosting issues and that is when I found out that it was a display model for a week, before a different model came out. It was sold to me as new, not as a display model. I got a refund.

I guess when it comes to cars because they are so expensive you can't really get refunds. I find it unnerving that damage is allowed to be done and then repaired and in some cases not reported to you, but in the future if the damage is discovered and you are trying to sell your car back the dealership or trade up to another model they can use that damage against you. Seems shady to me!

 

Well at least the damage and repair are tied to the VIN number in MINI's system (at least in my case).

 

Thanks for the thoughts and I'm glad I'm not alone.

UPDATE: Well, today the dealer told me that it was a false alarm and that no damage or paint work had been done. That the "defect" must of come from the factory and it's all good. Yeah right!! How is this good?!! Granted, the work is excellent and I never really noticed it but the point is that "defect" was significant enough to catch their attention and certainly enough to catch a prospective buyer's attention if an when I sell it in the future. I have a feeling this is going to be a looooong fight. This is what they do for a living, not me and I'm not interested in wasting my time at work trying to get these guys to do what's right. I know it's just a car but Jesus can someone please tell me what the hell ever happened good ol' fashion customer service. Oh, my sunroof and brakes are bad now to. Joy!

 

The situation stinks for you but there is one thing on your side if you sell it outside the dealership and that is:

Quote:

This is what they do for a living

The dealership will always look extra hard for signs of repairs on a trade in and they know what to look for. I can imagine they deal with people on a regular basis saying the car has never been fixed/painted when it had been.
A normal person isn't usually going to be so scrutinizing. Yourself hadn't noticed it and you had it how long?

 

I'd pay the money and get a Carfax report.

 

Interesting story about new car mileage...
Around 1996 I bought a "new" vehicle with 150+ miles on it. I was surprised to hear (at that time anyways) a vehicle could be sold as new if it met certain criteria, one being it could have up to 1,500 miles (yes, fifteen hundred) on the odometer and still be sold as "new".
Greg

 

Is the dealer you originally bought it from and the one you are trying to trade it in to the same dealer? So they are trying to give you a lower trade b/c of the 'repair', but they don't want to take responsibility for selling you a damaged car in the first place? Hm.

Reminds me of when I was looking at new MINIs earlier this year. The MA was going on and on about how great the gas savings would be with a new MINI, how nice it would be to have a warranty again, how great MINI's hold their values, and then they tried to totally low-ball us on the trade in offer. It seems they only hold value well if it isn't the dealer trying to buy them. Didn't feel like letting the dealer make $5-6k on our old MINI, so we traded it elsewhere.

 

Happy to hear you traded elsewhere! There is a reason we refer to them as "STEALerships" or "DEVILships."