New Car Damaged

smash

exactly... I would consider this a big deal if it was my new car!

MarkN

You're right Joe but the places any big name brand dealers use would be very good/expensive.

With such a fresh car I think the paint could blend extremely well. I'm not trying to say it's 100% the route I would take but I would say to the dealer, get the car done, I will look at it and if I am happy I will take it but I want you to get the new door on the understanding that I will walk away if I am not happy with the job done.

MercMad

I agree that this has gone totally off the wall, some of you people are in dream land.

To the OP, this what happened to me about 7 years ago, take from it what you can.

I ordered a brand new Merc, waited 5 months, sold my own car about 6 weeks before the new one arrived, so i was struggling with borrowed cars etc. Anyway as I got within 100 yards of the garage to collect my new car the salesman rang to say it had just been damaged. He told me to come anyway and examine it and see where we go from there.

When I saw it I nearly fainted. It was a brand new black C-Class Avantgarde and the valet guy reversed it whilst looking over his left shoulder he locked the wheel around to the left, and whacked it into a concrete pillar. He must have travelled a bit first as this was no small knock. The wing was totally caved in between the wheel and the pillar, the sill was damaged also and posibly the door pillar.

I was in shock, but having worked in the trade for many years I realised this was simply an unfortunate incident and nobody was going to benefit. The salesman firstlyt told me he would arrange a replacement demo car for us to us until this one was repaired at which stage I could inspect it, satisfy myself with the repairs or if I wasn't happy he would find or re-order a replacement.

Due to the nature of the damage and the area it was I simply told him that I would not accept the car. He said a new one could take quite a while unfortunately but he understood completely.

He gave me a brand new demo car, a VW, and said he'd get back to me asap. I asked what would happen to that car now and he told me that it would be repaired then used as a demo and sold to the trade. A week later I went back and asked about the replacement and was told that due to the spec I requested it would be a fresh order as most cars coming in were Elegance or Classic spec and none were black. I took a look at the repaired car and I just would not have been happy with it. It was very good but I just felt I could see a colour difference. It may simply have been the way in which the car was polished by to cut a long story short it put me off thge balck colour, as I figured if I got another new one and I later damaged it then I would have a hgard job repairing it to my satisfaction.

Sometimes black can be like that !

So I changed my mind on the colour and picked two other metallic options. The next day the salesman phoned and informed me that he could get hold of one of the colours immedtaely but it had one or two expensive options which would raise the price to a level that didn't suit my budget. We were talking an increase of approximately €3500.

He told me to call over which I did and we struck a deal that I was extremely happy with and I collected the better car a week later.

I kept it for two years and went through the usual mill of pricing its replacement before going back to my original salesman who beat the other prices hand down. he was eager to make up for my previous experience and once again I walked away very happy. My father also bought a used car from him and having struck a great deal we discovered that he also fitted genuine mats, mud flaps, a new alrm system and 5 tyres. I had inspected the car and figured there was plenty of life left on the old ones, at least 15-20,000 miles but he said he wanted the car perfect. We also got an 18 month warranty.

So, there are some good dealers out there, people who will go the extra mile, and I think in the OP's case the chap has been honest so give him the benefit of the doubt and see what happens, just dont accpet what you really dont want !

Good luck !

bf

Very simple approach to this:

1. Get them to give you a car while it is being repaired

2. Inspect the car when it is repaired and if you are happy take it, if not walk away

3. if you take it get the salesman/garage to give you a written guarantee of trade in value against the same car in 12-months time, so that if you are worried about residual value you can change within the year.

BF

Run_to_da_hills

bf wrote: »

Very simple approach to this:

1. Get them to give you a car while it is being repaired

Make sure its a decent car they give you and not the garage run about. The last thing you want is to be seen driving around in an old banger.

mickdw

People are saying that they would be happy to take a car that has been resprayed with only a free oil change to compensate. People saying this really are the fools. The panel painted locally will show to be different over time not to mention all the internals being fitted at the local bodyshop also possibly leading to future rattles etc.
I recently took delivery of my new car with a list price of 54.5K(actual price 51k). If something similar had happened I certainly wouldnt be taking it unless I was offered it for about 46k - 47k. I think that would be reasonable and those figures are nearing 15% of retail price.

-Chris-

mickdw wrote: »

I recently took delivery of my new car with a list price of 54.5K(actual price 51k). If something similar had happened I certainly wouldnt be taking it unless I was offered it for about 46k - 47k. I think that would be reasonable and those figures are nearing 15% of retail price.

Again, I don't think these levels of discount are achieveable....

Take the car or re-order it. Simple as.

degsie

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

The last thing you want is to be seen driving around in an old banger.

