I'm new to the forum and I was wondering if anyone could advise me or share a similar experience. Sales manager calls me yesterday and says 'Your new truck arrived at our downtown location and we should have it ready for you by tomorrow afternoon'. This morning I get a call from a salesmen who works for the manager. He says 'There's been a delay in processing your vehicle, we'll call you when we have a new time for you to come get it'. I ask 'What kind of delay, what are you talking about'? He goes on about 'dealership processing' and skirts the question. I jump in the Explorer and drive to the downtown dealership to see what I can see. I find my truck in a body shop bay with the hood removed and some kid is prepping the hood to paint. I say 'Hey nice truck, what's wrong with the hood'? He says there was a scratch in it and proceeds to paint the entire hood.

I call the other dealership (uptown) and ask to speak with the sales manager (he's been very straight forward up to this point). I ask what the holdup is and he says the truck had a small scratch in the hood that I wouldn't even have noticed, but he's having it BUFFED out for me because he's just that nice.

The delaership painting the hood is the same one who painted my Explorer's hood TWICE because the first time they repainted it they didn't use ANY primer! Should I be worried about the new truck? Should I tell the manager that I KNOW the hood's been painted not buffed and ask for a paint warranty or some other perk? Or should I take this as a sign and drop the whole deal? Thanks for your input.danddg@mindspring.com

 

I would take it as a sign that the dealership is not honest, they should have told you straight up what was wrong. After that, I don't think I would be willing to give them my money.

 

They're trying to fix it, I'd let it ride. If they followed proper channels, they filed a damage claim on your truck and Ford's footing the bill, which means I think the refinishing of your hood will show on your warranty history.

 

This type of thing happens more often than most would think.

Things happen in railyards, on transporters, on lots...

Dealer was not completely honest, but probably 75% of them would have done the same thing because they don't want the customer freaking out.

Let them fix it and don't worry about it man. If the hood starts turning into a pumpkin in two years you can raise hell, but that ain't gonna happen most likely.

 

If it was just the hood I'd make them admit to lying, Then I'd demand some sort of a upgrade or addon such as a grill guard or free bedliner. They owe you IMO

 

Buy a Chevy....
DOH....
Just kidding....

I would confront the sales manager about the lack of honesty.
If they would have told you in the 1st place that the hood was scratched and they where having it repaired at least you would have been on a level playing field.

So I guess you have to ask yourself if the honesty would have made a difference in your purchase of the vehicle?

 

So you have experience with this dealer's idea of a body shop? They have failed to meet your expectations on paint before and now they are painting your "NEW" truck??!! I'd be worried. I know it's tough, but I'd walk. There are TONS of Ford dealerships out there, and even more F150's!

 

Blue'05Screw,

I had a similar thing happen to me a few years ago. The truck I bought was wrecked and repaired at the factory and sold to me as new. I found this out after I had taken delivery of the truck. The truck ended up having more than a dozen other serious problems and I ended up trading it off and taking a loss because I didn't want to go through the legal nightmare of suing them to take it back and get my money back.

My advice to you: RUN, don't walk, RUN away from this truck and consult an attorney. Do not buy this truck or you will have problems with it until you get rid of it.

Take it from someone who has already been down that road and learned the hard (and expensive) way. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

Sometimes, stealerships don't tell customers things they don't think they need to know. It can create a hypocondriac<sp> syndrome with their vehicles.

For instance, often times I'll take a hit in what a job might pay under warranty by wording my story for the customer a little differently...some people don't need to know that the dash just came out of their vehicles to fix a wire or something, because they'll start hearing every little squeak and rattle in the world.

Likewise, the dealer thought that there was no real need to tell Blue about his hood being repainted; now, he'll probably look at the truck a little differently, maybe the paint won't quite match right to him, and there's still the idea in the back of his head that his new truck had to get a body panel repainted before he ever even got a chance to drive it, which I know would **** me off.

Plausible deniability. It sucks, I know, but what dealer doesn't tell a story or three to their customers?

Edited to add: Refusal of a vehicle upon delivery due to damages is completely and totally a right you reserve, if you so choose.

 

This happened to me last month when I bought my truck. They were driving it around to the detail shop as I was waiting in the showroom.
Sales man comes up to me and says there is a problem, and walks me back to the truck.

There now was a 6 inch gash over the rear wheel well on the bed.

They said they would paint it and it would be perfect. It was getting late and they said well, take it home tonight and decide.

I agreed. Took it home, and could think of nothing else but that scratch in my Brand new truck. My joy of a new truck was shadowed by the imperfection in my Brand new truck.

Next day I called em and told em to get me another one.

I drove the scratched one for a week while they found my current one from another dealership.

Dont take it. Why pay that kind of money and have a repainted truck. It will always bug you , trust me. I just went through it.

 

Your paying for a new truck...not a repainted one. Either get a a couple grand knocked off or walk away. On second thought just walk away, I wouldnt except a repainted hood on my BRAND NEW truck. No way.

 

And that, boys and girls, is unfortunately why some dealers keep their mouths shut and their customers in the dark...please don't shoot the messenger, I don't necessarily agree with it, but I do see stuff like that daily and I do understand the reasoning behind it.

 

Well I guess the old saying "what you don't know want hurt you" applies here, and if the repaint was a quality one then no harm done I guess. But if I did know for sure (or porbably even suspected) the brand new truck I was buying has already had paint work done on it there is no way I would buy it.

 

Repaint would not bother me as long as it was done right. Major damage would. Just a hood repaint is trivial as I see it and I say once again make your dealer give you something to make up for it. Ford will reimburse them I'm certain.

 

So what you guys are saying is that there is no way you would buy the truck.

I would!!!


As long as they gave me money for the damage. Oh, and it was enough to get the Whipple supercharger, and they installed it for free with the new grill and tires, bed cover, spray on liner, exhaust, nerf bars all free and .............................