Everyone has made mistakes in their formative years – but we wonder how many would have been as costly as this one…
At an Audi dealership in Guilin, China, a three-year-old kid went on a joy run by scratching 10 brand new models with a stone!
Needless to say, the dealership was infuriated and demanded 200,000 yuan (S$38,650) in compensation for the incident, which happened last month, to cover the damages caused by the budding artist on the fresh paint and sheet metal of several saloons and SUVs.
Her parents would have had to have ignored the toddler for quite some time for her to end up marking up ten cars and although full details have not been made available of the list of the damaged vehicles, a Q3 and Q8 were among her victims.
All of the damaged vehicles would need paint jobs to fix the doodles – some of which measured as long as four inches, and in most cases, there were multiples per vehicle - and therefore cannot be marketed as new cars. What’s more, the damaged vehicles would have to be sold at a reduced prices.
The Audi management claimed that hiding the touch-up work on the vehicles from the future buyers could pose a liability risk to them because at the point of sale, all damage and repairs must be divulged.
An agreement on the cost of repairs could not be reached and so the Lingui District People's Court of Guilin City had to be involved to settle the incident.
The court reminded the parents, when they convened this month, that reasons such as, “The child is still young,” and, “The child doesn't understand,” were not valid mitigating factors and ordered them to pay the dealership $10,025 after advising them to keep an eye on their child.
It may have been far less than the original sum, but it would still have been a bitter pill to swallow. We reckon they’ll be hoping their little girl grows up to be the new Van Gogh!