Snob

Run_to_da_hills

degsie wrote: »

Snob

I drive a commercial

King Kelly

mickdw wrote: »

People are saying that they would be happy to take a car that has been resprayed with only a free oil change to compensate. People saying this really are the fools. The panel painted locally will show to be different over time not to mention all the internals being fitted at the local bodyshop also possibly leading to future rattles etc.
I recently took delivery of my new car with a list price of 54.5K(actual price 51k). If something similar had happened I certainly wouldnt be taking it unless I was offered it for about 46k - 47k. I think that would be reasonable and those figures are nearing 15% of retail price.

How do you know it hasn't happened?!!!

Light bodywork damage is caused to cars every day of the week in car parks, on the street, in your own driveway and sometimes in a car dealership. Its a pain in the ass but most repairs are carried out professionaly and correctly to the owners satisfaction. If every dent knocked 15-20% off the list price some of us would be in a serious negative equity situation.

The dealer was honest and upfront about it. You have a choice to take it or wait for a new car. If you take it I doubt it will be worth any less in 2/3 years time. If you think its going to be weighing on your mind in the future leave it.

But what ever you do don't rely on some of the bar stool lawyers on the motors board for your advice!

old boy

when you go to trade it in, you will be asked to sign a form, on which one of the questions is has this car been involved in an accident,

-Chris-

old boy wrote: »

when you go to trade it in, you will be asked to sign a form, on which one of the questions is has this car been involved in an accident,

And you'll say "yes, there was some damage done to if before the supplying dealer handed it over to me. It was repaired by them before I got it. I have a letter from them saying it was repaired to factory standards and they supplied me with an independent assessors report to this effect".

That (plus me looking at it and being happy with it) would be enough for me to not pull the trade-in value back significantly if at all.

Of course, you'll have to ask for all that stuff, but if I was in this dealer's situation, I'd have no problem arranging any of that.

old boy

and the dealer, will say, but it is a repaired car, how can you expect me to give top whack for it.

L-M

old boy wrote: »

and the dealer, will say, but it is a repaired car, how can you expect me to give top whack for it.

Hardly. Alot of dealers would spray there trade ins anyway if there were multiple stone chips etc. or big scraps that they couldn't be retailed with.

-Chris-

old boy wrote: »

and the dealer, will say, but it is a repaired car, how can you expect me to give top whack for it.

And then you haggle. This is why people are suggesting that you get some form of concession for the damage, to make up for this possible reduction in trade-in value.

If someone came to me with a trade-in and said that it was:
1) damaged before the supplying dealer handed it over
2) repaired by replacing parts (i.e. the whole door) rather than repairing existing parts
3) independently certified to be up to snuff
AND I saw the car and thought the repair job was a good one, I'd feel no need to be hard on the car.
The fact that I could supply all this info to the next owner as reassurance that their car was looked after would reassure me greatly.

Any other salespeople have thoughts on this aspect of it - would you be hard on it as a trade in?

-Chris-

Limerick-man wrote: »

Hardly. Alot of dealers would spray there trade ins anyway if there were multiple stone chips etc. or big scraps that they couldn't be retailed with.

+1

If your car is worth €10,000. but I have to do €500 of bodywork to it, I'll give you €9,500. More often than not, a trade-in will need some sort of tidying up.
If there's no recon needed and the history checks out, you don't need to hit the value at all.

MercMad

AudiChris wrote: »

And then you haggle. This is why people are suggesting that you get some form of concession for the damage, to make up for this possible reduction in trade-in value.

If someone came to me with a trade-in and said that it was:
1) damaged before the supplying dealer handed it over
2) repaired by replacing parts (i.e. the whole door) rather than repairing existing parts
3) independently certified to be up to snuff
AND I saw the car and thought the repair job was a good one, I'd feel no need to be hard on the car.
The fact that I could supply all this info to the next owner as reassurance that their car was looked after would reassure me greatly.

Any other salespeople have thoughts on this aspect of it - would you be hard on it as a trade in?

............not currently a car salesman, I was years back but I agree totally !

I think some folk here are of the belief that if a dealer sells a car for €50k that they make 10% of that, hence the ridiculous discounts expected !

JoeA3

AudiChris wrote: »

+1

If your car is worth €10,000. but I have to do €500 of bodywork to it, I'll give you €9,500. More often than not, a trade-in will need some sort of tidying up.
If there's no recon needed and the history checks out, you don't need to hit the value at all.

@Chris:
Slightly off topic, purely just as a matter of interest, do dealers usually fix up all bad dents/scratches on relatively newish used cars, or only the ones a potential customer might point out?
I ask cos I see some very sorry looking 2nd hand cars on my local dealer forecourts. I had a passing look at a '05 MK5 GTI at a main dealers the other day, every panel on it was scuffed and scratched, every wheel kerbed, a side-skirt hanging off it, and a 25K price sticker on the window.
Just wondering how easily they'd sell it in that nick, cos it looked to me like it might take thousands to get it touched up properly!

