The Case of The Broken RS 1.0
 

So Gents I am in a dilema.

I have found out that the Scion Dealership had been lying to be for 2 months about my car.


My car was damaged in transit and they neglected to tell me this and just held unto my car until a replacement RS 1.0 Bumper came in.

What they didn't realize was the back order for those parts already and when it never came they had to eventually tell me of their lie and they offered me 1000 dollars Gas Card and still full price of the Vehicle.



Now initially I thought I was going to accept this but....this means that this policy is in use by this dealership and they have lied to several customers before.


I think I should be getting News Teams involved here now and potentially hire my own lawyer. I shouldn't have to pay full price for a damaged vehicle no matter that they are replacing the parts completely. It's still an insurance claim on a previously New vehicle.



So legal advice here guys...should I pull my money from them and just buy that Limited BRZ?



Or should I just take the 1000 dollar gas card,


Or should I go to News Teams and hire myself a lawyer and potentially sue them. They did lie to me and I even got the pictures from the Manager of the store who said he didn't know about it til a week ago and that his hire-ups were telling him not to tell me.




Thoughts?


Pics following

I'd take the car. Not worth the hassle. Prob see if you can bump it up to $1500 gas card though. Or at least a free service interval.

scions come with 10 free scion swap days so dont worry about rental. But i would definitely increase that gas card.

I would demand a new bumper + $500 gift card. Don't take delivery until they have actually replace the bumper. My gf works as sales in a high end dealership and have Ben around the industry and yes all dealership does that. The worst I have heard is a lot boy backing a brand new unsold car into a customer's car that was in for service. The customer was stall, damage was fixed without telling the customer. The new car that was mess up? Fix and sold without the new owner knowing. If it doesn't go through insurance it won't leave record on the car anyways. This is just for fixable damage though, if a lot boy say totalled a car there is no lying about it.

Another reason I don't go to dealership for servicing unless I absolutely have to for warranty purposes.


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The new bumper is going to be installed. The manager is telling the guys to take a good bumper off the automatic they have and will replace mine there.

I would then get a 1000 dollar gift gas card too once it is complete.

Still though....I think I should get a bit more off for my trouble...but I'm wondering what you guys think.

News teams and lawyers are for suckas

take the $$ and run. Bumper isn't a big deal

This, take it and run. These sorts of things happen all the time. My 86 had a scuff on the underside of the front bumper. Dealer replaced the front undertray (also scuffed) and did a repair on the white paint. They offered to respray the entire bumper, but given the difficulty of matching white and the fact it's not exactly visible I thought it was a good compromise. Would have loved $1,000 of free fuel!

I wouldn't worry at all.

Won't that reflect in the carfax report should you want to sell it down the road? If it does, might affect resale value.

I highly doubt it will show up.

If it was me I'd be walking away and going to a new dealer. RS 1.0 isn't rare enough yet to be tough to find.

Honesty is worth more to me than a $1,000 gas card. It seems to me that if they would have been able to source a new bumper fast enough they would have never even told you about this. What else are they going to lie to you about down the road?

I had a similar issue with my Mustang GT/CS. There were about 4k KM on the car when I got it and was told it was because the manager had been driving it. It wasn't until I ran a Carfax on it (after buying it) that I found out it had a previous owner listed on it. The dealership then tried to come up with some lame excuse that the person had first only been test driving it for a few weeks and then had decided to buy it but never took delivery of it - trying to worm their way out of selling a used car as new. I was offered gas cards, lifetime free service, loaners, etc., but didn't take them and never returned to that dealership. I strongly considered legal action but decided to just move on and selected another dealership that seemed to have a bit more integrity.

Not sure you can sue them for lying. Had you already bought the car and found this out after the fact you would definitely have a case.

Will not be on any reports as they are swapping the bumper internally. Take the gas card forget the lawyer and enjoy the car.
Have said this before on the other thread, if you settle for anything else at this point you will soon start to despise the car and just find everything wrong with it you can.

I would walk. Find someone more honest. The gas card is a joke.

