REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

Sweet2L · 01-14-2003, 02:01 PM

This is a story that happened a few months ago, last May to be exact. After my last last car got totalled (Golf), I was quickly in the market for a replacement to get me to work/school. Being from the Island, I decided to make the trek to the mainland hoping to find a better deal due to the greater competition. I had a couple of cars in mind (4th gen. Prelude/DC Integra), and scoured the used car lots in Richmond and Burnaby. There was a ton of crap everywhere, some lots were nothing more than a bald-headed Vin Diesel look-a-like doing business out of a trailer home. Anyhow after many hours of looking I found what I thought to be a pristine '98 Integra, selling for $14.9 at Daewoo Burnaby.

I had never heard of this place before, but being a new car dealership I felt a little more at ease. First warning should have been the fact that being a Daewoo vendor there were only actually three Daewoos on the lot tucked in the corner, the rest of the cars being anything from a used Type-R to a Z8 in the showroom. Oh, and the salesmen were all 300 pound guys in 3-piece suits and wearing blue sunglasses. That struck me as odd, but I never gave it a second-thought at the time.

The salesman was pretty rude to me from the get-go. Probably didn't help that I pulled into the lot in my rental Blueberry Echo, but whatever. He answered my questions, showing me the car and telling me the car had been "babied" by the previous owner, and that everything was in order. I left for a couple of hours for dinner to think it over and ask my friends' opinions, and came back afterwards for a quick testdrive. The car seemed sound inside and out (except for a suspicious maroon stain on the sunvisor), and upon return sat down in the office to negotiate a deal.

The salesman seemed to suddenly turn on his polite switch once we started talking numbers, and became actually somewhat nice to talk to. To make a long story short I talked him down to $14.9 taxes in which I thought was an awesome deal for a '98, and later on that day drove away a then-happy customer.

Fast forward 4 months and 2 hit-and-runs, and one old guy hitting me head on by turning without looking for oncoming traffic first later, I decide that the car is cursed and it's time to trade it in for a new clean vehicle. I had my eyes set on an '02 SiR, and Honda offered me a really good deal on my trade-in on the new Civic. I was basically all set to pick it up...that is until Honda ran an ICBC check on my Integra's history.

Now it had never occured to me to do an ICBC check on the car myself... I figured that kind of stuff was supposed to be done by the dealership you buy it from, and any large accidents over $2000 by-law had to be told to you by the dealer. Well guess what... the dealer never told me that the car had over $30,000 worth of previous damages/claims. You can imagine my face when I heard that figure; it had been claimed something like 7 times before I bought the car, ranging from a $10,000 collision claim within the first 6 months of the car's life to a $6,000 collision here, a $3,000 collision there.

Anyhow Honda basically told me they no longer wanted the car; I mean, who'd want a car with damages totalling more than its entire value? I immediately called Daewoo asking to speak to the manager; he booked an appointment on the following Monday. A few days later took the ferry over and drove out to meet him. When I arrive at the dealership it turns out he's taken the day off, and won't be in till Tuesday. How convenient! I end up standing there yelling at the salesman for 20 min. accusing him of purposely trying to conceal the accidents on the car but to no avail, I knew he couldn't do much for me anyhow. I angrily took the ferry back home, and called up the manager the next day.

The manager was equally as uncooperative as the salesman. I demanded compensation, but he refused and basically offered to buy back the vehicle at its current value, basically a few thousand below what I paid for it. He even said I could trade it in for something else! Like I'd want to buy anything else from there ever again! The funny thing was he asked me what kind of car I wanted, and he could "find" me one with zero kilometers on it... hmmmmm...

I was thinking of taking legal action, but realize it's difficult because I signed the purchase agreement for the car. As this was really the first time I have purchased a car myself, I didn't know what the contract stipulated... there's actually a section on there where it says something to the effect of "Has this vehicle been in an accident exceeding $2000? Yes/No?" The yes box was ticked by the salesman and everything filled out by him, he just asked me to sign on the line to take possession of the car which I naively did. Being a new car dealership I just figured that they would actually be honest and practice good business ethics, obviously I was sorely mistaken. Needless to say I'm scrutinzing all contracts now much closer. I have since filed a complaint with the Ministry of Public Safety, and an investigation is currently underway.

The car is long gone now, I traded in that cursed P.O.S. ASAP taking a big financial hit on it. I'm not sure what is going to happen now, but mainly I just want this brought to light so it doesn't happen to anyone else. Who knows how many people they've ripped off in this way without the buyers even knowing about it! I would never have known if I didn't decide to trade in the car. I guess I can sum up this post in 3 words. F*CK DAEWOO BURNABY!

!SG · 01-14-2003, 02:10 PM

sorry to hear doode...

but if u were on revscene longer, you would have read that a lot of guys have posted that daewoo burnaby buys out of province cars then does them up so that tracking their accident records isnt as easy...

Sorry to hear what u went thru, the only thing i can reconmend is to find if others have had the same situation with them before and file a large action class suite against them, saving u all lawyer fees. if its by law that they must state the accidents to u prior to purchasing, then u may have a case...

