The Case of The Broken RS 1.0

[Rampage]

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.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by dnieves

-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?

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.

[Scubaru]

[quote=dnieves;2036732]

Originally Posted by dnieves

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?

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!

[torqdork]

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.

[JiroZero713]

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.

[torqdork]

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.

[1GiantTurtle]

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

[projek_01]

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.

[Braces]

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.

[brianhj]

Originally Posted by VakaGT

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

Scion swap days? What is this?

[fitcious]

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.

[1GiantTurtle]

Originally Posted by brianhj

Scion swap days? What is this?

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

Only in miami, pheonix and Norcal

[Wise]

American dealerships seem so fucking crooked. So many horror stories.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Wise

American dealerships seem so fucking crooked. So many horror stories.

That's just because there are so many dealerships and you never get to hear the good stories because they just don't get posted.