Dealership refusing to compensate for their negligence

[u/PopularGrapefruit150]

Dealership is an absolute pain to deal with, I just want to know if I have a leg to stand on here or if I'm SOL. It's a minor bill ($500 including towing), but I feel like this isn't something I should have to deal with 300 miles after buying a car. Just looking for a second opinion, I don't care about the money, I can afford a $500 bill, but I'm just pissed about the situation.

Anyways here goes...

About two weeks ago, I purchased a used vehicle from a dealership. The vehicle was represented as being in proper working condition at the time of sale, passed their 10 point inspection. I purchased a 2023 Hyundai with 39,328 miles. I ran into this problem at 39,600 miles.

Shortly after purchase, I was away for several days. Upon returning, I discovered the vehicle’s engine oil was practically empty. Given the severity of the issue, the vehicle was immediately towed to an independent mechanic that I am familiar with and trust for inspection and repair.

The independent mechanic performed a full evaluation, cleaned the affected components, and identified the cause of the failure as an improperly installed or defective O-ring. The mechanic has documented the condition of the vehicle, the diagnosis, etc. I have photos and videos of the improperly installed o ring as well as how much oil leaked onto the bottom of my car that had to be cleaned.

Based on the timing of the failure, occurring within a week of purchase (only 300 miles) and the nature of the defect, the issue appears consistent with improper servicing or faulty installation existing at the time of sale or delivery (aka negligence).

The vehicle experienced a major loss of oil that, had it occurred while driving long distance, could have resulted in complete engine failure and left me stranded out of state. Thankfully when I went out of state my brother drove us in his car instead of taking mine (I purchased it on Tuesday and we left that Friday, got back Monday night).

I contacted the dealership to request coverage of the repair costs and associated expenses. The dealership has refused, stating that since the vehicle was not brought to them for service they are not required to compensate. I do not believe this is reasonable given the circumstances, the safety risk involved, and the need for independent diagnosis after a mechanical failure immediately following purchase as a result of their negligence.

[u/Benzhead]

Check with your states inspection process. Where I am there is no such thing as “as is”. The car has to pass safety and emissions for 30 days. Many states have a minimum warranty on cars under 100k miles. Used car rules are different in every state.

[u/PopularGrapefruit150 → u/Benzhead]

Yeah, I just found it in the contract. It's under warranty for 60 days or 3,000 miles.

[u/Square-Wild → u/PopularGrapefruit150]

There are a couple answers to this question.

In terms of the law, in perfect world, honestly you're probably right. There's negligence, asymmetric information with the contract- the dealer knew or should have known about the defect and didn't disclose.

The issue is you're going to be paying $400/hour to recover $500. Unless there's a statute that gets you attorney's fees as well, this is a waste of time and money. (If you can get attorneys fees, then this suddenly looks a whole lot better.)

The other potential legal bell you could ring is fishing for a class action. If the dealership is claiming to do these inspections and not actually performing them and/or not honoring their warranty, there may be a bunch more similarly situated plaintiffs. That would be a big problem, and the typically aggressive/defensive posture that dealerships take would really work against them there, if there is actually meat on the bones.

Short of all that, as others have said, you could always threaten to leave an accurate, but negative, review all over social media. The idea that the dealer is threading the needle between claiming to have inspect the car, missing something relatively obvious, offering a warranty, but also refusing to reimburse you for expenses due to taking it somewhere else, is kind of crazy and not the kind of thing that other customers are going to want to read.