New A4 w/ clearcoat damage

[Kneale Brownson]

Does he have a witness to the tree sap story?

I'd look for some information on the case of BMW which got caught 
repainting some cars that got damaged from some similar problem at a 
port-of-entry storage yard and ended up paying not only for replacement 
cars but punishment kinds of fees for trying to hide information about the 
damage.  An attorney reminding the dealer of BMW's folly might change some 
minds.


At 07:10 PM 07/18/2001 -0400, Craig D. Niederst wrote:

>A co-worker of mine whose '98 A4 2.8Q is coming off lease just leased a new
>'01. Its black, so every paint defect is very obvious. When he bought the
>car, it had spots on all the horizontal surfaces, which the dealer said was
>sap from sitting near trees. They supposedly tried to remove it before
>delivery, and he picked up the car when it was raining so a close inspection
>was not possible. So he signed the papers, and took the car home. Spots were
>still there, turned out to be severe acid rain damage. They tried to buff
>them out, but they are still there, and now there are severe swirl marks in
>the finish. He had driven the car for 1 day and a total of 25 miles. He
>demanded a new car on the grounds he was told it was sap and it wasn't, and
>they blatantly refused. He called AoA, and they said this was a dealer
>issue, and while they would call and talk to the dealer, they could not make
>them give him another A4. They are offering to repaint the hood, roof and
>trunk, but working for a paint manufacturer, he knows refinish paint
>basically sucks compared to OEM (chip and mar resistance poor, more
>fade-prone). He has left several messages with the dealer (including to the
>general manager), and they do not respond to his calls (service manager has
>been the only person at the dealer who has talked to him from the beginning
>of this fiasco, sales guy was totally useless). He is probably going to get
>a lawyer involved, but what, if anything, is he entitled to? Anyone else
>have a similar problem or gone through a similar situation? TIA.
>
>Craig
>'92 100S (93k)
>'86 CGT (199k)