compensation

motorguy

ziggyboy4435 said:

Hi everyone ,  Looking for some advice ,   A friend of mine has bought a approved used Mercedes ,   He bought the car online without seeing it and was assured the car was perfect ,  When the car was delivered it sure did look amazing ,   A friend of his has since said the paint thickness using a machine suggests the car has been repaired on 2 panels ,   Should Mercedes of checked this and would they be liable for paying towards the lost money  in resale value with painted panels ,   Thanks 

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

No.

motorguy

ziggyboy4435 said:

Car_54 said:

Why would the resale value be affected? Your pal thought the car was perfect, so why wouldn't any future buyer? How many potential buyers bring along "friends" with amazing paint measuring machines?

There's nothing wrong with selling a car that's been repaired. Probably not many haven't.

surely when you buy a approved used car from a main dealer for 30k it should be perfect and fully checked by dealer ,  And you will be surprised what repaired paint will look like after a few years if not done properly ,   Might not show any issues at they time but in 3 years could look terrible 

It would fall under "refurbishment".  It might have had a light scratch or stone chips.

A main dealer will make any repairs to bring it back to forecourt standard. 

Why would the paintwork look terrible in three years time?  What makes you think its not been done properly?  The fact that the only way he could detect it was by using a digital paint gauge suggests its to a high standard.

motorguy

elsien said:

“Used car” and “perfect” don’t generally go together in the same sentence. 

My wife sold her 3 year old Merc A45 to a Mercedes franchised dealer.  It had a few stonechips around the front end as you'd expect of a 3 year old performance car, a couple of kerbed alloys and two of the tyres were down to 3mm.

Before they put it on their forecourt they had the bumper, bonnet and two front wings resprayed, all four alloys refurbished and two new tyres fitted.  Car looked absolutely stunning.  

People spending £30K+ on an Approved Used Merc wont tolerate stonechips and kerbed wheels.

caprikid1

Is this the new, I bought a car and now I want some money off , feels like your friend is no different to a romainian scammer.

He may have paid 30K for a Mercedes's big deal. You can spend 200K on mercedes so the car could be 10 years old.

Even still if it needed a machine to check pain thickness than he is just trying it on !

user1977

facade said:

I suppose it comes down to the difference in the meaning of "perfect" between the customer (mine would be "completely without imperfection or flaws"- and a repainted panel would be both)  and the dealer (probably "satisfying all requirements")*

But nobody claimed it would be "perfect" in the first place - that's just the OP's somewhat deluded assumption.

Grumpy_chap

ziggyboy4435 said:

Hi everyone ,  Looking for some advice ,   A friend of mine has bought a approved used Mercedes ,   He bought the car online without seeing it and was assured the car was perfect ,  When the car was delivered it sure did look amazing ,   A friend of his has since said the paint thickness using a machine suggests the car has been repaired on 2 panels ,   Should Mercedes of checked this and would they be liable for paying towards the lost money  in resale value with painted panels ,   Thanks 

I am not sure that there would be any case here.  There is no central register of cars that had minor paint repairs - only cars that have been declared insurance write-off.  As such, the supplying Dealer may not have been aware.

What is it, though, with £30k Mercedes and this type of disappointment?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6304124/clocked-car/p1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6240303/purchased-a-car-not-disclosed-it-was-a-london-taxi/p1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78528653#Comment_78528653

Other brands of £30k used cars don't seem to have the same prevalence of similar comments.

born_again

facade said:

I'd suggest taking it to a different dealer for a valuation as a trade-in or for them to purchase, and see how much they knock off because of the repainted panels- which might suddenly become an issue when you try to sell it, even though it apparently wasn't worth mentioning when you bought it. If they don't notice, then it isn't an issue.

And if the dealer is anything like the ones we have P/X at all they want is reg & what we said the condition was... Never even bothered to go and look at cars. 

facade

born_again said:

facade said:

I'd suggest taking it to a different dealer for a valuation as a trade-in or for them to purchase, and see how much they knock off because of the repainted panels- which might suddenly become an issue when you try to sell it, even though it apparently wasn't worth mentioning when you bought it. If they don't notice, then it isn't an issue.

