Hello my new S2000 brethren!
Been vaguely thinking about an S2000 for a while now. When my 240SX had a couple of issues last week, it was time to ACT. Found one the color I liked, at a semi-reputable dealer (Barry's Dartmouth Nissan in Dartmouth, MA), hmm, sales lady was pretty cute, too...
Anyhoo, suffice it to say I asked for CarFax, sales lady assured it they'd get it for me, but somehow I managed to give them the BIG CHECK last Saturday without having seen it (yes, STUPID). So, yesterday I picked up the car, already registered to me and all, and the CarFax I was promised was included in my neat little bundle. Sales lady conveniently not around. I took said bundle and split. Unfortunately the carfax only showed the title as clean and nothing else. HMMM, thought I...
So I got the full carfax this AM from another source to find, lo and behold, an accident. 10/08/2005: "Vehicle involved in crash and ran off roadway and hit utility or light pole". Next entry for that owner (#3) was within the month and reads: 10/22/2005: "Title issued or updated". Hmmm again...
No further data under Owner #3
Next entry, Owner#4 (estimated length owned: 7/18/06 - 10/7/06, 2 months), 07/18/2006 (nine months later) "Registration issued or renewed, New owner reported". Only entry for Owner #4...
Under Owner #5 (estimated length owned: 10/7/06 - present, 4 months) we have: 10/07/2006 "Vehicle purchase reported", 10/10/2006 "registration issued", 10/14/2006 "passed safety inspection, passed emissions inspection".

The End (of the CarFax report).

The accident doesn't trouble me as much as the immediate title action immediately after and the mysterious Owner 4 and Owner 5. I guess owner 5 is the dealer I bought from, could owner 4 be the insurance company (i.e., a total)?

Anyhoo, the car looks great, but upon closer inspection evidence of damage is apparent in the left-side hindquarters. Doesn't look that bad to me, but I'm NO expert! The car drives great, too, btw, but for some annoying wind noise which the dealer had already ordered a new drivers side latch mechanism to remedy after I pointed it out, before I bought the car.

I'm taking it to my local body shop for an inspection tomorrow to see what they think the damage was and get their assessment of the repairs done and also to get a general estimate if they think further work is required.

Might take get an alignment check, too.

Might also get it inspected. If by any chance it did fail (not likely), the dealer would be forced to buy it back.

Anyway, a lot depends on what my body shop thinks, but I'm not too happy (my own fault, caveat emptor, I know!).

After all the above, one thing I'd like to know is:
Is there anything specific I should have the body shop look for?

Whaddya'll think in general, do I have a legitimate grievance or am I just a fricking MARK?!

Thoughts, commiserations, advice, etc. gladly accepted.

signed,
Sucker #3,458,924,232

 

How could all that be on the carfax and the dealer give you a clean report?

 

The CarFax the dealer gave me was only on the TITLE (carfax branded title check). i.e., salvage title? no, Junk title, no, etc.

I got the FULL carfax this morning (not through the dealer).

 

You were raped ;please forward the sales lady a jar of KY jelly since she used all her's up on you

 

^I agree
That's crazy for them to tell you it was clean.

 

That's misrepresentation... Take it back and tell them you want your money.

They will try to coast you by dropping the price and then you get out the KY jelly and save some bucks

Show them the report and tell them it's there JOB to report if it's been in a accident

 

it's a used car. a dealer does not have to state if it's been in an accident. if the title has been branded, that's a different story.

you really have no recourse on a used car. you may be able to raise hell with them (go to sales manager/general manager) but all they can really do is help out with repair costs etc. if you trade back in you'll because of profit they made to what the cars really worth.

good luck getting it all squared away though

 

clean title = no prior salvage/rebuilt title

the car indeed have a clean title, the title check that the dealer provided was legit

now if the dealer said that this car has never been in an accident then they would be lying

the buyer shouldve asked for a full carfax report, if the dealer wont get you one for free, you can try and see if anyone on the forum who have an account is willing to look one up for you, i did a bunch of carfax for members here when i had an account...if you cant find anyone you can purchase one from carfax for 20 bucks, or you can buy the one month subscription with unlimited look up for 25....which isnt much if it can help you look for the car of your choice within that month

 

that is false, its not their job to tell you anything other than "hey buy this car"

and the report they provided wasnt a FULL history report

its your job to research the car you want to buy

 

I can kinda relate.....except i was aware...

I just bought a 02 sebring silver with 39k for 16,900.... For my area that was an indredible price. The dealer offered the carfax on it before i even asked which i thought was pretty big of them and it had an accident at the cars 13k mark. Minor leftside collision front fender replaced and nothing on the report other than general inspection/title transfer (im 3rd owner and no transaction looked suspicious with the accident). So i look it over and the work seems to be transparent. I was a little giddy, didnt have a pre purchase check, other than me looking it over for about a half hour away from the dealer. It pulled BAD to the right and it had the wrong size tires (it had the correct rear size for all). So i overlooked the tires thinking I'll replace them and use the fronts for spares since they were 90%, but demanded to have an alignment. Got all that done and the car is great....

getting to where this relates to you......shortly after purchase i looked at the rear bumper and on the right side it looks like the rear bumper is significantly lighter than the rest of the car the other side (left) matched fine? I was freaking out....but.....come to realize that there ARE things that happen and it was probably rear ended, or scraped up and instead of reporting it, they took it to a mediocre body shop and had it cheaply patched up for a few hundred instead of getting another bumper/paint match. I've looked it over pretty well under and over and it drives/looks great..... im over it now and realize that ANY used car can have risk of owning it. Whether its a scraped bumper.....engine thats been overheated/over-revved, or whatever neglect/abuse the previous owner has done whether you can see it or not.

Id LOVE to believe that my car was driven 35k highway miles with few instances of 9k shifts and oil changes done religiously etc etc.... But I'll never know and all i can do is take care of her like i do every other car I've owned...

Im anal....i hate when ppl hold the clutch in at lights....i hate when people grind gears, i hate when people leave their cars dirty for months with road salt and other harmful things stuck to the paint, interiors dirty, etc....... So when i can afford a new car i probably will only for the peace of mind that Honda and myself are the only ones that have a say in my cars lifespan, and mean time between failure..

Nate