Ask for the TRD wheels...still don't get why they didn't put them on the RS's to begin with.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

News team! Assemble!

There's only 1500 being built. Our dealership sells a lot of new Toyota/Scion's every month, and we're only getting two. Already sold one! You can find one, but it might not be local. They will be tough to find before you know it.

However, I do 100% agree that honesty is worth more than any dollar amount.

I'd rather lose a sale and have the customers trust than sell a car by lying to the customer.

At that is how a salesperson should be!
In the OP's case he may not have many options to go elsewhere for a RS.1 as he is in Honolulu and those dealerships that had them may already have sold.

Sue them? News reports? Haha good luck with that. Just take the effing car and be done with it.

Take the $1,000 gas card and consider that 1k off the top of the grand total. Cars frequently are damaged in transit or on the lot. For example, in North Carolina unless the damage exceeds 5% of the car's MSRP the dealer does not have to tell you (unless you ask) -fair or not that's the rule. Dealers also don't have to tell you about glass, tires, or bumper damage as long as they're replaced with original or comparable parts. What's the point of making a big deal about something that's made of plastic that can be swapped out like nothing ever happened (and is probably the first thing that's going to get damaged)? They should have been more forthcoming but it's a dealership -there's a ton of mistrust the second you step into one. On the plus side, a $1,000 gas card is pretty fair for something they should be able to easily unload in case you want to walk away from the table.

Err, must have missed that. That sucks! I'd hate to have the next car I could buy a few thousand miles away just because my hometown dealer is full of crooks!

OP, I hate you're resorted to such limited options. :/ Hopefully, (if you have your vehicle serviced there), the service department is much more reputable than the sales floor!

1. Very true.

2. That depends on the situation. I always tell my customer to check over the vehicle and make sure everything is to their liking before they drive off the lot. If they say everything is okay but later return wanting a small scratch fixed, that's out of our hands as you make sure it was their responsibility to double check the vehicle upon delivery. So as far as saying fair or not, I agree with that viewpoint.

However, if we have a major fix on our hands with something like re-painting a bumper, we always write "previous paintwork" and stick it inside the vehicle letting the customer know work was done on the vehicle, or if there is more significant damage that we haven't fixed, we will always make the customer aware by blatantly posting it inside the vehicle and explaining why the vehicle was vastly reduced. Sure, you don't have to, but why lose a potential long term customer over something as simple as being upfront and explaining the situation?

3. If it's a brand new vehicle, I'd be pissed to know that something had been replaced/fixed and I wasn't aware. You must be that rare 1% exception that wouldn't care about that.

4. It's dealerships like this one that give all the other ones a bad name! It's the same principle as some people believing "all cops are dirty, power hungry assholes". You will see people post everywhere about how they got screwed at the dealership, but rarely ever read "I had such a great experience at my dealership!" In today's society, it only takes one bad apple to screw it up for the rest of the business. Unfortunate, but true.

5. A 1k gas card is an excellent offer, but it still (for me) wouldn't change the fact that they had the vehicle there for months before they made the OP aware of the situation. Due to the location I would take the offer and forget about it, but it would take me years (hopefully they have some new staff members that are much more trustworthy by then) before I would consider purchasing from them again.

Taking a bumper off another car will give you a car with not all matching vin tags. (If the frs has a vin tag on the bumper??)

If you go that route make sure they get a new vin sticker and swap it properly.

Fuck gas get a custom wrap and take no less

The bumper cover will not be VINed. The actual "bumper" is that big ugly piece of steel under the cover and as part of the structure will not be VINed separately either.
The only parts that have a VIN are whole separate modules such as engines, suspension (whole unit not individual parts), trannys, etc.

The lawyer would cost you a lot more than any gain you could get. You're being a bit silly and litigious over nothing. Everyone lies in todays world get used to it.

Summation. Don't be a litigious dolt. Take the brand new car with the $1000 gas card and be happy.

