I leased a C43 AMG a year ago and was asking another dealership the buyout price etc. The other dealer ran the carfax and told me that the car was in an accident just before I leased it. Apparently the headlight and bumper was replaced and now that I look closely I can tell it was. The dealer never disclosed this when I got the car and they were selling this as “new”. it was a sales managers car for 2200 miles.
What makes me mad about this is that I am paying for a car that is not worth that value. The Residual cost is wrong now. Has anyone been in a similar situation or what options do I have? I want out of the car or compensated somehow. I have 3 years left. I am familiar with the 5% law in NYS, but the headlight is $1500, the bumper is $1100 all excluding labor. They are trying to say the bumper was not replaced. There is no evidence of receipts or anything on their end.
You could take it up with MB USA. It’s probably not the first time a demo car has been in an accident and then sold or leased to somebody without disclosing the accident.
Here in California, there’s a paper that dealers have to sign that discloses the vehicle has been in an accident—I’m not sure if this applies to “new” cars or demo cars though. Dig through your paperwork and see if any of the docs have disclosures about accidents and if none was disclosed, you could pursue a claim. The issue is which avenue will give you the best chance of success.
Maybe the easiest option is to go back to the selling dealer and tell them that they leased you a car with an accident that wasn’t disclosed and you want them to buy it back now because you have been negatively impacted by the vehicle’s diminished value.
You might even get a bit of cash back for them leasing you a crashed car as new.
BTW Check the carfax, if it was added ‘after the fact’ there is an ‘added on’ date on it.
I got caught by that on a used car. Carfax was clean and 2 years later an accident was ‘added’ to it.
A similar experience happened to me. I am currently in the middle of a lease with a loaner car that I got from a broker on this site. The broker was great to work with and helped facilitate a seamless transaction. But when the car was delivered, with some of the paperwork, I noticed a sheet from the dealership’s body shop highlighting work that was done due to what appeared to be a fender bender. The broker was completely unaware of this, as the dealer hadn’t disclosed it to them or myself. The broker, even though it wasn’t their fault, did a really great job facilitating a fair resolution that ended with the dealer being very apologetic and cutting me a check.
Maybe naively, I tend to think most people, and in this case dealerships, want to do the right thing. Maybe it was just an oversight. So you’ve already reached out to the original dealership? Someone else mentioned that sometimes it can take a little bit for accidents/damage to be listed on a CarFax. Did you request one when contemplating the lease? Hopefully you’re able to find some resolution.
Each state has different damage disclosure laws MB internally set the limit at 3%. That was a catch all however, some states have the limit set higher some lower. Keep in mind, a headlight rarely gets damaged without the bumper support also being damaged. You can find the “customer pay parts” on the expanded warranty history. It will quickly identify just how minor the damage was / wasn’t. That’s where it shows whether the car was serviced, and other non warranty items.
I was hoping to get some advice. I leased a 5 series demo back in 2019. The car had 4,000 miles, and the dealer stated it was a service demo. I was debating to buyout my lease, and a carfax report shows the car was in a rear end accident a month before I purchased it. I am also shown as being the second owner on the car, even though my understanding is that demo cars arent suppose to show two prior owners. I am a bit ticked off about this, because I obviously would have negotiated a lower price on the car if I knew it was involved in an accident. Also if i buy out the lease, the accident on the carfax report hurts the overall value. Are bmw dealers allowed to lease demo cars without disclosing prior accidents? Should i reach out to BMW to discuss this issue? Any chance they will waive my mileage overage or inspection costs on any damage? Or am I out of luck?
