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I'm trying to help a friend with an apparently costly mistake regarding a car bought at a Mecum Auction in Kissimmee FL.
The car in question was auctioned this week while Mecum was in Kissimmee FL. My friend attended the auction with his son and brother.
The car was a 2000 Mercedes, S430. They bought it with a winning bid of $6,000. By the time fees, tags, taxes were included, close to $8,000.
Prior to bidding, they looked at the car and spoke to the person on the floor handling the car, asking him the mileage on the car. They were told 61,000.
Once they won the car, they went back to check, and the actual mileage was 104,000.
At that point, they had buyers remorse and tried to get out of the purchase. Mecum said the guys on the floor were not their employees, but belonged to the venue in Kissimmee where they were showing the cars.
Then my friend said he brought the wrong checkbook(which he did and supposedly Mecum doesn't take credit cards). They told him that if he didn't go through with the purchase it would be fraud and that the seller would sue him. They had him talk to a manager and supposedly someone in the Mecum family approved using a credit card for the purchase.
Driving the car home on I-4, all the lights came on. Check engine, ABS, etc. According to him it was a "scary" ride home.
Still, he, son, and brother convinced themselves that a Mercedes sitting around would have iffy things going on with its electronics, and a computer fix would fix everything.
Son made and appointment with local Mercedes dealer 30 minutes from home base. My friend was afraid to drive the car even that far and took it to a mechanic 10 minutes away. Mechanic claimed he previously worked for a Mercedes dealer. Worked on car for half a day, called and told friend that car was "unfixable" and in his opinion flood damaged.
Mechanic stated tires were rotted from inside out due to water damage. Also, that to fix everything else would cost the price of a new Mercedes.
Friend called Mecum as well as seller who had Mecum auction the car. Seller was a classic car dealer in Tampa FL who claimed he took the car on a trade in, car sat on his lot for a year, and there was nothing wrong with the car when he put it on the truck to Mecum.
Florida, like most states prohibits the sale of flood damaged cars without the title being amended to show they are flood damaged.
That being said, Mecum has themselves covered six different ways to Sunday with the agreement you sign as a bidder.
Seriously..How do the tires suffer water rot from the inside out?? They are sealed....
Also who pays $8K for a 16 year old Mercedes and doesn't know the actual mileage.. They could have found out the actual mileage up front.... There are bid sheets with all the pertinent info on them for each car....
Sometimes just because you have the money doesn't mean you should spend it....
Seriously..How do the tires suffer water rot from the inside out?? They are sealed....
Also who pays $8K for a 16 year old Mercedes and doesn't know the actual mileage.. They could have found out the actual mileage up front.... There are bid sheets with all the pertinent info on them for each car....
Sometimes just because you have the money doesn't mean you should spend it....
I can only tell you that the mechanic who is charged with telling my friend what needs to be repaired on the car said that the tires are rotted from water damage.
As for the mileage on the car, I'm not sure there were bid sheets. These were cars that were not displayed prior to auction and were brought out at the end of the day. As I said, my friend queried the guy that was in charge of the car on the stage as to the mileage and was told the mileage. His fault obviously that he didn't verify it. How that would play in a court of law, I don't know.
The more important point imo is that this was a flood damaged car sold by a car dealer through Mecum. Still the question remains are their any legal means to recoup from the fact that they sold a basically worthless car.
As a follow-up, why would the mechanic say the tire were rotten due to overall water damage to the car when he could have just told us the car needed new tires.
Not to mention, I have a car that is 17 years old that I had to replace tires on 5 or 6 years ago due to them being rotten not from water damage, but just because instead of actual wear as the car only had about 50 thousand miles.
The tires are the least of the problems....could just be dry rot from the Florida sun. As far as flooding, you can do a Car Fax to find out if there is any record, or use the Car Fax to back track ownership and do your own investigation. Previous owner could of had the car flooded, and dried it out on their own, therefore, no Car Fax report, and no red flags on the title.
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Medium is an auctioneer, not a dealer. He bought from a private party, whether he is a dealer or not. Unless there is a specific clause in the state law regarding flood disclosure, or the previous title was in the name of the sellers dealership, I would not expect the law to apply.
I agree with beer belly. If the car was damaged in a flood, chances are an insurance claim would have been filed and the car would have been totaled. Especially since it's a high value car like a Mercedes. If you haven't done so yet, run the Carfax check.
If Carfax comes back indicating anything about flood damage you may have a leg to stand on. If so, have him talk to Mecum to let them know that it was an illegal sale and that he will be returning the vehicle and that he needs his credit card to be refunded. If they still refuse to work with him, have him contact his credit card company himself to initiate a charge back. He will then only be out the cost of the tow trucks and the mechanic. Option 2 would be to file for small claims court.
If the Carfax comes back clean with no mention of any flood damage, then it looks like your buddy just paid for a very expensive education. Probably not much else he can do at that point.
Im sure the mechanic really worked for the dealer, Im sure the car has problems, Im sure somebody got screwed, by someone, but if it were me, Id have it towed to the dealer. I suspect the mechanic doesnt have a clue whats wrong, or doesnt have the tools to fix it or diagnose whats wrong, and didnt want to work on it.
As a follow-up, why would the mechanic say the tire were rotten due to overall water damage to the car when he could have just told us the car needed new tires.
Not to mention, I have a car that is 17 years old that I had to replace tires on 5 or 6 years ago due to them being rotten not from water damage, but just because instead of actual wear as the car only had about 50 thousand miles.
I don't think your sealed tires theory has merit.
Why would you assume that this mechanic knows what he's talking about?
The "sealed tires" theory has plenty of merit. If air can't get out, water sure can't get in. If they are really water-damaged, the more likely explanation would be moisture that was in the tires when they were installed, or that the person who maintained the air pressure used an air source that didn't have a moisture filter. Or, as someone said, it could very likely be dry rot given that this is a relatively low-mileage car for its age that had been setting for at least a year.
I'd have someone who knows what he's doing take a look at it, and if it's not worth fixing he should bite the bullet and sell it for what can get out of it.
Auto auctions are pretty much a caveat emptor deal. The auctioneer is just a facilitator, unless you can prove that he knew the car had problems and said it didn't he's not on the hook for anything. As far as the dealer selling the car, if you can prove there was flood damage that wasn't disclosed you may have a case, but that's about it.
You can forget Mecum. They have zero responsibility and cover themselves legally in this respect. They are just a facilitator. Your only recourse is with the seller.
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