And if the dealer is anything like the ones we have P/X at all they want is reg & what we said the condition was... Never even bothered to go and look at cars. 

Took a Merc back to the supplying dealer once to trade it in, and they went over it with a microscope. Showed me a dent in the boot that I'd never noticed, and could well have been there from when they supplied it, you had to practically stand on your head with the light angled just so to see a slight shadow that was a dent.  I wouldn't be surprised if they'd had the paint thickness gauge out to the likely places for parking damage too.

Anyway, if it is an approved used can't you reject it with no reason?

Belenus

motorguy said:

ziggyboy4435 said:

Car_54 said:

Why would the resale value be affected? Your pal thought the car was perfect, so why wouldn't any future buyer? How many potential buyers bring along "friends" with amazing paint measuring machines?

There's nothing wrong with selling a car that's been repaired. Probably not many haven't.

surely when you buy a approved used car from a main dealer for 30k it should be perfect and fully checked by dealer ,  And you will be surprised what repaired paint will look like after a few years if not done properly ,   Might not show any issues at they time but in 3 years could look terrible 

It would fall under "refurbishment".  It might have had a light scratch or stone chips.

A main dealer will make any repairs to bring it back to forecourt standard. 

Why would the paintwork look terrible in three years time?  What makes you think its not been done properly?  The fact that the only way he could detect it was by using a digital paint gauge suggests its to a high standard.

Unless it is a bad job it shouldn't.

Four years ago a landscaper doing work in our garden damaged the rear off side corner area of our then 2 year old parked BMW Series1 car. He was reversing his lorry while holding the driver's door half open but was looking to the left and the edge of the lorry door hit our car.

Some panels were dented and scratched, the light cluster was smashed and the whole area looked a mess.

A local insurance approved body shop repaired all the damage. As far as we are aware no panels were replaced.

When we got the car back we could not tell which parts of the panels were original and which had been repaired and resprayed. 

Four years later we still cannot tell. Everything still matches perfectly.

tr7phil

Belenus said:

motorguy said:

ziggyboy4435 said:

Car_54 said:

Why would the resale value be affected? Your pal thought the car was perfect, so why wouldn't any future buyer? How many potential buyers bring along "friends" with amazing paint measuring machines?

There's nothing wrong with selling a car that's been repaired. Probably not many haven't.

surely when you buy a approved used car from a main dealer for 30k it should be perfect and fully checked by dealer ,  And you will be surprised what repaired paint will look like after a few years if not done properly ,   Might not show any issues at they time but in 3 years could look terrible 

It would fall under "refurbishment".  It might have had a light scratch or stone chips.

A main dealer will make any repairs to bring it back to forecourt standard. 

Why would the paintwork look terrible in three years time?  What makes you think its not been done properly?  The fact that the only way he could detect it was by using a digital paint gauge suggests its to a high standard.

Unless it is a bad job it shouldn't.

Four years ago a landscaper doing work in our garden damaged the rear off side corner area of our then 2 year old parked BMW Series1 car. He was reversing his lorry while holding the driver's door half open but was looking to the left and the edge of the lorry door hit our car.

Some panels were dented and scratched, the light cluster was smashed and the whole area looked a mess.

A local insurance approved body shop repaired all the damage. As far as we are aware no panels were replaced.

When we got the car back we could not tell which parts of the panels were original and which had been repaired and resprayed. 

Four years later we still cannot tell. Everything still matches perfectly.

We bought a 9 month old Fiat 500 in 2009, it had a small scratch and dent on the front passenger side wing which we had repaired at a local body shop.  The colour was a perfect match and the repair was still almost invisible when we sold the car two months ago.  I say almost invisible, the quality of the respray was vastly superior to the orange-peely standard paintwork!