[mellowman]

Hi all,

I'm shopping around for a used 328i for my wife and one of them that I'm interested in, the car shows an accident on auto check, but it doesn't show on carfax after I ran them by asking for the VIN from the seller. The seller hasn't mentioned anything about the accident. My question is, is the seller supposed to let me know its been in an accident or he doesn't need to disclose that info?

[Riceball777]

Is this a serious question? Maybe the seller does not know about the accident. Or maybe he does not want to tell you. No one needs to do anything.

[Darkshines629]

Originally Posted by mellowman

My question is, is the seller supposed to let me know its been in an accident or he doesn't need to disclose that info?

feel free to ask. then feel free not to believe his/her answer. all the risk lies with the buyer.

believe the report with the accident. then get a ppi.

[mellowman]

Originally Posted by Riceball777

Is this a serious question? Maybe the seller does not know about the accident. Or maybe he does not want to tell you. No one needs to do anything.

Yes, this is a serious question. I am trying to ask if its the seller's responsibility to let buyers know that the car has been in a accident or not. Or, they do not usually need to tell the buyers this info, and its all up to the buyer to check this info on their own thru the auto check and carfax reports. Seller said he's the original owner.

But lets say I bought a car and the carfax doesn't show the accident, but I didn't do the auto check first before buying it. Then after buying car, I decided to get a auto check report and then it now shows a accident. Can I sue the seller for not disclosing this accident info, or am I basically screwed and its my own fault for not checking before buying the car?

A few friends are telling me that the seller "has" to inform or let buyer know that a accident is on record. And a few friends are telling me the seller "does not" need to tell me anything about a accident. They say as long as car was repaired and still fine, its like good as new and no issues. And they say its nothing wrong to buy a car that has been in an accident as long as it is not affecting the body/frame of car and only bumpers is fine, etc.

[grizz311]

No you cannot sue him. It is not his responsobility to disclose autocheck and carfax results for the car. Sometimes different systems show different results. He also doesn't have to tell you that the car was in an accident. If you bring it up and ask him if it was in an accident, the moral thing would be to tell you the truth, but once again he can also not tell you. Private car sales are sold as is, unless stipulated otherwise. You could try a civil suit, but I doubt it would get anywhere. Do your due diligence when buying a vehicle and do an inspection prior to purchasing. That's the best advice that I can give.

[rulonger]

Originally Posted by mellowman

Hi all,

I'm shopping around for a used 328i for my wife and one of them that I'm interested in, the car shows an accident on auto check, but it doesn't show on carfax after I ran them by asking for the VIN from the seller. The seller hasn't mentioned anything about the accident. My question is, is the seller supposed to let me know its been in an accident or he doesn't need to disclose that info?

BUYER BEWARE. All used cars are sold on an AS-IS basis. And sellers will lie. It is in their interest to get top-dollar and they have no legal responsibility to divulge an accident history, or maintenance for that matter.

My story - bought a CPO that had been locally owned and traded in at the dealership where the car was originally purchased and maintained. Salesman showed me a clean carfax dated the week of my purchase. Fast-forward three years with CPO expiring and I took it to check the trade-in value. Finance manager at the VW dealership said that he would have to deduct $1500 because my car was in an accident, per carfax. He showed me the date of the accident - occurred a month before I bought it as a CPO. My bet is that the dealership that sold it to me either repaired the damage or at least knew about it if they did a half-ass CPO inspection.

I do not trust dealers, carfax or other sellers. Find a mechanic that you trust, period.

[patents]

Used car purchases as always "as-is." There is no legal requirement for a seller to disclose whether the car has been in an accident.

I believe in some certain situations there are required disclosures for particular bits of the car's history, for example if it was a manufacturer buyback, and that only applies to certain sellers (e.g. original dealer).

The seller doesn't have to disclose. He can lie to your face and tell you it hasn't been in an accident, and there's nothing you can do about it. What would you sue him for, anyway? Your loss would be what, a few hundred bucks of value at most? Then you'd have to prove he lied to you. Good luck with that.

Actually, the seller could lie to your face, tell you it's never been in an accident, you buy the car and the next day you find out that repairs were done so bad that the frame cannot be repaired and the engine will fall out of the car at any minute, and you'd be the one screwed. Tough luck. It's your responsibility to inspect the car when buying "as-is."

[mellowman]

Originally Posted by grizz311

No you cannot sue him. It is not his responsobility to disclose autocheck and carfax results for the car. Sometimes different systems show different results. He also doesn't have to tell you that the car was in an accident. If you bring it up and ask him if it was in an accident, the moral thing would be to tell you the truth, but once again he can also not tell you. Private car sales are sold as is, unless stipulated otherwise. You could try a civil suit, but I doubt it would get anywhere. Do your due diligence when buying a vehicle and do an inspection prior to purchasing. That's the best advice that I can give.

Yeah, I thought that if you try to sell a car that has an accident on the report, that most people will pass on the car because once they know its been in an accident, they rather not buy the car or consider it. I also thought that maybe the accident damage was very little and thats the reason why it didn't show up on carfax? Because I've seen carfax show accidents but then again, I have no idea how bad it was. It seems that auto check reports are better than carfax reports if its going to show this accident info. And I had thought carfax was the best type of report to get to disclose all car history for buyers.

Yeah, if i was a seller of a car with an accident, I would probably just let people know that car has been in an accident and let them decide to purchase the car or not. I guess its my conscience of knowing that would get to me and I would feel bad. Because later after they find out about it and try to sell it in the future, it may be more difficult for them to sell it.

[e90ca]

Originally Posted by patents

Used car purchases as always "as-is." There is no legal requirement for a seller to disclose whether the car has been in an accident.

I believe in some certain situations there are required disclosures for particular bits of the car's history, for example if it was a manufacturer buyback, and that only applies to certain sellers (e.g. original dealer).

The seller doesn't have to disclose. He can lie to your face and tell you it hasn't been in an accident, and there's nothing you can do about it. What would you sue him for, anyway? Your loss would be what, a few hundred bucks of value at most? Then you'd have to prove he lied to you. Good luck with that.

Actually, the seller could lie to your face, tell you it's never been in an accident, you buy the car and the next day you find out that repairs were done so bad that the frame cannot be repaired and the engine will fall out of the car at any minute, and you'd be the one screwed. Tough luck. It's your responsibility to inspect the car when buying "as-is."

Wow this is good info to know!!

[MattMan657]

Some states have different used car lemon laws. I believe Mass has some pretty aggressive anti lemon laws that would actually protect the buyer in a situation that patents brings up.

[Darkshines629]

how does a lemon law protect a potential buyer against the way the seller crashed and/or lied about crash?

[engineer73]

Lemon laws are for the protection of the buyer from a registered dealer new or used, not a private sale. The seller doesn't have to disclose the accident to the buyer unless it is considered a total loss or rebuilt title. Now if you purchased the carfax prior to the vehicle and have proof of that and the carfax said it had a clean title with no accidents and it didn't then you could go after carfax.