Domani · 01-14-2003, 02:10 PM

wow 30K HOLY CRAP....

well let's just say u learned a valuable lesson!

digito-X · 01-14-2003, 02:12 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sweet2L
[B]but he refused and basically offered to buy back the vehicle at its current value, basically a few thousand below what I paid for it. He even said I could trade it in for something else!

This is alot more than any other shady dealership would do for you.. You added a couple more thousand dollars worth of damage on the car, and to buy the car back for a bit less than what you had originally bought it for sounds pretty fair..

TigerSY · 01-14-2003, 02:13 PM

uh.. above post was me.

Babyblue GSR · 01-14-2003, 02:16 PM

Thats sucks man. Everytime I have bought a car I've done a history check with icbc. Even when I bought my4runner from toyota, they showed me there check but i spent $20 and did my own for my own peace of mind. I would talk to a lawyer and see what you could actually do. But since you signed the contract and it said the car had an acident over 2g's you might be out of luck. All dealers are supposed to have the lean check and icbc report there so you can see but you have to request to see it.

fuzebox · 01-14-2003, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sweet2L
some lots were nothing more than a bald-headed Vin Diesel look-a-like doing business out of a trailer home.

Ah, Miracle Auto

Kokujin · 01-14-2003, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fuzebox
Ah, Miracle Auto

just thought the same things, there have been some fucked up storys going aroud aout there cars and that dealship in general.....

Deception · 01-26-2003, 06:40 PM

Daewoo Burnaby used to be a BIG used car sales lot. They added the Daewoo "Franchise" for legal reasons I'm sure. Anyhow, that place is shady as hell and just as bad as some of the dealers on Kingsway.

Vampyre · 01-26-2003, 08:02 PM

I've visited Daewoo Burnaby on three serperate occasions and have dealt with three differant salesmen, two of them were extremely nice and friendly (even when I stalled their car twice because I thought the damn thing was in neutral and it wasn't, but the salesman just chuckled and gave it a try) but one guy I could hardly understand what he was saying and he could hardly understand me either, he had a very thick Russian or German accent..wasn't that friendly either and I had to repeat myself often.

But first time I went I was looking at the two Supras they had in the summer time, starting them up and checking their body work and stuff like that..and the ITR. Second time I don't remember, just checking out the ITR again, then third time I was getting VIN #'s for the ITR and took a look at their 2001 Porsche BiTurbo for fun and NSX, just looking. Most dealerships are pretty shady though, and if you don't do the homework yourself well now ya know because you cannot trust anybody, live and learn.

edit: Right now they have two or three Ferrari's

Gh0stRider · 01-26-2003, 08:14 PM

i have always been suspicious about that place

hishameen · 01-26-2003, 08:30 PM

I could have told you about that place... I know the owners.. well, I know OF the owners. It's all shady, I would NEVER suggest you purchase a car from there. I purchased my Prelude from the Daewoo dealer in Richmond (These guys didn't even have ONE Daewoo on the lot!) & they nicly ripped me off. It was an Out of Province, they told me that there was full warrenty on it & there wasn't, the amount of the loan was $6000 more then the purchase price of the car & the list of fuck ups goes on.

However, there is nothing I can do about it as I was, as you were, in a hurry to get back into a car as the rental was costing me waaaaaay too much so I just signed the goddamn contract.

I just though of it as a really expensive lesson in life. There is no such thing as a friend when it comes to money & ALWAY read everything you sign in full prior to picking up a pen.

trollguy · 01-26-2003, 08:45 PM

yeah i was just there on saturday.

some dood was in there complaining about his VW.. (sigh) poor guy... got ripped off. on top of that, saw a chinese couple who had bought a car from them, and had to get the insurance on the car themselves! i overheard the salesman say "oh, so you guys decided to come today with your plates huh!"

my dad then asked about the 996 turbos there.. the salesmen didnt even tell him the black one in the showroom had an accident on it until my dad asked! talk abuot not being honest. i believe that one is from toronto. the yellow one they have, their boss drives it. that one is from toronto too.

the salesman even had the nerve to say that a customer from MCL came to them to buy a porsche, instead of MCL!

HAHAH right.

