Autocheck shows a damaged frame!!

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hate2work

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Our 20 yo son has an 08 Mustang with the V-6 and auto transmission. Just for kicks, he went to a dealership and drove a used BMW Z4, and they ran Autocheck on his Mustang.

The Autocheck shows his Mustang has a damaged frame!! The paperwork they gave him shows it was announced that way at auction last June and he bought it in July last year from the dealership that bought it from auction.

I'm thinking the dealership pretty much had to know about the damage, but chose not to disclose it when they sold it to our son. I'm going to have my own mechanic look at it Monday. If he also thinks there was damage to the frame before my son bought it, I will then call the dealership where he bought it and "discuss" this with them.

Could this damage just be superficial? The carfax he got when he made the purchase showed nothing wrong, funny that they would miss something as big as frame damage.

Anybody have any experience with this type of situation? I'm wondering exactly what they mean by "frame damage".

TIA~
 
carfax isn't 100% accurate. I remember the critic mentioned about using a different vin check service because they have all the information from auctions. carfax is a hit/miss.
 
I would certainly want someone to look at the car -if for no other reason that your son may continue to drive it.

As far as a car dealership you bought it from is concerned, I would contact an attorney. I would not expect ANY car dealership to willingly give back money or buy the car back (etc etc) without being legally forced to...
 
Funny that they 'just happened' to run autocheck and whatya know ..A bent frame,(repaired or not)while a BMW Z4 is being test driven.I'm not saying they're lying or trying to pull a fast one,but were they at least anticipating a trade-in that day?
 
Originally Posted By: needsducktape
I would certainly want someone to look at the car -if for no other reason that your son may continue to drive it.

As far as a car dealership you bought it from is concerned, I would contact an attorney. I would not expect ANY car dealership to willingly give back money or buy the car back (etc etc) without being legally forced to...



Yep, my mechanic will look at the car on Monday to make sure it's safe to drive. I know several attorneys so that's not a problem, but I will exhaust other avenues first. This just ticks me off because it sure looks like the dealership knew about it when they sold it to our son.
 
I think that frame 'damage' can be fixed with various equipment such as Car-O-Liner, E-Z Liner etc...Having said that I would contact the dealership (via my attorney) and inquire if they normally buy and sell damaged cars without disclosing it.
This doesn't say to much for carfax either......
 
Originally Posted By: FL_Rob
Funny that they 'just happened' to run autocheck and whatya know ..A bent frame,(repaired or not)while a BMW Z4 is being test driven.I'm not saying they're lying or trying to pull a fast one,but were they at least anticipating a trade-in that day?


Rob, that was my first thought as well lol Of course, they low-balled him on the trade in price, and used other low-handed selling techniques as well.

We will see how this thing plays out over the next few days. I may have to
23.gif
them about this ~
 
I'm not sure about the laws in WA, but up here in BC, any damage over $2K must be declared when the car is transferred from one party to another. If there are similar requirements in WA and the dealer failed to follow them, you've got a lot of leverage.
 
Originally Posted By: dparm
If they did not disclose it to you, it's fraud. But good luck proving it.



I'm sure it varies by state....but it still could get ugly..
 
I am not sure about your state, but afaik, the dealership only has to disclose a salvaged title to you.

Autocheck gets fed data directly from Manheim Auctions, whereas Carfax does not. So, it's possible that the dealer only pulled Carfax and did not pull the Autocheck report.

Also, sometimes it takes a while for the information to show up on these reports. Especially with the close June/July time period, I would not be surprised if the information was not available at that time.
 
I will never buy from a dealer again.

-For me its always been a better a better experience to meet the owners see where they come from and how well they have taken care of a car. You have to be a sleuth but I can say honestly my cars have been overall more reliable since.
 
Originally Posted By: The Critic



Also, sometimes it takes a while for the information to show up on these reports. Especially with the close June/July time period, I would not be surprised if the information was not available at that time.


Well I need to learn more about the details. For instance, the report the dealer gave my son today says that the damaged frame was "declared at auction" last June. I need to learn exactly what that means.

But I fully expect their answer to be along the lines of "We had no idea the frame was damaged"...
 
I would be extremely mad if a dealership sold my son a car at a premium price when it had a previously damaged frame... good luck in your quest for answers..
 
I'm positive that the most recent dealer would disclose the frame damage to the next buyer had your son traded it in.
wink.gif

I would be curious what constitutes frame damage as well. The Mustang does not have a traditional frame as we all know. A minor front colision could cause what some would consider "frame damage" since the bumper crash bar and the horns are not a bolt on assy. Not to mention the core support. To repair these, the car must be put on a frame rack and pulled. Most modern cars involved in minor to moderate colisions must undergo this process. Same with the rear. How many newer cars have you seen with minor rear hits that have buckled quarter panels, I see it frequently. They must go on the frame rack. Most cars involved in colisions require a visit to the frame rack, its by design and called energy absorbtion. There are a heck of a lot of cars out there that have been on the frame rack. It depends on the extent of the damage and how it was repaired before one should get concerned. Just my 0.02 from working in that industry since the 70's.
 
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Originally Posted By: dparm
If they did not disclose it to you, it's fraud.

If the car is damaged, and the car was fixed, it's not fraud. It's not the dealers duty to disclose repairs. Besides, there's way to many tools available to the buyer.
 
Originally Posted By: hate2work

Well I need to learn more about the details. For instance, the report the dealer gave my son today says that the damaged frame was "declared at auction" last June. I need to learn exactly what that means.



It probably means that at Manheim (or similar), when the vehicle underwent inspection, unibody damage was discovered.

So if the dealer bought it from Manheim, then they should have known about it. But if it was a trade-in, then it's possible they did not know about it if the damage was small?

But here's an example of those reports that I was talking about:

http://mmsc400.manheim.com/MABEL/ECR2I.P...mit&=Reset#
 
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