While hiring a lawyer may give you what you're looking to get out of this mess then it's going to cost you a lot of money unless you have insurance that helps with legal services. In a fair world of right and wrong a loaded gas card does not justify their task.

If it were me I'd threaten with going to the media and go as high up in facilitating staff as possible to pursue the most lucrative redemption for the wrong doing. I know that sounds malicious and a to many it would be a waste of time but the big picture is that they lied and are offering shut up money so you can leave with a vehicle that is not one hundred percent new.

Just my opinion, don't waste money that you shouldn't have to waste.

[quote=Scubaru;2036674]




1. Very true.
-:)

2. That depends on the situation. I always tell my customer to check over the vehicle and make sure everything is to their liking before they drive off the lot. If they say everything is okay but later return wanting a small scratch fixed, that's out of our hands as you make sure it was their responsibility to double check the vehicle upon delivery. So as far as saying fair or not, I agree with that viewpoint.
-:)


However, if we have a major fix on our hands with something like re-painting a bumper, we always write "previous paintwork" and stick it inside the vehicle letting the customer know work was done on the vehicle, or if there is more significant damage that we haven't fixed, we will always make the customer aware by blatantly posting it inside the vehicle and explaining why the vehicle was vastly reduced. Sure, you don't have to, but why lose a potential long term customer over something as simple as being upfront and explaining the situation?
-That's the law and unfortunately some laws are skewed in favor of the business. Kudos to the dealership that has the moral fortitude to be forthcoming with their customers that's great customer service with foresight -I'd patronize a place like that (actually my old Honda dealership was like that).


3. If it's a brand new vehicle, I'd be pissed to know that something had been replaced/fixed and I wasn't aware. You must be that rare 1% exception that wouldn't care about that.
-take my word for it, with the way I obsess over my cars I'm not a 1% person. But I feel in the grand scheme of things swapping out a yellow plastic bumper on a virgin car with a yellow plastic bumper off another virgin car with $1k thrown on top it could be a lot worse (though they should have kept OP in the loop from the get go instead of keeping him in the dark). If windshield, paint and/or bodywork were involved then the issue is closed and I'd go elsewhere.


4. It's dealerships like this one that give all the other ones a bad name! It's the same principle as some people believing "all cops are dirty, power hungry assholes". You will see people post everywhere about how they got screwed at the dealership, but rarely ever read "I had such a great experience at my dealership!" In today's society, it only takes one bad apple to screw it up for the rest of the business. Unfortunate, but true.
-it's true one bad apple spoils the bunch but I've called managers and posted online when their staff provided excellent service (I don't trust the opinions of malcontents). This is done in an effort to recognize a job well done and mitigate online negativity by customers that think every little thing entitles them to some form of compensation. I have a favorite dealership that I would go back to in heartbeat.... unfortunately Honda's lineup is lackluster. But I would steer potential customers from my Scion dealership due to their unethical sales practices (and the tons of reviews supporting this) but their service center is great and I wholeheartedly recommend them to everybody. Case in point if there was a car I wanted and this dealership had it despite OP's gripe with them I would consider them because the issue isn't that bad compared to the other shady dealerships forums members have posted about (I would bring up OP's situation and tell them I want to avoid that).

5. A 1k gas card is an excellent offer, but it still (for me) wouldn't change the fact that they had the vehicle there for months before they made the OP aware of the situation. Due to the location I would take the offer and forget about it, but it would take me years (hopefully they have some new staff members that are much more trustworthy by then) before I would consider purchasing from them again.
-I agree, let your dollars dictate a business' success. The day you find a dealership that you can 100% trust is everybody's dream.... good luck. Since working at a dealership is such a transient career path does waiting for the staff to turn over make sense? Assuming the bad apples are replaced by other bad apples that jut want to make a quick buck.......... Maybe the key is to wait until ownership/management changes?

There is nothing to sue for as you have not bought the car yet so a lawyer is less than useless. They could have easily switched the bumper with the automatic without telling you and you would never know. You have two choices.

