Honda Car Forum

I bought this car 3 years ago at Brickell Honda Motors in Miami, FL. two weeks ago I took it to CarMax thinking to sell it. For my suprise they told that it has frame damage. How can it be possible if it is a "Certified Honda"?.Well seems that people at Brickel Honda are experts in how to deceive. I've got a copy of the CarFax report now in my hands where is pretty clear that the car had frame damage just few months before I bought it. After that entry, the report says "Sold as Certified Honda"I've been doing the maintenance and one claim as a "certified warranty" at a local honda dealer, they never told me a word about the frame damage.Now the car has almost 100.000 mile on it, but it worths nothing, I feel deceived . Honda does not provide a direct way to contact them and let them know how good they dealers are representing them. I really do not want to talk to the dealer.. and I get a lawyer is painful long process. What should I do?. Has anybody had a case like this?Thanks

You present a tough task; it does appear from your presentation of the facts that their maybe a case to be made that all the facts regarding the history of the vehicle were not disclosed to you and possible other legal issues are open.Now, one large issue here is the amount of time since you purchased the vehicle. The statue of limitations applies to all sales of merchandise at some point; I cannot assist you with this area of the law, you'll need to consult legal cousel to help you with this. Certainly the dealership should have inspected the vehicle before sale; on the other hand very few used cars are normally "pre certified" before sale to a dealer. I cannot speak for this vehicle, I don't simply have the data to respond to your case. However, you need to determine who owned the vehicle before the dealership; was it a lease return and the vehicle purchased from Honda as "pre-certified" used car or was it a dealership certified Honda used car.There is much at stake here; you need to determine who certified the vehicle, was it Honda or the dealership. I would suggest you discuss the meritts of your case with a lawyer and see what they can do for you. Because of the time element involved since the actual purchase, it's something I would do right away.I'm sorry that I cannot provide much assistance beyond this; I wish you well and hope things will work out for you.Sincerely yours, a car nut.

The previous answer is what I would say as well. You can go back to the dealer and ask to view the certification request that was submitted to Honda.They will be able to look it up and give you the date it was certified. Using this information you can determine of the car was pre-certified or certified by the dealership.There are 4 criteria that must be met by any Honda Dealer/Representative when Certifying the vehicleThey must do a Physical inspection, Mechanical/Safety Inspection,Run a History Report (such as Car fax), Check for Service Bulletins/RecallsCheck for Branded Titles (Salvage etc)This information is available to you from the dealership.American Honda has several Districts/Zones and their addresses are in your Owners Manual or they are available on the net. If you cannot get co-operation from the Dealer ask to speak with the GM and then the Owner or Principal. If you still have no satisfaction ask for the contact information for the District or Zone Manager.Bear in mind that minor body damage that can be repaired to Honda Factory Specs do not invalidate the Certification Process as Honda is still willing to back up the vehicle with their warranty.You need to determine how extensive the damage was.It could be whoever you are trying to sell the car to is trying to use this info to their advantage to give you less for your car than it is worth.Hope this helps

Dealers are allowed to not tell you about the damage if it's repairable under certain amount of $$$ in their whole sale price. Something like 1k dollars. If they can repair it under 1k or something like that they don't have to tell you it was damaged. That's why always look at a history report when buying a car.