Need Advice - Test Drive went south

This is a tough one. At one level the driver (you) should accept responsibility for being the pilot and knowing what's in front of you. On the other hand, as you mentioned, the representative took you on that route and should have warned you of the upcoming obstacle.

As I am sure your aware, this is an issue of ethics, not actual financial obligation, you have to decide if you should be held responsible or not. The fact that they did not tell you about until two days later is why I personally wouldn't pay them anything, how do you know someone else didn't do more or all of the damage after the fact?

 

Oh this is good one. I don't see how you can oblige their estimate unless thy have picture proof of how it looked before you scraped. To what level of "fix it" would they try for? Showroom new or how it was when you drove it? Too difficult to say what "exactly" it looked like before you drove.

Do you think think they will drop the price 1K going forward or fix it?

If the sales rep took you down the wrong road... there is no way you could have known the limits of the car since you didn't have a 360 then.

If it's truly your friend and he is in trouble over this and needs your help I might consider splitting the difference but there are friends and then there are friends. The dealership should have insurance for this kind of thing yes?

You might consider subscribing to F-Chat too. The regular subscribed guys would love to bat this one around! and... It is a good value!

 

+1

 

$1050 for a bumper spray? **** I just get a can of black and spray it over...

Agree with above, request. Pic from before..

 

Send them back an invoice for your professional bumper testing service. Unbelievable...

 

Bumper respray costs $700 tops. That would be a high estimate.

If you think you screwed up, maybe pay half? I don't know honestly.

I'm very experienced at driving low cars on crap roads, so I know when a scrape cannot be avoided. If he put you in that situation, then it's his fault.

Sucks; good luck getting it resolved.

 

I think you should speak to the owner of the car. Bottoming out on a public road is not your fault if you are driving the speed limit or even close to the limit. The owners friend should verify that you were doing nothing out of the ordinary and that he directed you to take that route.

 

If they can get $1000.00 out of every test ride maybe they don't want to sell the car.

 

Let's see:

Dealer directs tester on which road to take, but omits that the car will scrape.

If there are no before pictures, it sounds like a money making operation to me.

 

Same happened to me on first 360 test drive. He told me where to turn. Like Rainman "I'm a very good driver." This was just a bad driveway. I was really apologetic and the dealer tried to use this as leverage to get me to purchase (sleazy).

IMO If the damage was bad enough insurance would cover it, if not he will just fix it and write it off.

You owe this guy nothing, especially not 1000+ bucks! The dealer told me his cost of the repair would be 200$. I offered one time to pay 1/2 the cost and he declined and I did not offer again. Then again I did not give him a definitive no on the sale at that time so that's why he prob declined my offer.

In hindsight- the bumpers are fiberglass with flat black paint on the undersurface. I have done bodywork for years, and most damage to this area I can fix (including paint ) for next to nothing in 60-90 min!!

Short answer - don't sweat it, and don't pay a cent!


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If they sent you out by yourself and you scraped it, you might feel some responsibility. Since they did not and you had a seeing-eye copilot, legally and morally, you owe them nothing.

 

At dealers we had cars damaged on test drives pretty often, sometimes extensive damage. One very famous baseball player wrecked a Daytona pretty badly.

Unless we could prove some negligence it was on our insurance.

If friend is acting as a broker and is not covered, sounds like his problem.


Send a letter back complaining about neck pain and tell him politely to **** off.

 

Somebody here is taking the urine!

Even here in the usually polite UK this wouldn't fly

 

Don't pay. His fault, not yours. He shouldn't have taken you down the road. It's his responsibility and you weren't driving reckless

 

I reckon you are showing your genuine good nature which is a great thing these days, but in this case I wouldn't pay a cent.

Having said that, if this was a private sale, and it was an unknown road by both guys I might meet the guy half way.

Might.

 

I agree here, don't pay. But don't be ****** and ignore them or blow them off. Cite your reasons and that your decision is final.

If, on the test drive, you got a speeding ticket, do you think they would pay for that? Nope.

 

Also, I would be surprised if bumper did not already have scrapes before yours. 99.9% of bumpers are scraped on the bottom. Nothing you can do

 

Just imagine if it's your own car and someone else test drove it... What would you do?

 

As seems to be the consenus - I'd pay nothing. You seem like a stand up guy and this stinks of being a scam. Something in this whole story just doesnt sit right for me, on that basis I'd write them a cheque for $0.00.

 

I'd take out my can of flat black Krylon paint and spray it over. Worst case fill it in and spray over..

 

Can't believe all these people saying you aren't to blame. IMO you are 80% at fault. Yes he directed you the way to go but you were driving. Ultimately as the driver, and the person with the best view of the road (or at any rate the one who must always have his eyes on the road) you could've seen the change in the road and slowed down or taken it at an angle. Probably not but hey that's what they're gonna say

I wouldn't dispute paying for it. I would simply dispute the amount you have to pay. Insist on having someone of your choosing examine the photos of the damage and get a quote (providing they are expertly enough qualified).


Legally you should have to pay too (maybe things Are different in America). Was there any sort of contract that you had to sign for the test drive? In most test drives it's at least implied by the parties that you would be responsible for damage YOU caused whilst driving it. At the end of the day you test drove someone else's car and damaged it. Can't expect the guy accompanying you to know that some innocuous looking ramp has been poorly constructed with a 1.5 inch drop in it.

Strict liability is a *****. But for anything under the insurance excess I would think that would or should be the position under the law. Well I'm assuming a test drive would constitute a bailment and iirc that used to be strict liability. Maybe not anymore...and if not only defences are probably act of god (ie storm ruins car whilst driving) and malicious acts of 3p. Probably something else in there too **** knows.

Don't be that guy... Pay up bro.

 

Admittedly your test drive was the cause. Some contribution on your part seems right.

 

In my opinion it comes down to negligence.

Were you negligent in how you drove the vehicle? I say no, so I say you are not responsible. Only if the passenger had for-warned you of the potential damage from the road, and you still chose to go over it, would you be responsible in my opinion.


Ask yourself this: If you were test driving the car and a rock smashed the windshield would you pay for that? NO, because it wasn't your fault the rock was flying through the air, no one warned you that rock would be there, and you had no fair opportunity to avoid it.

 

You had both permission to drive the car and a "handler" to oversee and direct.

No liability.