Car-On Auto Sales

Car-On Auto Sales responded

Mr. Belisle. We are sorry to hear you are unhappy with your Tacoma. We have built our business over the past 20+ years in satisfying our customers and we certainly don’t like to hear that one is unhappy. There are 4 issues you brought up and I’d like to address each one individually. The most important one being the “accident”. One of the things we are very strict about is the quality of vehicles we purchase and re-sell. We are extremely diligent in pulling all reports related to each vehicle be it mechanical reports, safety recalls, as well as, all reports from the Insurance Bureau of Canada via CarProof Accident Reporting. After reading your letter, I pulled your vehicle file and confirmed that, according to all Police reports and Insurance Bureau of Canada reports, your 2011 Toyota Tacoma VIN ending in X014076 was not involved in any accidents within Canada up to and including the time you purchased it from us. If you recall, at delivery, Nathalie Gagné, your finance person showed you the CarProof report for your Tacoma and had you sign it which supports this fact. We have another copy of the CarProof report at the dealership with your signature should you wish to see it. To ensure that an accident hadn’t occurred outside Canada, we took the liberty today of pulling a US report (Carfax) which also confirms that it was not involved in any accident in the US. Both reports (Canada and USA) came back with “no reported incidents on file” so I can’t comprehend how you were told the truck was involved in an accident. That being said, it doesn’t mean that touch-ups weren’t done to the body or that the prior owner didn’t scratch a door or a tailgate and had it painted for cosmetic reasons, but your truck was not involved in an accident (police report or insurance report) within North America. With regards to the back-up camera, it was missing at the time we purchased the truck for sale. The truck was shown to you without the camera and priced accordingly. When a customer buys a vehicle from Car-On we have checklists to ensure our customers receive what they were promised. We do a work sheet to determine the price, payments and specify any agreed-to repairs that are part of the transaction. Both the customer and the sales manager sign off on this sheet once they agree on the terms and conditions. This ensures there are no “grey areas” as far as each other’s obligations. On your sheet, signed June 30th, 2014, it clearly states “NOTHING ELSE PROMISED OR IMPLIED OR EXPECTED” and your signature next to it. Should you wish to see this sheet with your signature on it, we have it on file here. We never discussed, agreed to, or included the back-up camera repair as part of the deal. In an effort to ensure you were a satisfied customer, we ultimately agreed to share the cost of the camera where we would pay for and supply all the parts and you would pay for the installation. That seemed to be an acceptable solution for you at the time, we both agreed and we placed the order for the parts. When you were called and advised that the back-up camera had arrived you opted to install it yourself. As far as the trailer hitch, this is the first we hear of it. Assuming it was “CHOPPED OFF”, one would assume you would have mentioned it to us when you first came to look at the truck or maybe when you took delivery of the truck or even in the first few months of owning the truck. With regards to the electrical trailer connections, unfortunately their design on any truck is very flawed. They are live wires hanging at the back of a truck that get exposed to sand, salt dirt, water, snow and with an off road vehicle like yours, who knows what else. We are disappointed to hear that it corroded but that is unfortunately not abnormal after 3 years. It is not pleasant but not abnormal. That being said, as a goodwill gesture despite the fact you’ve had the truck for close to 7 months, we are prepared to repair it at no cost to you. With regards to us adjusting the price of your trade-in after the fact, during the sales process Sam Savoie, your representative, specifically asked you if your trade-in had been in an accident to which you replied NO and then signed the disclosure stating it had not been in an accident (copies available with your signature should you wish to see them). When completing the trade-in documents prior to delivery of your new vehicle, we uncovered that on October 25, 2010, your trade-in was in fact involved in an accident resulting in a $4746 repair in the left front corner which negatively affected the trade-in price. As an item of clarification, CarProof report does not only check insurance companies that are registered with us. CarProof is a national company and reports ALL insurance companies through the Insurance Bureau of Canada. We do not receive special reports nor does CarProof do selective reports based on who you are. If you pull a report for a vehicle in Vancouver or in Ottawa, it will be exactly the same report. With regards to having the vehicle inspected as you recommend, we definitely agree with you. That is why we offer a 30 day money back guarantee. Drive the vehicle for a week or two then bring it to a trusted mechanic and have it checked. Should you find a problem with it, by all means bring the vehicle back to us. Nobody else in the used car industry in Canada offers that type of guarantee. We do because we are confident that the quality of our vehicles.

AB responded

First off, thank you for taking the time to reply to my complaint. I contacted carproof at the time when I brought my car as a trade-in and they explained as previously mentioned in my original post that if an insurance company is not registered with car proof they will not have the information, hence the no accident report I received when I purchased the car in 2012. + it clearly states on the carproof report that it was an ESTIMATE for cosmetic damage on the front end and that the estimate was still open. point is, carproof will only display insurance claim reports. You can take the example of the truck you sold me it was in an accident but the repairs were done without any claims to the insurance company and/or police reports there for it will not show up in the carproof database. As for the damage on the truck you are correct it did take my quite a bit of time to realize that the damage on the truck. I understand minor cosmetic damage like the scratch on the passenger side of the truck that I asked you guys to buff out before the truck was delivered that was never taken care of. Even a little dent on the roof of the truck that I can live with. What I have a problem with is you guys try to make me believe that you never noticed the whole tailgate being fixed and repainted. The integrity of the tailgate has been compromised. I was also told by your sales rep Sam that the previous owner only use the bumper hole for towing very light things and that was the reason a trailer hitch was not included on the truck. He actually tried to sell me a hitch on top of the truck. Based on your reputation and the research I had made I figured he was honest and did not pay much attention to it since I did not plan on towing anything with the truck at the time. Unfortunately I had a flat on my truck recently and had to put on my spare tire when I notice the hitch was hacked off. I found the trailer connecter trucked in one of the remaining part of the hitch. I spoke about this to a mechanic and after he inspected the rear end of my truck he noticed some notches in the rear quarter panel where the bumper must have sat when the accident happened. I can send you picture if you would like. You guys had to take off a lift kit for safety you guys knew this happened and you never informed me. The truck must have backed up in a post or something which bent the trailer hitch and then fell on the tailgate crushing it. You guys have "qualified" techs in your shop and never noticed this? You could have removed the broken pieces of the hitch at least? I do appreciate your offer to repair the damages on my truck but only if it's done directly at my local Toyota dealership and you guys pay the bill as I do not trust you guys near my vehicle. Thank you.