A Michigan mother purchased a car for $17,000 from a used car dealer and later discovered that it was a salvage vehicle that needed $13,000 worth of repairs. According to a news report from 8 Wood TV.
The mother discovered the previous damage to the vehicle when she took it to a workshop because of new damage caused by wild animals.
Moise Nshizirungu, the mother’s son, said he bought the 2018 Nissan Rogue months earlier from Lee Auto Export, according to the news report, adding that his mother pays the dealership $500 a month for the car.
The garage said the vehicle could not be repaired due to the previous damage, Nshizirungu told the news channel. He also said that only after the paperwork was signed did the dealers inform him that the vehicle had a reinstated salvage title.
The documents signed by the mother also showed that the vehicle was purchased “as is,” the news channel reported.
Nshizirungu and his mother fled Congo as refugees and told a volunteer who works with the family about the vehicle, the station said. It was the volunteer who alerted the news station.
The news station investigated the vehicle further. It took it to Rapid Auto Repair and Collision for another inspection.
“It wasn’t rebuilt properly,” Kado A. Kado, owner of Rapid Auto Repair and Collision, told the news station, pointing out defects under the hood. “There are bolts that don’t belong here, they’re just there to hold the pieces together. As you can see, there’s exposed metal here. There’s rust. So that should have been replaced. You can kind of cover all that up by just putting a bumper on. In this case, that’s what they did.”
Kado estimated the vehicle’s value at $10,000. He told the news station the situation had broken his heart.
Molly Pham of Lee Auto Export disputed the $13,000 estimate to repair the vehicle. She said the dealership fixed the previous damage before declaring the vehicle “rebuilt” and ready for sale.
She told the news station that she has a state license to repair mechanical accident damage and that the vehicle had passed an independent inspection in accordance with state law.
“But the salvage inspector who accepted the Rogue, a retired police officer, told Target 8 that it’s not always possible to assess the quality of repairs without disassembling the vehicle,” the article said. “He said the primary job of a salvage inspector is to make sure vehicles are properly titled, do not contain stolen parts and do not have safety hazards such as non-functioning seat belts.”
Consumers can find out the condition of vehicles sold at salvage auctions in the state by using the vehicle identification number (VIN), the report said.
The Nshizirungu’s VIN shows pictures of the vehicle, its mileage, its retail value and the required repair cost of $13,208.
Because Nshizirungu’s mother signed the paperwork “as is,” the Secretary of State’s office could not find any wrongdoing in the case, the report said. However, Lee Auto Export agreed to buy back the Rogue after government regulators began investigating the transaction.
The article points out that Lee Auto has been charged with multiple violations in the past and has been placed on probation.
“If you buy a car ‘as is,’ it doesn’t matter if the car is unsafe,” Adam Taub, a consumer advocate, told the news station. “It doesn’t matter if the car is worth a tenth of what you paid for it. ‘As is’ means you’re going to fix it, and you may not be able to afford that.”
Taub recommended that consumers make sure the warranty covers at least the powertrain. The warranty should also cover at least three months and 3,000 miles.
“If they are not willing to stand behind the products they sell in writing, run away,” Taub told the news agency.
The The Collision Industry Conference’s Industry Relations Committee reported in January that the review of 26 cases of improper repairs revealed significant frame damage, total write-offs of the vehicles and the absence of the procedures recommended by the original equipment manufacturer, such as wheel alignment and calibration.
After an independent post-repair inspection, it was determined that 90% of the vehicles were totaled. About 50% of the vehicles had significant frame damage.
“We looked at 26 of these vehicles,” said Ron Reichen, owner of Precision Body and Paint. “That’s just a fraction of the vehicles that are still on the road. It should scare us because these vehicles are coming at us and they’re coming at our families.”
A suit was submitted earlier this year claims Destiny Byassee, a mother of two, was killed in a collision on June 12, 2023 when a counterfeit front airbag exploded on the driver’s side. The lawsuit states that the vehicle had been involved in an accident before Byassee purchased it and that the airbag was installed during an improper repair.
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Photo courtesy of Ziga Plahutar/iStock
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