-Chris-

JoeA3 wrote: »

@Chris:
Slightly off topic, purely just as a matter of interest, do dealers usually fix up all bad dents/scratches on relatively newish used cars, or only the ones a potential customer might point out?
I ask cos I see some very sorry looking 2nd hand cars on my local dealer forecourts. I had a passing look at a '05 MK5 GTI at a main dealers the other day, every panel on it was scuffed and scratched, every wheel kerbed, a side-skirt hanging off it, and a 25K price sticker on the window.
Just wondering how easily they'd sell it in that nick, cos it looked to me like it might take thousands to get it touched up properly!

Usually you'd fix everything major and then depending on the customer, the age of the car, the mileage etc. you might leave some small stuff there.
i.e. If it's a year old with 5,000km on it, the customer will expect it to be pristine. The same car with 50,000km on it wouldn't need to be anywhere near as clean.

You should also figure condition into the price, it may be scruffy but cheap or mint-condition and more expensive.
It may be that you'll negotiate with the customer - "I'll fix this, this and that, but I'm not fixing those".
It may be that you're thinking of trading the car due to condition and you're only chancing your arm on the forecourt to see if there's any interest in it - if you're trading the car, you wouldn't fix it.


Shorter answer - you'll fix everything the customer will care about and leave the rest, fixing everything and bringing it to showroom condition could cost too much and therefore make the car priced too highly.

L-M

JoeA3 wrote: »

@Chris:
Slightly off topic, purely just as a matter of interest, do dealers usually fix up all bad dents/scratches on relatively newish used cars, or only the ones a potential customer might point out?
I ask cos I see some very sorry looking 2nd hand cars on my local dealer forecourts. I had a passing look at a '05 MK5 GTI at a main dealers the other day, every panel on it was scuffed and scratched, every wheel kerbed, a side-skirt hanging off it, and a 25K price sticker on the window.
Just wondering how easily they'd sell it in that nick, cos it looked to me like it might take thousands to get it touched up properly!

In my opinion some dealers will leave the cars as is when they get them as a trade in, to show the customer what it's really like, then they can say i fix such and such (could be due to finances as well).
Where as other dealers will fix before retailing, but this leaves the customer wondering how bad was the damage before hand.

colm_mcm

AudiChris wrote: »

+1

If your car is worth €10,000. but I have to do €500 of bodywork to it, I'll give you €9,500. More often than not, a trade-in will need some sort of tidying up.
If there's no recon needed and the history checks out, you don't need to hit the value at all.

In my book, a car that's had bodywork done is never worth as much as one that hasn't. (unless it's very minor)

-Chris-

What's your recommendation to the OP, would you reject the car? Would you worry about the history of the car as described in the thread?

crosstownk

It's as simple as this.

If you've ever been to the VW plant in Wolfsburg, you will have noticed that the doors arrive on a conveyor belt as the chassis arrives. At this point a human attaches the doors to the car - not a robot.

So lets return to the damaged car. It will get a new door (repair of the original door is not acceptable) and this new door will be fitted by manufacturer trained technicians with the only difference being that it is fitted here in Ireland and not at factory level.

If the OP is concerned about the potential impact on resale value, the get photos of the damage and relevant documentation relating to the repair to alleviate the concerns of future potential buyers.

The only problem I see is inconvenience to the customer (OP) which can be easily overcome by the earlier suggestion of a similar courtesy car while his new car is being rectified.

Run_to_da_hills

crosstownk wrote: »

If you've ever been to the VW plant in Wolfsburg, you will have noticed that the doors arrive on a conveyor belt as the chassis arrives. At this point a human attaches the doors to the car - not a robot.

Maybe back in the 1950ies when they were assembling the type 1's & 2's, not now, the whole assembly line is automated (Except maybe for VW Pueblo Mexico).

The OPs door is going to come into the country in grey primer and its colour code will be matched to the number under the bonnet. It will then be subbed out to some local sprayer down the road who will try match it with the rest of the car. Depending on how long this panel has been lying about there could also be the chance of some rust from storage or transit which could appear in the finish in later years. Depending on how honest this dealer is some would go as far as to refit the damaged panel with a spurious panel at a fraction of the cost.

colm_mcm

It'd all depend on the quality of the work done.
If the car I had ordered was going to be a lot more expensive after July, and I had thought long and hard about the options and colours vefore ordering then I'd get the work done, but expect around €2,000 off the car to compensate for the car not being 100%, and for the risk of a potentially lower trade in down the road.
I'm hugely fussy about paintwork and can usually spot resprays no matter how well they're done. A few quid off would certainly make me feel better about the car.

I doubt the replacement door would come from the factory painted.