bjsbuds

After much searching, I finally settled on an '06 550i with 14,000 miles last Christmas. I flew to Chicago the day after Christmas and purchased the CPO'd car from Joe Perillo BMW. Clean CarFax and low miles, I thought it was a winner. I drove it straight home to Cincinnati and parked it in the garage for three months.

I still had a 330cic that was coming off lease in March, and was way under on miles. So, I drove the 330cic, and made minor mods to the 550i while it sat in my garage. M-Tech kit was one of the mods made while I still had the 330cic to drive. A local body shop guy that I had used for other projects painted & installed the M-Tech. When I went to pick up the car, he asked me when I was in an accident with the car. Of course I said no, I only drove the car home from Chicago and here for the body work since purchasing it in Dec. Why do you ask? He said that when he put on the front bumper & side skirts he found that the left front fender was missing lots of clips, and only three were holding it on. He said he replaced them for me. I was pretty disappointed, since it didn't show up on the CarFax report.

I didn't think much more about it until I took the car in for service at my local BMW dealership two weeks ago. When I picked up the car they told me about the damage to the car and asked me what I had run over. Again, I said nothing why do you ask? The SA pulls out his cell phone and shows me three photos they took of the car while it was up on the hoist. The shield guard that covers the under engine/transmission area has a big round hole in it, and they found where the weld to the sway bar bracket is cracked.

The SA said that the mechanic told him that the dealership should have caught this during the CPO process and fixed it. He said that part of the CPO process is to remove that guard to inspect the frame when they CPO cars, but the mechanic could have missed it if he didn't remove the guard. The SA said this is an expensive repair to fix. He said I can either go back to the dealership and see if they will make it right or place an insurance claim with your insurance company. But, what would I tell the insurance company since I didn't do it.

So, I decided to contract my salesperson at Perillo, and after two emails and one phone call, she forwards my email on to the Service Manager, with a disclaimer of course, that since it's been a year.... I sent them the photos that my local SA took of the damage. No repsonse from Perillo's Service Manager.

I know the body shop guy that noticed the car had been in an accident or had some damage back in March, would write a letter to that effect for me. My question is Perillo responsible for fixing this damage as part of CPOing the car? If so, I guess I'll get my lawyer involved.

My brother (owner of 2 BMWs) who lives in Chicago tells me that Perillo has a terrible reputation up there, and that it's highly unlikely they will make it right.

luigi524td

The CPO inspection should have been more thorough - was a copy of the inspection provided before you bought the car? It's quite possible the original owner had a repair not done by or reported to BMW and not picked up by CarFax??

NYC530XI

This is why I'm wary of any late model, low mileage models offered from the dealer. A 2006 with 14,000 was sold/traded in for a good reason in my opinion, and that reason is usually bad for the new owner. This is probably the reason it was traded in.

Car dealerships can be shady about this kind of thing, which is why I have all cars I buy used looked over by a trusted mechanic I know.

Also, carfax is and has always been unreliable. I bought a 1997 Maxima used once with a "Clean" carfax, only to find out it had frame damage that was repaired. I returned it to the dealer and got my money back, because I had it inspected the day after I got it.

Sorry to hear of your circumstances, and I hope it ends well for you.

JeRZee XiE60

I thought that Carfax would only show incidents/accidents if it was reported to the authorities or if they were called to the scene of an incident/accident. If they fixed it out of pocket, then Carfax would not know.

Anywho .. GL in getting this resolved.

bjsbuds

Actually the car was a leased vehicle by a very prominent attorney in Chicago, who lives near downtown. He took the L (train) to work most days, hence the reason for low mileage. I actually corresponded with him, and unfortunately, he is not claiming any responsibility for damage. An attorney, go figure

luigi524td

Maybe he let his elderly Mother use it to go to church on Sunday and she crashed it?

bjsbuds

If it wasn't my car I would really laugh out loud at this comment.

porsche911targa

This is why it's very important to have any cars, including CPOs, thoroughly inspected by a third party shop before buying. G/L