Be careful. Some of the cars they sell are not for everyone. Here's why.
In my experience with them, I discovered that at least one of their specialties is in acquiring hail-damaged cars from auctions. And that's fine. Especially in Texas, where hail-damaged cars are considered to have "clean" titles, even when the car's title shows that it has been Totaled. By Texas law, having hail damage on a car in Texas does not brand the title as Salvaged or Totaled or Reconstructed like you think it would. Not technically, anyway.
So Pecan Auto Sales uses this Texas law so they can buy hail-damaged cars at auctions cheap, then sell them at strong profits while advertising technically clean titles.
From my experience, trying to buy a car from Pecan Auto Sales did not work for three reasons:
1. Lack of transparency. They were not transparent about any of this. And that made them hard to trust. They certainly were not transparent with me. And that's not what I expected from a dealership that goes out of its way to advertise and tell you on the lot that they are a family-owned business--focused on honesty and taking care of their customers. As such, I expected full disclosure. But I only got partial answers to most of my questions. And in the end, no response at all. They ghosted me.
2. Insurance coverage. Selling cars under the guise of technically clean titles to unknowing or uninformed customers can cost them many $1000s of dollars in insurance losses later. Insurance companies may cover the car with collision and even comprehensive policies. But you better check. Because even if they do, you can bet that your claims adjuster will note the hail damage on the title, and look for any of the pre-existing damage they can find to deduct off the dollar amount you will receive from any claim. Example: suppose you bought a hail-damaged car from Pecan Auto Sales for $18,500. The damage doesn't look too bad, and you decide you can live with. You add it to your insurance, and they exclude any claims against hail damage, which is also fine. Everything seems great. But later, you have an accident with another car, someone backs into in a parking lot, or you back into a post yourself, etc. Any number of things can happen that will damage your car and cost money to fix. But you won't be getting much or any of it from your insurance company. They will send the claims adjuster to assess the new damage--as well as any and all signs of the hail damage. Let's say he assess the new damage at $7000. And he assesses the pre-existing hail damage at $5500. This means that if your insurance policy has a $500 deductable, you will only receive $1000 from your insurance company to repair $7000 worth of damage. And that's if you're lucky enough to get a relatively low pre-existing hail-damage assessment. In short, you may save money on the immediate purchase, only to pay the rest later.
3. Wide discrepancy on repair quotes. Pecan Auto Sales told me they could repair the car of all hail damage for $1,200 over the sales price, which was $18,700, bring my purchase price up to $19,900. This would have been truly fantastic, if I thought it was anywhere close to possible. Here's why. A day prior, they let me take the car I wanted to buy to the highest rated paintless dent removal place in Austin. After looking over it for only a few minutes, they gave me a ballpark estimate of $8000 - $10000 for them to repair all the hail damage so that insurance adjusters couldn't claim pre-existing hail damage to deduct from a future claim. So here's the deal: Pecan Auto Sales claimed their mechanic could fix everything for $1200. The dent removal specialists: $8000 (minimum). You can make up your own mind about which is probably more accurate.
So if some of their cars -- the hail-damaged ones -- aren't for everyone, who are they for? You! But only if these things are true for you:
1. You don't care about the hail damage or just want to fix the worst parts of it
AND
2. You don't plan on getting it insured beyond liability insurance (for the other car and driver in an accident)
AND
3. You don't plan on reselling it or trading it in. It either won't be possible or you'll lose a ton of money on trying to sell it.
If these things are all true for you, then go for it! But don't hesitate to negotiate further on the price. Chances are they picked it up at an auction for a lot lower than you think. read more
