new car with a scratch? would you argue it?
 

So, a friend of mine bought a new 2009 lancer---before he officially bought it, he noticed a scratch on the passenger side door, near the side sill and it ran up about 5 inches on the door.....I looked at it, it's hard to see from a distance, but up close, it is very obvious, and it's deep into the paint....

I asked him if he argued about it, or asked for a discount or to have the door replaced and what not....he said "when I mentioned it, they stated that they can put touch up paint to cover it, but they couldn't do anything else"...


pardon my ignorance, but if you buy a new car, don't you expect it to be....well....in new condition? would any of you just take a "new" car at RETAIL price, if it had damage like that before it even left the lot?

maybe it's just me, but i'd have them fix it, or i'd go elsewhere.

I would've had them fix it properly (no touch-up paint)...or bring in another car NEW condition for me. If they didn't...there's plenty of other dealerships around. Albeit honest ones are hard to find.

When my father purchased his truck, he spotted a dust bump in the paint and made them fix it correctly before he would sign anything. They tried to persuade him with some BS, but we were ready to go elsewhere if they refused to correct the problem.

Sounds like typical dealership BS to get the sale and/or your friend being too eager to take the car home.

you should really push to get it fixed or get another car if they dont help just go some were else and see what they do then

yeah i wouldnt have bought the car. theres several things dealerships try to make you do to make sure you buy the car you picked and you dont change your mind. first off they were trying hard for mitsu to beat my credit unions finacning but i knew they couldnt so i had about 3 hours to look around at my car / and at others.

During those 3 hours mine tried to make me buy insurance for the car BEFORE I OWNED IT. Before i even signed the papers. I was like yeah ok and pretended to do it but put it off (they set me up on a computer at the dealership).

I walked outside to inspect the car several times , i th ought i noticed a door ding so i started to analyze the door at every angle possible in the sun and out of the sun, turned out to be a dirt reflection. well while i was doing that the sales man was trying to talk to me / show me accessories on the other cars that i could buy to add.

on the other hand i tried to use the fact that my car had 500 miles on it (it was driven from houston dealership) to get it down another 1k and they simply said PICK ANY LANCER WITH THE SAME OPTIONS ANY COLOR (2009 gts s&s package cvt) and your price is $20k OTD!. Heh it was the only one in b lack so i stuck with it but they did give me the option...so yeah your friend should have asked for the same deal on a different car with the same package. touch up paint on a SCRATCH looks ugly, now on a nick or rock chip it looks ok but on a vertical or horizontal scratch it takes some talent to make it look good with a touch up pen

Yea i told him he should go back and argue it. The problem is now that he drove it off the lot, they can say "it could have been done after you left the dealership"....and either way he's SOL now...

i'd never buy a car that had damage to it...at least not at full price. i'd have asked for them to fix it, or drop the price by at least 1k

Your friend got screwed, you can walk away from the dealer at any time and your friend should have. It was a dumb mistake that has left them with a messed up door. And 500-600 bucks to professionally repaint the whole door if you want it looking perfect.

i wouldnt take it. i bought a brand new. so expecting it to be new. fresh.

Thats mitsubishi dealers for you...When I traded in my 2008 Lancer for a 2009 Lancer I told them I wanted all my speaker wire from the car back...I had installed subs and an amp and told them I want it back...they told me I could, but I couldnt take the wires right away, I had to wait for the deal to go through or something...I called them about once a week to figure out status...eventually (about 2 weeks later) they say it was at the body shop and they couldnt get the wires out till it was back...another week went by and I never heard from them, so I started calling them everyday...When the car finally came back they said the wires were gone...So I told them to replace them...They told me they would have to talk to the owner...so again, I continued to call them everyday...Finally, after calling them 100 times they gave me $50 to replace them (even though they were probably less than that, I tried to get as much as I could from them)...with that I ended up buying even better wires and I only had to pay $20 out of my pocket...at the end it was well worth the wait...but still mitsubishi like to do this kind of thing...

I personally wouldn't care too much, within the first 2 weeks of buying my car I had 2 dents in both front doors, and white paint from another car on my door handle. It's impossible to keep the car perfect forever, eventually it will get dents and scratches. I still take care of the car, wash it every week or 2 weeks, buff out sratches, try to pull dents, ect. But you can't keep it perfect forever.

My car was pretty much perfect OTD, I immediately clay barred the entire car, put 2 coats of synthetic wax and 1 coat of carnuba over that. I do have a few rock chips on the front pillar and front bumper, other than that everything is holding up well, its not my DD but I do drive it 3-4 days a week.

they should have either fixed it, or he should of left it on the lot and went somewhere else. if he cant put up no more of a fight then that, let him live with it and point it out everyday.

On a :mitsu: I wouldn't... there's about to be a whole lot more of em with the "high quality paint" mitsu uses

New should mean new. This isnt a scrach and dent sale, its a dealership. Slap somebody

I got my lancer rather early on, May of 07. The dealer had the car on one of the drive on display racks and from either going up or down the ramp on the rack there were actual gouges in the 2 front pontoon peices. I took it back a week or so after i bought it and explained the scratches and that the car had been on the rack when I purchased it. They replaced the pontoons with no hassle after that. Go into the dealership and ask to speak with the manager or owner and fully explain the situation. If it was really there when you drove the car off the lot and you paid for a "NEW" car, i would of pushed the issue further.

Hell yeah... ask for them to fix the scratch or give you another one.