1. Walk away.
2. Take their offer.

If you were happy with the original price that you negotiated then you should be thrilled with getting $1000 worth of free gas along with that deal. The damage is superficial and will be totally fixed prior to you taking possession of the car. It will never show up on a report so there is no loss of value. The only negative is that you will know about it. If you cannot get past the "damaged merchandise" stigma then you need to walk. I would take their offer and smile every time I filled up.

That would be a brutal wait here. Most of our major dealerships are family owned and have been for decades.
There is one family alone that owns Chrysler/Dodge, Ford, Chev/GMC, Honda and when Pontiac disappeared changed to Hyundai dealerships. This makes it difficult to have much leverage by saying "well your Camaro is to much I will get a Mustang" as they will say "OK meet you over there".
There is also the very large chance that the new dealer is even worse then the old one. I found this out while fighting with my Mitsubishi dealer. They screwed me over big time (part my own fault I admit) and changed owners half way through the battle. The new owners (that also happened to also own Volvo, Kia, Suzki, Range Rover, Jaguar and Saturn until it was gone) were even worse. They wanted no part of me or my issues even though at that point we had owned six and a half Mitsubishi's between my wife and I.
Needles to say when I finally convinced the Scion salesperson I was serious about buying the FRS the first question out of my mouth was "is this dealership associated with the Cullions family". If the answer had been yes I would have headed out of town to the next Scion dealer.

[quote=dnieves;2036732]You're absolutely right, and that's the unavoidable gray area here. Things may change for the best or for the worst.

Really in this situation, I hope the staff learns from the lesson and corrects it for the next customer!

I'd take the gas card and ask for factory fog lights installed for free, about $450 MSRP but only $250 net installed at the dealership IIRC, or if you ordered them already an equivalent reduction in MSRP.

It's not like the car was dropped off the ship's loading ramp, nothing structural was damaged and it won't be noted by Carfax.

Interestingly, TMS won't notify dealers of vehicle damage encountered in transit to port facilities, but before loading on a common carrier, of amounts under $400 (last I knew). Their damage incidence is very low, well under 1% compared to an industry average 3%. So, dealers may well be selling a few cars each year that were repaired at the port already but they and the new owner will never know about it. They aren't being shady about it, it's been their policy for years and they use OEM parts, materials and methods in all repairs. Vehicles damaged over $400 are given to auto technical training schools around the country.

Common carrier damage is another, separate matter.

The hard part will be taking the high road with an unethical dealer so I'd start at the top with the General Manager who may not even know about your situation, explain everything calmly and ask for extra consideration while assuring that you will not post your experience to social media that, if you did, could open another can of worms that's best to avoid anyway.

G'luck, keep us posted.

Yeah. I'm angry and people are telling me I should get a bigger discount but honestly it's a bumper. The bumper is probably worth less than 1000 dollars or comparable.

I like the idea of instead of taking a gas card then getting TRD Wheels put on there. That would be very nice.

Wheels may be overreach. They know that if you don't buy someone else will either there or one of the other islands and they'll just barge it over to the other dealership they own.

lol i would just ask for TRD wheels and call it a day, if they are willing, ask them to paint the entire car of the color of your choice now that's even more RARE than a taxi yellow fr-s :)

If the cover is not VINed. Just take the car with the swapped bumper and the gas card. No point getting all worked up if the paint is going to match 100%. Unless there is another one available locally.

A BRZ is nice but it wont have the same rarity as the RS1.0 IMO.

OP ... Just take the gas card. Your car is fine. Its not structural. It's cosmetic. You will LOSE if you try to sue. Only attorneys win in lawsuits.

Scion swap days? What is this?

the only thing i would be aware of is the different VIN sticker on the bumper compared to the rest of the car. it might affect the resale value later on.

I would take the new bumper, $1000 cash card and have the dealer write a letter stating what happened and at what mileage, so when you sell the car you have proof that it wasn't in an accident and it was changed due to bumper damage only.

http://www.scion.com/promotions/scionswap/

Only in miami, pheonix and Norcal