QuestionI bought a 2010 Kia Forte last weekend. It was advertised as new and the internet sales manager told me over the phone it had no more than 40 miles on it. When I arrived, I saw that it had 5900 miles on it. She apologized and said there was a computer error; it had been used as an employee demo car.
She took $500 off the price, but I advised that was not sufficient because the warranty was reduced. She told me that the warranty would begin the day I bought the car and that it would be sold as a new vehicle, never titled before. The normal warranty is 5 yrs/60k miles. She said I would have 5 years from that day and until 65,900 miles. I agreed to the deal and bought the car.
Since I believe in trust but verify, I sent an email to Kia to make sure this was correct. They called me back and said it was not correct, that I would lose 5900 miles off the waranty and the warranty period began a year ago.
I called the dealer and spoke to the same internet sales manager. She said Kia was wrong and she would straighten it out, and call me the next day. It has been 3 days and no call back. I left her a message today.
I'm beginning to think she either lied or made a huge mistake and now is hoping I'll just go away. She seemed honest at the time, but now I'm not so sure.
Can you help me figure out my options? In my view, I think they either owe me a replacement vehicle with a full warranty, or they should refund some money. Should I contact a lawyer? Someone else?
Thanks for your help
Answer
Car Guy
Hi Scott,
Sorry to hear you are having some confusion about your new car warranty.
I am not certain about the laws in the state you are in but I do know in the states of Oregon and Washington a dealer can legally sell a car as 'new' with up to 6,000 miles on it. The car you purchased is what we call a "grounded demo' meaning it has all of the miles it can possibly have anhd still be sold as new ...complete with the new car warranty and all rebates and factory supported rates a new car would have because in the eyes of the law until a vehicle has been registered to someone for the first time (and has under 6000 miles) it is technically still a new car.
That said lets talk about your situation: It is entirely possible that your car was registered by the dealer prior to your buying it for a variety of reasons. Sometimes there is factory 'stair step' money on a particular model and if we find ourselves 1-3 units away and a stair step increase of 30,000 or more hanging in the balance we will buy the cars and take the extra money. Additionally when we put a car into demo service we tell the factory we have done it so it doesn't count against our future allocations and it's possible it was mitakenly registered that way. Finally the rule on factory warranties is very clear in that they donot start until the date you take delivery of the vehicle (time wise) and the miles component starts with whatever miles the vehicle has on it that day OR THE DATE THE CAR WAS FIRST PUT INTO SERVICE. We have had a few rare instances where a car is sold and registered with DMV only to have to take it back for one reason or another... when we resell that car the new owner is stuck with the date of the first registered owner.
One of two things has happened in your case...
#1 The person you spoke to at Kia was smoking crack cocaine (lol)
#2 Your car has been registered or put into service (w/ DMV) prior to your buying it....the easiest way to figure out your date of first service, is to run a carfax on the vehicle ...it will tell you the date the car was first registered to anyone anywhere.
Now what to do: I would pull a quick carfax and check the date. If the car has been registered prior to your buying it then you bought a used car and with Kia (I am not a kia dealer) the warranty for the first owner is significantly better than it is for the 2nd and they need to make that part right by swapping you out of the car you are in and into a new car. Threatening to report it to the Atty Generals office is a great idea and I would also file a complaint with your state DMV office (this isn't the kinds of stuff they generally will torture the dealer over but it gives their investigator the heads up on a problem with that dealers integrity because where there is smoke there is fire) The dealer has the ability to go to Kia and have this problem fixed as well by asking them to change the dates/miles for warranty purposes... believe me that dealer does not want a grounded demo back because they are extremely difficult to sell at anything resembling a profit ...when we put a vehicle into demo service we start writing it down every month so we aren't stuck with a car with a new car invoice cost and a current Kelly blue book value for the same make model and yr (which is much less). My gut feeling on this is that kia's information is correct because the korean automakers incentivize theior dealers with stairstep programs like no one else. Please get back to me after you pull a carfax and let me know who the guilty party is
My private e-mail is roadloans@Gmail.com if you have any follow-up questions feel free to ask them and going direct to this e-mail will get a much faster response as it gets sent directly to my phone and I check it constantly throughout the day. Good luck.
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I hope this helps
Roger
