The_Phantom

Like Val Kilmer said in the movie Real Genius "You get even with Kent. It's a moral imperative" but in your case not Kent, of course, the dealership.

Sweet comeback!

FotoVeloce

So, not only is he a poor business man, he's also a crappy parent. I think the name of this dealer should be placed at the top of EVERY post so that this thread a quick find when people run a GOOGLE search... hopefully the first one.

Seeeu911

for us Florida Pcar owners please post the Dealership.

AndyK

Would that be "Sh*t Happens Porsche"!?

blk on blk

This is pretty simple. Your car was worth X prior to wreck. Someone else wrecked it thus making it now worth Y even after repair. He owes you Z which is the difference. I would get an attorney involved posthaste, and I would not sign, authorize any repair, allow them to touch the vehicle, and I would no longer even speak to them. All correspondence should go through your attorney at this point. It will cost you some cash, but much less than the long run and at this point there is a matter of principle which is always important to me. Hell I would pay an attorney 5 k to recover 3 if someone ****ed up my car and told me i was acting like a 15 year old girl. If I didn't beat the **** out of him I would most certainly hit him the *** pocket like I was his daddy that is for certain. I would make every single day of his pure misery with litigation and bad publicity in front of his shop until he had to make me go away to my satisfaction.

palladio

This is a very interesting thread about a very unfortunate circumstance.

I have spent much of my career advising clients on business deals (no I'm not a lawyer), and also am a business owner that has had to deal with situations quite similar to this. Lots of great advice being given here, and I especially agree with a lot of what "cary1" has said. There is a time for litigation and pulling the gloves off, but you never want to start from that angle. From my experience, the best solutions by far are ones where both parties can negotiate in good faith towards a "win - win" situation, one in which both sides give something and get most or all of what is best for them in return. If you start by pulling the gloves off or making threats, things get emotional, egos get involved, and you are highly unlikely to get a "win - win" result, ever.

In this case, a good solution would have been for the dealer to take your car at a reasonable pre-crash value in trade for something else. They lose a few dollars maybe, but save face, and keep your business. If the owner of the dealership knew what was best for his long-term success, he would eventually offer something like this. I say "eventually", because most people don't like to give away anything if they don't have to. It seems that this owner is not a reasonable or mature individual. His "15 year old daughter" comments are very telling.

So now what to do? I would resist the temptation (and I know it's tempting!) to escalate this into nuclear war too quickly. Stay reasonable and calm, try to find good legal counsel for a reasonable cost, and slowly ramp up the heat. It's still better to see if you can settle this in your favor without a big legal bill, lots of wasted time, and especially without going to court (one of the best attorneys I ever knew said wisely "you NEVER want to go in front of a jury unless you have to, because jurors are inherently unpredictable").

You can dial the heat up a notch by referring your dealer to your counsel. If that doesn't work, you can proceed with the first legal steps he advises. If that still doesn't work, there are lots of creative ways you can enjoy slapping the owner around like going to the local news channel or listing the dealership name on this board.

Best of luck with all this, and kudos to all the people on this board who have taken time to help. Proof that lawyers aren't all bad after all!

Giovanni

[QUOTE=FotoVeloce]Don't count on CARFAX. My ML320 suffered $13,000 in damage when an old lady t-boned it in a parking lot. Entre right side replaced (b-pillar crushed, pretty major repair). Traded it in after it was very expertly repaired. Just for kicked I check CARFAX a year later. Nothing about the crash appeared. If I do not see a WRECK on CARFAX report that does not mean much to me at all. When I DO see a WRECK.. that's good info. Like the '97 WB I almost bought untilI found it had been salvaged in '99 then it was dismantled after another total crash in '02. Never seen a car that had been totaled twice. Looked sweet too, drove like a nightmare.. no wonder. QUOTE]

I hit a deer last year with my STI (I bought it brand new and it happened 2 weeks of ownership) and the insurance got the $3500 bill. My wife's Jeep CRD had a small rear fender bender and costed $1500 to repair. STI's carfax was clean when I sold it and the CRD had a "small to moderate" damage with Carfax.

Carfax does not alway catch insurance claims but if it does, it will prompt questions/uncertainties about the damage and unless the seller is willing to negotiate it may be a deal breaker.

cdodkin

Oooo, nice move sir!

Wellardmac

Very nice! Well done! I can't wait to see how this one goes.

Troy R

Yes, now things get interesting. I'm sure there are a few of us Rennlisters who would be more than willing to call either the dealership and express our sincere concern over how they are handling this matter and/or one of the news shops down there expressing our concern about how the dealer is treating you and that perhaps they should interview them.

If we had their fax/email info we could also pursuade them that way as well.

Could a few hundred phone calls/faxes/emails every day for a few weeks convince them?

viper501

bpoteat

Very well played.

carpundit

Good luck.

I put this on the blog , so be sure to let us know what happened.

gittledog

Thanks to everyone supporting me with my situation. Especially Carpundit.....

TamiyaGuy

[QUOTE=Giovanni]In some states CarFAX has access to the police reports databases and is able to provide information on whether an accident was ever reported for a vehicle. As an example, in WA here, if there's a police report of an accident, it will appear. I believe the same is true of CA based on the VINs I've checked recently.

You do not get a sense of the size of an accident just that one was reported. The police case number shows, so I suppose you could look it up.

As always, I advise that CarFax is a tool; and one of many available to a used car buyer. It should never be the only tool.