penner2k · 01-26-2003, 09:16 PM

I am in the process of trying to sell my car right now and got a phone call from Deawoo Richmond... the guy tells me they have a customer coming in from Victoria that wants a 300zx but the one that had in got sold so they wanted to get mine down there..
so yesterday he calls me and says can you get your car down here.. I tell him they will have to come by and pick it up cuz I dont have it insured (I had told him this the day before already) so he says he will call me back in 20 minutes.. almost an hour later he finally calls.. so yah the customer is here can you get your car down here.. I'm like well you guys will have to pick it up.. the guy is like "oh.. well can you get day insurance" well I dont have any money and he had told me that they would come pick it up.. so finally after a while him and another guy that works there come and pickup my car..
I had asked him if it was all right if I came along since if they sold the car I would need to sign the paperwork anyways and also cuz I dont really trust someone I dont know driving my car.. so we get there and the guy goes for a test drive.. he loves the car but he just didnt like the idea that it was a rebuilt engine so he doesnt buy it.. so I figure whatever time to go home.. well I think it was about 3-3:30 at this point.. they say well we dont have any plates in to get your car back home but what we can do is leave the car here and we will sell it for you.. they say that it will be impossible to sell the car on my own cuz I dont provide financing (funny thing is I bought that car by getting a loan through the bank so that doesnt seem right.. I dont like the idea and also I was possibly gonna have a person come by today to look at it so I needed the car at home.. so they are like well we dont have any plates right now so your gonna have to wait.. I wait for about an hour and the guy comes up to me and is like we still dont have any plates.. why dont you go and get day insurance and drive the car home yourself.. this is the 3rd or 4th time that I've told the guy I dont have money to insure it already.. then he tells me well just drive the car home without insuance then (wtf... their was a storm outside and he wants me to drive home without insurnace.. and the other thing is I left my plates at home since they put dealer plates on to get the car there..
so I wait and wait.. the guy that drove my car to the shop tells me that its not their fault that I'm having to wait.. I was the one that wanted to come along (what would that matter.. i still need to car at home for if ppl want to take a look at it)
so finally around 6 is when we left to bring my car home..
the one guy yells across the room at me that we are going.. he didnt call me by my name he like said something like rubberneck or something.. then I look through the paperwork I had an realized I didnt have my registration and remembered he had wanted to take a look at it before we left my place so I asked him if he had it.. the guy turns around and says "why would I have it.. would I like shove it up my ass or something" or something around those lines.. basically treating me like shit..

the worst part though was that they were like well how bout we give you some money on a trade in for your car.. and that I could trade in my car for a riced out Honda Civic (huge spoiler.. altezzas.. huge exhaust.. and a crappy system) and they would give me money too..

TouringTeg · 01-26-2003, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fuzebox
Ah, Miracle Auto

took the words right out of my mouth

wow. and daewoo just bought Timpos's salvaged RX7. amazing

Ohkun · 01-26-2003, 10:55 PM

Quote:

"Has this vehicle been in an accident exceeding $2000? Yes/No?" The yes box was ticked by the salesman and everything filled out by him

by the law, he is only entitle to tell you if the car had accident over $2000 or not..
rest is up to you, you have to pull ICBC report and find out how serious was it and if there has been more than one..

in this case, he did tell you that there was a previous accident..
well.. he didn't tell you, but he checked the 'yes' box and you signed it..

don't sign anything unless you read it and fully understood..
by signing it, you are agreeing to whatevers on that paper..

he could added "oh this guys owes me $10,000 on top of this" on that paper and SUE you ass for $10,000.. because you signed it..
(well, it won't really happen but you get the idea)

sorry buddy, there isn't much you can do..
they tricked you in this one.. you are stuck with that car..

CRiXy · 01-26-2003, 11:42 PM

Hahaha, who doesn't hate Daewoo Burnaby?!

7seven · 01-27-2003, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by penner2k
then I look through the paperwork I had an realized I didnt have my registration and remembered he had wanted to take a look at it before we left my place so I asked him if he had it.. the guy turns around and says "why would I have it.. would I like shove it up my ass or something" or something around those lines.. basically treating me like shit..

I hope u got ur registration papers back, cuz if they're smart, they can take out insurance on stolen cars under ur name and work backwards to duplicate ur identity just by having ur registration papers.

penner2k · 01-27-2003, 10:49 AM

yah I got my registration back.. I had forgotten that I had gotten it back and put it back in the car..
but when I came back in and said that it was in the car the guy looked at me and in a really rude voice said "I told you so"

EssenceGSR · 01-27-2003, 11:56 AM

They actually have a Ferrari 360 Spyder for sale there now. I have only seen 2 Spyders in town ever, and it's hard to believe that they would have one for sale. We phoned and asked about it, and the salesman didn't seem to have any clue. He told us it was brand new, with 200kms on it, but came from a dealer???? I didn't realize Daewoo was the local dealer for Ferraris now.....

penner2k · 01-27-2003, 01:03 PM

you mean this one?

Timpo · 01-28-2003, 07:28 PM

just sold my car to them...

stuff99 · 03-07-2004, 02:52 AM

interesting read

Deziwoo · 03-07-2004, 05:01 AM

yeah when i was looking for a used car to buy i not only did my own ICBC checks, but if i was serious about buying the car, i got BCAA to come in and do a full check on the car.....

i mean BCAA can be wrong or conservative, but there are somethings that you can't see but arebig problems...... saved my ass once..... almost bought a car that had been crashed, had the frame stretch back into place all without claiming it..... so if i only did the ICBC check i woulda been screwed....

i mean itz not cheap to do these checks. 160ish dollars.... but itz definately worth it cos your car is a big investment..... 160dollars for a16,000 dollar car, is worth it IMO........

Timpo · 03-07-2004, 09:40 AM

yeah Daewoo Burnaby is gay