Advice please regarding today?s puchase of a 06 reg 2005Mazda .....
Briefly, I bought the above car from a Mazda main dealer ( I will withhold the dealer?s details ) and I think the dealer has taken the michael--- and I would value BR?S comments.
It?s an issue simply about excess mileage when I collected the vehicle today. The mileage when I inspected, drove, approved, signed the contract on Saturday 19 December 2009 at 5pm approx 45,000 miles. The mileage was recorded on the contract. On collection today at 5pm the mileage was approx 300 miles more. This is corroborated by today?s fresh MOT showing approx 300 miles more than the mileage recorded on the contract.( I?m being vague on the exact details because the advert is still current ).
Now, I?m incensed because I wasn?t told it would have 300 miles extra, I didn?t sign a contract with that mileage , I really didn?t expect the vehicle to be used as a hack ( or worse ) and most importantly,what really gets me is I didn?t expect this to happen at a main dealer- or do I expect too much? I?m not happy that the vehicle has done 300 extra miles in the worst driving conditions for years. I drove the vehicle away at 5.30pm this evening and during the journey home saw the odometer reading and thought it was a little higher than I remember. Then I checked the paperwork . I have made no contact with the dealer yet but what with Christmas fast approaching, will contact him tomorrow.
For info, the purchase was a proper retail sale, around book price with a full Mazda warranty.
Have just had another look at the new MOT, the issuing station was some 80 miles away....why? The Mazda dealer is well within the M25 so no shortage of MOT stations nearby.
Any thoughts on this? At the very least I will be contacting the dealer principal for an explanation.
Many thanks
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i wouldnt be happy
once i sell a car unless it needs driving it gets parked up so no one can maul it never mind clog it
im amazed it went 80 miles for an mot
i would be calm but mad at the dealership in the morning
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>>The mileage was recorded on the contract
Then they've breached a material aspect of the contract; where you take from there is another matter though.
If the dealer fails to address your concern, I would emphasize that simple point & indicate a willingness to make a complaint to Local TS and/or seek recompense (to be decided) or cancellation by you.
This would really annoy me, because it's taking the mickey. It may seem trivial to some, but imagine if you took & used somebody else's car without permission.. What would that be called in law?
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Before leaping to conclusions and causing unpleasantness ask for an explanation.
It may be all above board and reasonable or not, if it's reasonable you don't want to sour any relationship, on the other hand if someone's used your car as a runabout then jump up and down and get something like a couple of services for nowt unless you feel aggrieved enough to reject.
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You'll probably find the dealer principal lives near the MoT testing station :-)
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Or someone who isn't his wife....
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I once was asked to drive a car 30 miles to be serviced and MOT'd by the dealer I worked for - it was another branch of the chain and all other branches that were closer ( another was just 15 mins down the road ) had fully booked workshops.
We spent a week running 5 cars a day on this journey.
300 miles sounds excessive though - sounds like it was either used as a runner or a salesperson was short of a car and hopped in yours. And yes, it happens.
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I would have thought a main dealer would have been an MOT testing station as well. Strange very strange to go 80 miles for an mot, must have been one nearer. 300 miles clocked since signing, id be fuming.
I think what you need to do is ask. why and how and where these miles have accumulated from. Why mot 80 miles away. Then take it from there let it be known your not happy. From this you will decide your further course of action. Good luck.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 23/12/2009 at 00:58
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The mileage cannot be removed so I think this will come down to suitable restitution/recompense.
GB mentioned a couple of free services, which I think you will do well to get, but maybe £100 off the next service, flaps and mats, tank of juice, something like that.
It is only 300 miles on a 45,000 mile car, which is not so bad as 300 miles on a low mileage demo.
You seem to have traced 160 of these miles via the MoT.
I wonder if the mileage on the order form was accurate, which could account for some of the rest.
For example, did it say '45,000' when the true position was '45,183'?
I'm not saying you should be happy about what has happened, far from it, but you need to keep the matter in perspective.
A good car - which this may well be - and a good relationship with the dealer will still be of benefit to you in years to come, long after the 300 miles has been forgotten.
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For me 300 miles would be just over a week's worth of motoring, so not a major concern.
As iffithelps has pointed out, unless the mileage on the order form was specific to the mile, it's possible that someone made an error, bear in mind that it's a person that goes and looks at the Odo and then remembers the figure before writing it down, naturally mistakes are made regularly like that!
There are many possible reasons why it was MOT'd 80 miles away, if for some reason it failed and needed to be returned to the station then there is your 300 mile discrepancy.
You could claim that it is a breach of the contract, but what compensation you would be entitled to for a difference of 300 miles is probably nothing, if I were the dealer I'm not even sure I would offer a tank of fuel, possibly two front mats or something. It's just not a big enough difference to be worth losing sleep over. So long as they didn't crash it (which I guess they didn't) then you've not got much to worry about.
Let's put it in perspective, someone else has already driven it in a style that you had no control over for 45,000 other miles, why would another 300 be any different? Especially if most of those 300 miles were likely done on a motorway en route to an MOT centre! It's not like it's new :-)
Edited by Blue {P} on 23/12/2009 at 03:42
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Tank of fuel would compensate ?
