This is an experience that nobody wants to have: Buying a brand-new car only to find a dent in it later on. Whether it happened at the car dealership or at the grocery market later on, you have a few options, and depending on how nice the dealership is, you may not have to pay out of pocket for it.

Return to the Dealership

When you return to the dealership, find your sales guide and tell him about the dent and that it may have been there before you bought the car and possibly the detail department may have missed it. The detail department is required to look for scratches and dents when cleaning the car so that it can be fixed or mentioned so you can come back and have it repaired. However, in order to make profit, the dealership does not mind not telling you about a dent or scratch if they can get away with it. After telling the sales guide about it, see how receptive he is to fixing it. If he does not go for it, the last-ditch effort (if this is a new car) is to offer giving them a bad survey. Surveys are what dealerships live and die by because these tell the manufacturer of the cars how well the dealership and specifically the sales guides who sell their cars are doing with the customer base. If these surveys are bad, then the sales guide could be reprimanded or even fired by the dealership for doing a bad job. This may make the sales guide more welcoming to fixing the dent for free. Lastly, if push comes to shove, ask what the return policy on the car is. Most dealerships have a three-day policy in which you can return the car, and this is probably also the time period when you should assume that the dent came from the dealership rather than your driving habits. It sounds extreme, but the dealership will do just about anything to keep a sale from coming back because not only would this affect the sales guide's paycheck but also the finance office, the sales manager and the general manager. This technique should be saved for last.

Auto Body

Dents in the bumper means that it has to be popped out and repainted due to bumper skins being made of plastic. If the dealership will not fix it, then you will need to take it to an auto body shop to have it fixed. It is relatively low cost and can be done in a day by any body shop, depending on how busy they are.

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Inside Car Secrets: Car Horror Stories