Don't worry, my C6 is fine (thank God!). My wife's Grand Prix GTP was parked at a parking lot and somebody pulled up too close and hit her front bumper. And of course they didn't stick around. Long story short, our insurance adjuster came to the house to examine the bumper and told me that the bumper was aftermarket...meaning the car was previously in a wreck and repaired. He then took out a gauge that he pressed up against the front fenders that shows the depth of the paint, and it was 6.5 on both front fenders, meaning they were replaced and painted. I bought the car for my wife used a couple of years ago, and the adjuster said that the dealer by law has to disclose if it was in an accident or not. If someone can run me a CARFAX report on the VIN, I would greatly appreciate it. If I can prove that it was in an accident prior to when I bought it, I can get the dealer to buy it back at what I paid for it...and then will use the money to buy my wife a C6 of her own. (She keeps bothering to drive mine, and you all know how that goes!) The icing on the cake in this case is the dealer I bought the car from is selling C6's at $5,000 above MSRP, so this will feel real good to stick this to them. And no...I didn't buy my C6 from them.

The VIN: 1G2WR1211XF351975

My e-mail is: prudentialbanker@aol.com

Thanks!

P.S. Just ordered Corsa for the vette, will be posting some dyno results and sound files in the next week.

 

Grand Prix GTP -> C6

That'd be quite a jump :p

 

that info does not have to be disclosed by dealer. the dealer may not have known, granted they usually do. the only way you would have a case is that if the title of the car is branded a salvage. that would mean that the car was in an accident and totalled out by the insurance company. the car would then usually go to a salvage auction. the buyer would either take the car apart and sell parts or fix the car and sell it. you can look at the title of the car and it should have a place on the front that says title status, brands, or something of the sort. as long as there is no "S" under it, it is not a salvaged car. it should either be blank or have an "A" there. there are other codes for flood cars and taxi's but that irrelevent here.
if your car is an "A" (or blank) titled car, there is nothing you can do.
i know because i own a salvage yard and buy these wrecked cars. i take 95% of them apart and the other 5% get sold as rebuilders. they are then fixed and sold by the buyer.

 

Laws are different in different states, but this doesn't sound right.

I have had friends that wrecked a car, had it fixed and it wasn't reported to insurance or the police. How exactly would the dealer know?

I'm not sure this is the dealers responsibility. I always make the dealer pay to give me a CarFax report on any used car I buy, but I don't think there is a law saying they have to.

 

Unless there is some local or state law that mandates dealers and resellers to make a Carfax check they are under no obligation to do so and by virtue of that would then be able to say they did not know about the history.

It seems like it wasn't even an issue to you for the several years so the fix must have been good enough to make the car visually and operationally acceptable to you and your wife.

Somehow it doesn't seem ethical to complain after you used the car for 2 -3 years without any problems and now because of some technicallity you want to collect a payday from the car dealer.

Can you say Litigious.

It would be different if there was a history you compiled of behaviors that would indicate the car was screwed up because of this accident your adjuster says happened but you do not indicate that and you drove the car for two years without even thinking about it.

If you want to buy a C6 for your Old Lady buy her one, don't make someone else pay for it that doesn't deserve to.

I don't mean to be a spoilsport and I am far from perfect but too many good and righteous people chose litigation as a second income in this country these days.

 

99.9% of accidents that don't result in a salvage status never make it into carfax.

Your best bet is to get an owner history of the report for your DMV. Many states will also list who the insurance company was. Even they don't, you can still call around to insurance companies with a name and sometimes only a vin and find out if the car was insured through them.

Even at that, it may have not have been reported to any insurance company or if the fualt was not the owners by the other car's, their insurance company might have paid for it.

What's even worse, now that you know about it, you'll have to disclose it to anyone you sell it to.

 

Agree with others. Laws very by state so who knows.

Good luck on getting them to buy it back for what you paid for it a couple of years ago.

 

Sounds like you may be caught between a rock and a hard place. Very frustrating. Good luck

 

The reason I am pursuing this is because the insurance adjuster advised me that when I go to trade the car in, the dealership can look up by the VIN and see if the car was in an accident (if it was reported, etc.). And if that is the case, they can (will) offer me much less because a car that was in a wreck is worth much less, even if it was fixed. This was the case with someone who posted on the board a few months back who was hit in his silver C6. Although it can be fixed back to normal, it isn't worth the same because it was wrecked. There is a depreciation in value. I may not be able to get the dealer to buy back the car, but there is the possibility of being compensated the value of depreciaton...because I did pay NADA value. My friend of mine knows a sales manager at a Ford dealer and I had him ask, and he was told that prior accidents (if in national insurance database) must be disclosed to the buyer, otherwise the dealership could get in trouble with the deceptive trade practices act. If anyone does have access to CARFAX and can look up what the history shows for that VIN, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for all your advice so far.

 

Just go to carfax.com and pull your own,,,,,,carfax that is