Curious

I went in to my local dealership yesterday and asked to see a specific A4. A salesman walked me out to the back where they had quite a few still in the wraper. One of those, I noticed, had some bad damage (equivalent to driving up against a pole) on the back side of the roof where the sheetmetal and rear window meet. When I asked what had happened here he said, "just some transport damage, it'll get fixed". He then quickly changed the subject to the task at hand of finding the vehicle that I had requested...or maybe it seemed as though he did, nontheless we didn't speak of the damaged car afterwords. When I left the dealership I couldn't stop thinking about the damaged car. After they fix any sheetmetal/paint damage, do they inform the buyer of any damage that their vehicle had incured during shipping or do they selectively keep the information unless asked? Does the buyer unknowingly get hit with the cost or partial cost of any repaires the car they are about to buy had incured? How often does this happen? Is there a law in place that obligates the dealership to disclose such information? Any comments would greatly be appreciated as I await my 99.5 A4.

Reggie

State laws requlate if they have to tell you or not. I think BMW got into a lawsuit over this as was Chrysler...nt

Dank

If the dollar value of the damage is over a certain value (which may vary state by state?) they must report it fully and without you asking for it. And that damage value is not paid by the customer. I doubt it is even paid by the dealer, it is probably the carrier's insurance that pays...

Phil S

If damage occures during shipping, and before the truck picks it up at the port, it will be repaired at the port and the Dealer may not even know unless he spots it. I think if the dealer is aware he must tell you, but many cars pass through a dealers lot and it is not hard to miss damage that is repaired unless it's very poor work. I have been to the port of NJ to pick up cars when the trucks were on strike, and it's really something to see. They are very carefull, but things happen, it is in my experience of 11 years as salesman, and then sales manager, pretty rare, but always try to check the car out very carefully, you are much more likely to have a car damaged on the dealer lot than any other place. Also much damaged happens from loading and unloading the cars off the truck that brings them to the dealer. Part of my job was to check the cars in, and if I did not catch any damage at that point, I could file a claim with the trasport company. Often a car was fine when it came off then truck, then when we prep., and cleaned it we might find a ding, or scratch, it's very frustrating. We always did what ever made the customer happy, but this was never easy.

Curious

Are they simply fixed then placed on the lots for sale? I've not seen nor heard of a sale that marked down a vehicle due to damage incured in shipping. It is the absence of this type of sale that worries me. If this type of sale does not occur and the information of the damage is not given to the consumer, is the vehicle sold under the pretense that it was prestine (undamaged or uneffected by shipping) when it arrived at the dealership? I feel certain that these "damaged" vehicles aren't shipped back to the plant. Someone is purchasing this vehicle and I'm wondering if they are given the chance to say no to that damaged car or to bargain on that damaged car.

JLM

I am a victim. I used to have a 1987 Mustang, in perfect shape. One day, I noticed<br>tape marks inside the doorjamb. As the car aged, the rear 1/4 panel faded quicker than the rest of the car. Obviously, this car had been repaired, without my knowledge. Hmmm.