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i think the point is that you have no idea how this car has been driven in the last 300 miles
if the miles by the previous owner had been all ragged you would notice things like careless scuffs and probably bald spots on the tyres where it had been ragged
i still say the dealership is out of order putting these miles on and 80 miles to do an mot is scandalous
johncyprus go to www.motinfo.gov.uk/internet/jsp/ECHID-Internet-His...p
to see if any advisories were listed as the reason this car did all these miles to the mot station
you will need the mot certificate and your registration of the car so its doable without the log book
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Sounds to me that someone has been having a "jolly" at your expense. It's not just the fact that someone has driven 300 (unknown type) miles in your car but they have treated you like a mug punter.
If it was me, I would demand something over and above 300 miles worth of were and tear and if it was not forthcoming, I would back out of the sale if I could.
It's all right some on here saying it's not a big deal but I think it's an insult.
Would you accept anything else that you bought being used after the sale ?
eg, your future wife bought a wedding dress but found out that some shop assistant had just borrowed it for the odd couple of hours to get married in and then returned it to the shop.
I don't think so.
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Was the mileage on the order form / contract accurate ?
I had a simlair problem a few years back with a customer we had sold a Corolla to.
The sales guy concerned had took the mileage off the stock list and not the car being sold.
Unfortunately the stock list was out by over a 1000 miles due to admin input error.
I had to convince the customer that we hadn't used his car to go a 1000 miles in 3 days.
In the end he agreed with me that we have other cars to run around in and we dont use a sold car for errands etc.
However they not broken any law.
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When did you pay for it? Until you've paid for it, it's the property of the dealer. This may give them the right to drive it in the period between you agreeing to buy it and actually buying it. Also, on the order form for the last used car I bought it said that the recorded mileage could not be relied upon as the actual mileage of the vehicle.
Edited by L'escargot on 23/12/2009 at 14:46
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When did you pay for it? Until you've paid for it it's the property of the dealer. ..........
Look at the top of the form you signed to see whether its an order form or a contract to purchase the car. The wording could make all the difference.
Edited by L'escargot on 23/12/2009 at 14:51
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My local Mazda dealer will not put additional miles on any of their vehicles once a purchase order has been placed, without first informing the buyer.
Clk Sec
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Just out of interest, were/are you trading in a vehicle, and if so have you notched up a few miles on it?
Are there any 'rules' about mileage on trade-ins because if you have a long wait for a new car you could clock up a few thousand miles on your trade-in??? (eg posters waiting for Golf Mk6)
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Before getting too excited i think you need to check what mileage exactly was put on your paperwork.
If it was just 45000 then you have no evidence it has done extra as you have no base figure.
Could it be a simple human error with the figures.
If your satisfied it has done the 300 miles then ask for an explanation.
Personally unless there were glaring problems it would not concern.
Lets face it you can hardly verify how its been treated for every one of its previous 45000 miles so i wouldnt worry too much about the odd 300 particularly if your happy with the car.
One life . Live it etc.
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I spoke to the dealer today and it would appear to be a paperwork error, apparently the mileage was the original recorded mileage when the vehicle was appraised re P/ex back in September and that mileage figure was transposed from document to document.... I can't be sure otherwise so happy to give them the benefit of doubt, a bit sloppy of the dealer, though.. Otherwise the vehicle is lovely. I must confess to being a bit sloppy myself re the MOT - I got the postcode of the issuing dealer wrong ( sorry but I had a long cold day yesterday ) and in fact the car was MOT'd nearby.
So all sorted and no complaints now about the Mazda dealer and a big thank you to all who responded.
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And this thread will now be made a sticky for anyone who ever queries why naming and shaming is not allowed!!! :)
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Thanks for clarifying it. Good idea the Mods will make a mental note and it proves the point as to one of many reasons the policy exists.
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Well I hope you have more luck with yours than a colleague had with his, although he "escaped".
He had a Toyota Avensis diesel estate on loan while his wifes car was having a seat fixed. He liked it so much that he negotiated a deal and traded the Mazda. Not long after he was back at the dealer for a service or something and asked after his "old" Mazda.
The dealers has sold it off the forecourt quite quickly but a week after the sale, it had been returned with a noise from the gearbox and rough running of the engine so they had taken it back. The upshot of this was that he was told that the car needed a gearbox overhaul and new fuel injectors fitting, work that would have cost £3000.
The car was sent to the auction !
He cannot believe his good luck.
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............ a bit sloppy of the dealer though..
A bit sloppy of you not to note the odometer reading when you test-drove it and/or agreed to buy it.
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Is does pay to get the facts and circumstances correct before making unwarranted complaints.
Saves time and hassle all round.
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The OP has been honest and contrite - no need to rub it in.
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Not rubbing anything in.
Just pointing out the result could have been obtained with the right approach in the first place rather than jumping to conclusions and firing off half cocked.
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Chap I know left his car into the main dealers many years ago for a full service. He left it in on a Friday evening, knowing that he was going for a weekend break in Donegal and he would collect it on monday.
As he headed up the M2 out of Belfast, in the family Sierra, he was surprised to be passed by a very familiar XR2 doing a fine rate of knots, needless to say he pulled off to find a phone box (this was 1988) to report the car stolen.
Turned out one of the workshop staff had "borrowed" the car for a weekends jollies on the pretense of a road test. And the dealer was not amused to find the customers car in the stolen vehicle compound.
Don't know if charges were brought against the guy who took the car, but he was sacked over it.
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