Used Cars: Dealership did not disclose accident on vehicle

Question
Dear Rodger,
I read your 3/3/1010 response to a reader on this topic and found it very helpful. I was selling my car to CarMax and they pointed out front end damage that had not been disclosed to me by Beaverton/Infiniti Honda where I bought my car used 4 years ago. The dealership bought the car at auction.  Based on your 2010 response, either the auction company or the dealership should have noticed what was obvious to the CarMax inspector. So, before I confront the dealership about their incompetency (or worse), here is my question: "What prevents the dealership from asserting that I caused this damage and had my "cousin" repair it without reporting it?  Thanks!
Bruce Johnson (Willamette Graduate School of Business, Class of 1986!)

Answer
Good morning Bruce,

Always a pleasure to chat with another Atkinson School Bearcat I don't want to date myself but I was there in 83 and my son was there in 2005. I am on the road this morning but will be able to respond fully before noon

Sorry I have been on the road these past few days where my time is not my own. So let's answer your concern ... Here is how these things work. (Auto Dealership best practices ...which means that all dealers should do this and most actually do...most but not all)  

It doesn't matter where a car comes from but before entering our inventory we run a carfax/autocheck on everyone of them. This gives us the vehicles accident history etc. and helps us decide if we want to keep it or buy it or not. This includes auction cars where we don't buy from the no guarantee lanes and arbitrate almost every purchase (the car gets inspected). If the accident to your car generated a carfax/autocheck flag then its pretty inexcusable to think they didn't know. If it didn't then it would have had to be seen by the appraiser and there are a lot of bad ones out there who don't even drive the trade ins before they make the deal ... CarMax is more corporate and as such they have procedures they have to follow and paperwork they have to fill out the same way they fill them out in all of the other gazillion car max locations.

Should they have disclosed it if they knew about it? Yes ... Should Beaverton Infiniti have known about it? Absolutely! They aren't a rock lot out in BFE. This long after the fact is it something you could prove in court? very unlikely. There is also the matter of the time period between when you bought it and when you were told about the problem if that were a matter of weeks or a month or two ...then jumping up and down might have gotten a response but 4 years later....your pretty much screwed. There is probably a statute of limitations issue. From my experience all of the Lanphere stores run real clean. I have been warned about proffering anything that sounds like legal advice here but should you decide to take it to a higher level then get ahold of me at roadloans@gmail.com and I will direct you to a very aggressive, very smart attorney who has been ripping some dealers apart in pretty short order I can refer you to and he can tell you what will in all likelihood be the same exact thing.

Ask any followups you want ....Go Bearcats!