dealer ethics

Ethically speaking, do you feel a Ferrari dealer should voluntarily inform a customer about any paintwork performed on a car, whether or not the customer asks?

Would you buy from a dealer with such history?

I don't have an opinion one way or the other, I am just curious what others think.

 

It would probably be in their best interests to tell the customer. Otherwise it will come back and bite them on the ass. They would probably lose some trust from their customers. People talk and spread the message very very quickly when it comes to poor service. I have some good friends that are spray painters and they can almost pick any respray/repair job done, to a section on a repaired/repainted car. It is alot harder if it has had a full respray they reckon. But if it has been crashed and a panel sprayed, they can pick the differences in paint finish and colour difference from the rest of the car. So if you do buy a car from a dealer and take it down to a good paintshop to inspect. They should be able to tell you of any indifferences in the paintwork. As long as they are honest with you from the start, then I dont see any reason not to buy the car because of that. But thats just my opinion.

 

Trust is important.

 

i would like to know if there was paintwork as a result of body damage, or a color change, or a full body repaint. if these items are not disclosed, i probably wouldn't buy from that dealer again. repainting the front bumper due to stone chips, i don't really care. i usually ask about that one, but mostly so that i have an answer when it's my turn to sell.

john

 

They should volunteer ANY info pertaining to the car! PERIOD!!!

Cheers!

DT

 

I take exception to the wording of the question. I did answer "yes" but reluctantly. There are too many variations of why a car would be painted. And there is a difference between ethics and good business. If the car was wrecked, then that fact should be revealed (thus making the paint question mute). If the car was painted for cosmetic reasons (dull original paint, scratches/nicks) then it would be courteous and good business to divulge, but not unethical IMHO if it wasn't mentioned. I would think a good paint job would be documented and perhaps have a warranty associated with it as well.

Of course, if the buyer asks "is this the original paint job" then they MUST answer truthfully. We should just ask.

 

Even if said car had a paintjob if the dealer mentioned it in advance I would trust the dealer more and be more prone to buying the car then finding out on the own. I would also let others know that dealer was very honest with me, lying only hurts you in the end.

 

+1

 

I also answered with a qualified "yes" for the reasons Rob stated. I can also add that a certain percentage of new cars suffer some damage in transit from the factory to dealerships. I often see some of them at nearby Classic Coach, one of a few Ferrari-authorized coach repair shops in North America. After they are repaired, they are sent on their way to their final destination. They even repair small imperfections in the paintwork which might have escaped notice at the factory. To my eye, the repairs are not noticeable.

Road testing at the factory also results in occasional damage which is repaired at the factory. Blemishes are corrected too (we saw that in "Ultimate Factories - Ferrari" on NGC).

So even if one were to ask about the coachwork repair history of a new car, the answer would be yes for a certain percentage of cars.

 

In case there are people who don't know - you can buy a paint thickness gauge for a few hundred dollars which will help you test any prospective car for resprays and/or accident damage.

I use Elcometer and Exacto gauges - they've helped me more times than I can count.

 

trust goes to all.... body paint, internet parts sale service, mechanic.

not to tell the truth or consealing the truth or left others to believe something else is as good as lie.....

 

I think ANY and ALL Dealers MUST provide all paint work performed on the car that was anything other than original. I bought a 5 series a couple of years ago while under the impression that it was prestine. When I tried to sell and trade it in recently, the dealership pointed out areas that were repainted and possibly damaged by an accident that cannot be seen by the untrained eye. The car fax showed no history of an accident.

Thus, I got bit in the ass due to the fact that the dealership WITHELD this information just to make a quick buck. If I would have known, I would have negotiated the price down lower or turned my back on them. So I completely agree....

 

do the $200 ones work on aluminum?

 

A pretty good percentage of cars recieved from Ferrari at the dealers have had paint work and the dealer is never notified. Maybe you should start there.

I do not know who does it but much of it is done to a very average standard.