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I recently watched a YouTube video about a brand new Corvette Z06 engine blowing up after 52 miles. There are many articles about this incident, as well. Barring anything being the owner's fault, the lawyer in the video said that the dealer would put in a new engine and that would be that. He did mention about collectabity of the car could be damaged. However, he said he would not get into that.

However, I am curious. People buy new cars as investments and not for driving. Having matching VINs on the car and engine demands higher prices upon resale.

While no one can see into the furure and no what something will actually be worth, there is no lack of evidence that certain cars will increase in value. Some cars go up in value by orders of magnitude. Take the Lamborghini Miura, which was $20,000 new. Now some are worth over $2,000,000. Of course, all this can apply to more than cars as there are other things that follow suit.

I definitely feel that Chevrolet has no obligation to do anything other than replace the engine. However, this does theoretically hurt the long term value of the car. Is there any legal recovery for this loss?

Irrelavent, to the question, this guy said he is done with Chevy and will sell the car when its repaired. He will likely make more than he paid for it as well, as these vehicles are heavily in demand. So that is a positive for him.

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  • You say "People buy new cars as investments and not for driving." So having driven the car how can that reason for recompensation be supported? Chevrolet's advertising mentions nothing about being a financial investment but focuses on performance and track days.
    – Weather Vane
    Jan 2 at 11:05
  • @WeatherVane I dont think you understand the question. Investors will drive the car to make sure it works and even drive a little for fun. However, the lower they keep the miles, the more valuable the car is for resale. There are collector cars out there with only a few hundred to a few thousand miles on them, despite being 50+ years old.
    – Keltari
    Jan 2 at 18:35
  • I understood the question. How would Chevrolet know your intention anyway? Or how long you would keep it, and how much it would appreciate? Anyone could buy any car, and tell a story that they have potentially lost a theoretically large amount of money.
    – Weather Vane
    Jan 2 at 18:36

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Barring manufacturer negligence (and even this is a dubious theory, given that recovery would be for pure economic loss), there is probably no legal theory that would allow recovery of any loss of resale value.

I am assuming that the promise to replace/repair the engine if it fails is part of the contract of sale. This is typical for a warranty that the manufacturer will repair certain failures.

Assuming the manufacturer fulfils what it agreed to in the warranty, then the buyer is getting exactly what they contracted for and there is no contractual theory that would support any further recovery: there is no breach.

The buyer bought a car that included a warranty to repair. I cannot imagine that they bought a car that included a promise that it would not fail.

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  • In Germany, I had an accident with a nearly new car, and the insurance paid for the repair that needed to put the car in the same state as before, plus a small amount because an accident free car is worth more than a car with an accident, even with a 100% perfect repair. It’s some time ago.
    – gnasher729
    Jan 2 at 11:07
  • And some time ago I looked for the most expensive watch on eBay, just for fun. There was a £50,000 watch with a seal you needed to remove to wear it. Their refund policy: £50,000 for an unworn watch, £25,000 for the watch with the seal removed. So they thought that just worn once vs never worn was worth 25,000.
    – gnasher729
    Jan 2 at 11:11
  • I figured this is the case, but I thought I would ask. As mentioned in this question, more than likely even with the VINs mismatching, he will likely be able to sell this brand new car for more than he paid. In theory, he could take thay money and buy a new one, but will have to wait a long time for one to come available. However, he did say he was done with Chevy...
    – Keltari
    Jan 2 at 18:37

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