When you want to sell your car you would think entrusting it in the hands of the dealership that you bought it from would be your safest bet, right? After all, the employees there are trained to maintain vehicles and ensure they are kept safe and remain in perfect condition before selling them and of course the showrooms have security staff not to mention cameras all over the place so, what could go wrong? Turns out, quite a lot…
A couple from Texas have filed a lawsuit against a Ferrari dealership in San Antonio who they allege crashed their 2014 model 458 Spider after dropping it off to be sold for an agreed price of $240,000.
Ryad and Diana Bakalem gave their Ferrari to the dealership in late 2019 but an employee allegedly took the Italian exotic for a joy ride and ended up crashing the supercar which has a top speed of 320kph and is capable of hitting 100kph in just 3.4 seconds.
The couple had waited for the sale of their “near-mint condition” 458 - blessed with a 4.5-litre V8 and producing 562bhp and 540Nm of torque - which was at the dealership for several months and expected a nice big pay day once a new buyer had been found. Instead, on the day of the crash the dealership contacted them to say a “client” had offered $220,000 for the Ferrari with the dealer taking a $10,000 commission, according to the lawsuit.
Then, over the next four days, the dealership pressured the Bakalems to accept the offer without divulging any details of the crash, the lawsuit continues. The couple is accusing the dealership of concealing the details to make the sale and keep the commission money.
“Ferrari acted quickly to not only cover up the wreck, but in the most audacious and appalling of moves, seek to spin the situation into a profit,” the lawsuit says.
The Bakalems allege that the act of covering up the crash before the sale constitutes fraud and negligence and are seeking damages of $1 million from Ferrari of San Antonio.
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