Parent's car damaged before taking delivery
 

Took my parents into Kingsway Honda to get their new 2018 Civic today and found out that the car was damaged after they did all the paperwork. There was a noticeable scratch on the driver side between the B and C pillar, and another one above the gas cover on the rear driver side quarter panel. You can feel the scratch when you run your finger over the area. It was getting late because they've been there for 3 hours now (fucking bullshit) and they just wanted to get it over with, so they took a dealership credit to be used later.

After all that was done, the sales guy went over all the safety features with me one last time before we left, so I could teach my parents when we got home. It was at this point that my mom discovered a pretty noticeable dent on the passenger side of the front hood. My parents are obviously getting upset at this point, because they've spent so many hours there tonight trying to take delivery of a car that is supposed to be brand new, but it's got 2 scratch marks and a dent on the front hood.

The dealership was already closed at 8 and this happened around 8:30pm. The sales guy couldn't get a hold of a manager because they had left work, and told us to leave him the car keys and to come back in tomorrow to talk to his manager about it as he'd get us a new car.

Has anyone else ever encountered a situation like this (besides the RS Subaru guy) and how did they deal with it? Yes, the scratches are minor, and yes the dent is just a dent that can be popped back out, but the principle of the situation remains. We negotiated in good faith for the purchase of a brand new car and getting a "brand new" car with visible damage clearly isn't right.

I ended up taking a photo of the VIN # just to be sure.

Total bullshit, but I’d say sleep on it and give the dealership a chance to make it right

It’s a Civic. They will get you another one and life carries on. Not worth stressing over.

It’s not like this is a special order car where you will have to wait another year for your next allocation.

Mark

Mistakes and accidents happen, such is life. Give them a chance to make things right and go from there.

Any chance they leased the car?

https://mvsabc.com/glossary/cooling-off-period/

I recall something similar happened many years to my dad when they were looking to lease a Honda Odyssey as a company car. They signed all the paper work at ?Richmond Honda, went to the lot to get the car and they found out that one of the dealership customers had backed into the van. The dealership said too bad, that's your van, you signed the paper work.

They negotiated a bit, but the dealership wouldn't budge, so the my dad mentioned the 24hr cooling period, so he just left the car and walked away. The next day, the dealership manager called them to arrange them to get another van.

I think as long as you don't drive off with the car, you're fine.

And you guys talking about too bad, it's just a civic, move on, are you insane? I don't care if I'm buying a doughnut, cup of coffee or an Ipad. If I'm paying for something, then it better be in the expected condition that was agreed upon when the sale was made.

You need to re read my post. I said it’s only a Civic - as in it will be extremely easy for the dealership to replace the car. I didn’t say for a second he should take a scratched or dented new car.

-Mark

assuming its BRAND NEW... NOT preowned...then yah, GET A NEW CAR/replacement. POST the dealership.

My brother in law got a mustang. It had damages on it from delivery. The dealership fixed it up under "lot damage" which I believe is billed to their insurance or pdi company. keep chasing the dealership they should take ownership of this with no issues.

Give them a chance to make it right and if you don't like the remedy then ask to take a different car. If they get stand-off-ish then walk away.

Some dealers are genuine and will do what it takes to make the sale. Other dealers are slimey cunts who will lie their way through every deal. You have to determine which of these is the dealer you are dealing with.

We understand it's "only a Civic" but it's the principle of the situation. We negotiated and paid cash for a brand new 2018 Civic, so it's not unreasonable to expect a brand new Civic, right?

Since my parents signed the bill of sale already, are they still able to walk away if Kingsway Honda refuses to get a new car and insists on getting the car fixed?

forget getting it fixed. I never see that as a option unless they give you a big discount. They should give you another car period.

Speaking for my dealership things like this can happen. Is it common? no but there is a surprising amount of people who touch the car from factory to the dealer and it is rarely the dealer who has done the damage.

A F150 comes out of the factory in Dearborn Michigan and travels ~4,000kms. Where the truck comes out of factory and put on a shipping truck then from the shipping truck onto a train then off the train to switch to another train to Washington where it will be put into another shipping truck and driven to here in the lower mainland. Once arrived its taken off that truck and put in a holding lot where another person puts it onto another shipping truck and drops it off at the dealer. Honestly its amazing how few vehicles show up with nothing on them. I can see why Audi has gone to wrapping every vehicle.

We have people who check in vehicles and also our own body shop that will fix any area of concern. If anything is missed which human error does happen then we will book in a time for the customer to bring the car back at their convince give them a free loaner and have the area of concern fixed at no cost to them and usually fill their tank for the in convince and good faith of the dealer. I'm sure most dealers would be the same.

I'm pretty sure what that comment is getting at is the dealership has tonnes of these in stock. So the dealership shouldn't have any issues replacing it with a new one as its "only a civic" and not some CTO vehicle. So yes you should request for a new undamaged vehicle or walk to another dealership. In the end its up to the dealership to make the customer happy. Let them decide on what they want to do, but it seems from the post that they're waiting for the manager to make a decision and well at 8:30PM at night you probably wont have those decisions made until the next morning.

Hoping that it works out for you family..

The wife's car had scratches when we took delivery. We arranged a time where the dealership took it and got it repaired. It looked brand new when it came back.

Give them a chance to fix it.

Think about all the other things that they may have fixed before it makes it to the showroom or noticed during PDI. Personally I rather know than not know.

Holy fuck let them fix it. Putting a company on blast before they even have a chance to take care of it is a dick move. If they don't fix it, then roast them.

I wouldn’t take that vehicle period, and if they refused to give me another one I’d get my money back and walk.

I don’t care if it was a 10k Nissan micra, if it’s new and has damage it’s unacceptavle.

Let us know what ends up happening

You drive Fords, so obviously your standards are much, much lower than the average car aficionado. But you have to be a dense, naive motherfucker to accept a brand new car with damage. On top of that, you would have to be an asshole to think that anyone should accept a damaged car that was sold as new.

They will fix it. Ive seen this happen many times, sometimes we catch the damage before delivery and sometimes we don't. Just give them a chance. We do business with Kingsway Honda often and they are straight shooters.

Lots of new cars get damaged on transport or on the lot. Do they scrap them because they have a ding or two? no they fix it. Dealerships usually have arrangements with good body shops that deal with things like this.

I wouldn’t take a fixed car either personally.

Especially in a case like this where the salesperson is showing you the car in the dark

Nobody said to accept the car. You would have to be a dense motherfucker to not understand that. Like I said, Let them fix the problem before blasting them. Also, how childish can one get? Hurr durr you drive this type of car therefore i'm going to judge you. Reading comprehension, it helps.

Also, why jump on me? Like 8 other people in the same damn thread said the same thing. Holy fuck

Horrrey fuccckkkk!!!

Can't believe nobody has said this yet. Post pictures and lets see these scratches. You took a picture of the Vin# surely you took a picture of the scratch OP. So many mental conclusions being thought up on how bad the damage is and how to approach it. No one should really be giving advice until we have all the facts and a picture of the damage would really clear this up. I'm curious just how bad it really is. Also, paintless dent removal takes a couple minutes to pop a single dent out.

If I bought a brand new car, it better be brand new.

That's the cost of doing business.

Keep complaining until you get a new one but there's no saying that your new one wasn't damaged at one point during transport/in the lot.

If they give you a new one they'll fix the scratched one and sell it to someone else without telling them it was damaged. I worked at 3 dealerships and maybe 20% of the cars have some form of damage even before it comes off the truck.