Check Engine Light on Newly Purchased 2012! Should I keep car?

Is there a law in your state about being able to change your mind about a vehicle purchase? In my state (Texas), you have 3 days to return a vehicle to a dealer.

 

@AD80 as others said it return it or they should pay for repair at shop of your choice.

Question for others if dealer cleared the error like some suggested why did it not show during test drive?

 

Depending on the severity of the problem, some errors do not always come right back. I had intermittent transmission error code on my old Civic that would trigger check engine light. If I clear the code, it would drive fine for another 3 months or so, and it repeats. What ever the fix was too expensive and I was not going to spend money on it. It kept driving with cleared code for another 3 years until the body was rusted out and I had to scrap the car.

 

Id return it and threaten a claim in court. Its a rip and the seller knows it.. The gen 3 can go 200k like mine has or it can go 90. There's a decent chance its a HG and a decent chance its not but why should you be spending money on a car you bought a week ago. File a claim in court and go ask for your money back. He might not want to waste his time and will give you the money or he will jerk u around as he is now by selling you a car in need of attn. Either way ask for your cash back and file a claim. Its worth your time.

 

Unfortunately, I think suing the dealership gets you nowhere.
All the dealership has to say, true on not, is that they didn't reset anything. They can claim to be as shocked, and ripped off, by the person THEY got the vehicle from.
Couple that with them saying the vehicle can be exchanged....or maybe fixed, and there's no case for the OP.
You would have to be able to PROVE the dealership actively misrepresented the vehicle.
Even if they did? They aren't going to admit it.

I think you'd have to be able to show a timeline, of when they received the vehicle, and when a check engine code was reset. Which might be possible.- But certainly isn't going to be easy.

 

My scan tool will read the service PIDS. One of them is miles since CEL reset. Techstream also reads that I believe. A very low mile count since reset shows the dealer reset the light. It won’t show what codes were reset, but it would look like the dealer tried to hide something.

 

Yeah, but first of all...we are assuming the dealer reset a code, after taking possession of the vehicle, which is possible, but also a chance the code was reset by the original owner before trading in.

To get some chain of custody, timeline "proof" would require the cooperation of the dealership.

Would one expect an unscrupulous dealership to be forthcoming or honest with this information? Or maybe even keep it?
All they have to do, is say they took ownership of the dealership 1 day AFTER the code was reset...and then it's NOT their fault.

Since there is a plausible scenario, where they are as much a victim as the new owner, I just don't think pursuing legal action would lead to fruition.

I could be wrong.
Pursue or ignore legal action at ones one desire or inclination.

In short, people always start screaming "sue"!
But that's a long difficult and often expensive road.

Unless you can obtain that ABSOLUTE proof that the code was reset while in the possession of the dealership, I think suing is a futile action.
Even then?
Usually these vehicles are sold with an "As Is" contract.

I

 

I would file the paperwork w the court either way. Its a pain to go to court and if the profit wasn't large then possibly they just refund you.

OR take it to a shop and ask for an evaluation but the longer you wait the less likely your refund is.

 

Sometimes the appearance of impropriety is enough to get the dealer to do the right thing. For everything else there is elbow grease. LoL

 

Great story. I am so glad you did not have to fight for the refund in the court room. There is always more uncertainties in buying a used car. I hope you have your ride for now while looking around for your next car. Let us know if you end up with another Prius.

 

Code scan means zilch if no check engine light is on. What you need is to scan for off line monitors.

 

Glad to hear you got out of that bad situation so well.

For your continued search, good to take that OBD2 scanner with you. You may find some "readiness monitors" which are related to emissions testing, saying whether or not the car has run for long enough since codes were last reset. If you find that those indicate that the car is NOT ready for a smog check, that tells you the codes were cleared recently, which may or may not have been done to hide a problem like you dodged on the 2012.

 

"Car had brand new plugs and coils". So it's a good thing you didn't buy the Gen2 from this dealer. Sounds like they tried to cover up a huge problem and hoped the new buyer wouldn't notice until it was too late.

 

Buy a gen 4 these are great cars. Super easy to work on too. Sounds like gen 4 has worked out most of the kinks.

 

They haven’t worked out their prices yet.