Bought my car new on 7/23/02. I brought the car to another dealer to trade in for a new MINI. They tell me the paint on the rear quarter panel is different from the paint everywhere else on the car. I have never had the car repainted. Called MINI NYC and they tell me there is nothing they can do!!!!!

 

That sucks, man. I wonder what happened?

 

Probably damaged and repaired somewhere between Oxford and the moment that they handed jimg the keys. There are laws about what degree of repaired damage they are required to disclose to you, and I'm fairly sure that body damage is below that threshold. If the repair is subpar, though, maybe there's a case of some sort here.

How much less is the other dealership offering you? Obviously the difference isn't very noticeable.

Yet another argument for the speedy return of the dealer rating system!

 

I had a similar Problem with an previous Honda Civic that i owned.
The car always gave me problems and always made unusual noises even though it was brand new, 2001 Civic at the time.
Well, when it came time to trade that in When We bought an SUV, the dealership asked when we had an accident with it....
I was confused becuase there was never any major accident...
So in the end, we found out that before we bought the car, it was in a major accident and the front had a significant amout of damage done to it.
We lost about $5000 for that....
So now we are looking into taking that dealership to court..but not sure if we will....Is it really worth the hastle and money....
Right now we just spread the word of that dealership...Bastards!!!

 

did you say it was a brand new car in 2001? How come it had a major accident before you bought it from the dealership?

how about calling some attorneys up? some of them will not charge you for a short initial consultation on phone. You might be able to gauge the success rate just by taking a few minutes.

 

My Father was the one who bought the Car, and yes..It was brand new...
We were the first owners, so as for an accident...i have no clue as to how it would of happen..could of been a lot boy..or who knows!
But we traded it in about 2 months ago..so my father has contacted his lawyer about it..
Im guessing its just a matter of time for something to happen!
Hopefully it all works out!!

 

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. But I think the reason the crooked dealers get away with this is the fact that most of the time the amount of the perceived loss is small enough for small claims court, but by the time the customer figures it out the statute of limitations expires. So the customer ends up with no case.

Some one feel free to correct me on this.

 

You Make a very good point, i havent looked at it in that perspective.
Its just sad that they are able to get away with this time after time with nobody suspecting anyting for the most part!
Ill let you know if anything happens!