My mum has just been ripped off. She bought a Y reg, 14000 mile Punto 1.2 base model at deleted. There are two major flaws. First, a mate tells me that her boyfriend\'s dad works there and is convinced they don\'t service the cars (I checked - thick black oil on the dipstick.) Second, she was charged just under £6000 AFTER trading in her P reg Rover 111. Granted, the 111 was neglected. Mum was led to believe she was getting £2000 for the Rover. Basically, it seems that the Fiat had a stupidly inflated price tag reduced to a slightly less stupidly inflated amount by thetrade in of the Rover.
Basically, I need to know what the law is on rejecting a used car when there is nothing seemingly wrong with it. All she could go on is the fact that it seems to have not been serviced when deleted claim to service all cars they buy.
If only I\'d gone along!
Cheers
(No naming and shaming, thankyou.)
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Oh dear. You cannot reject the car simply because you later feel you paid too much for it. If it works the way you expected it to you have no recourse. If the dealer says it was serviced and you have grounds for disputing this you may suggest that he carries out the promised service. I fear that is as far as you can go.
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Happened to a mate of mine too. Naming and shaming is not allowed, but for the full force of how bad the deal is, have a look here:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=12011
Only thing I can think of is maybe a right to cancel any HP within a certain time. I'll look this up when I'm not in a rush.
Otherwise HH is right as far as I can tell, unless of course there are any 'satisfaction guaranteed, reject for any reason' type promises.
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Oh dear indeed, maybe find one of their many ads in the press and see if there is any wording about customer satisfaction. Maybe speak to their overall manager and go for the sympathy vote however I suspect I know what they will say. I went to one of their outlets a year ago and yes their prices were well high, the old trick of making a part/ex value seem higher. But in your Mums cases they seem to be charging £1500 - £1800 over the top for the Punto and then she should have got some off for the Rover as well...
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I'm not saying that any of you are wrong but I would suggest the Local Trading Standards office, they might have a bigger picture on this dealer.
Good Luck
Alf
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Alf - Trading Standards would be a useful ally but the basic contractual rule is that anyone is free to agree any price for anything. (Witness Princess Diana's 1981 Escort Ghia sold for something stupid like £140k).
While they may be able to put pressure on to get a refund where there has been a breach of contract or of the consumer's general rights, areas of a contract relating to price are specifically excluded from the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1995.
Having said that, they may be aware of these practices and be able to offer tactical advice that goes beyond the customer's strict legal rights, so they are a good port of call.
Oh and it's as I thought - you only have a cooling off period for a credit agreement when signed away from the creditor's premises, so there's not really much hope there. Dave, I think your mum may have to put this one down to experience and maybe hand back the car after half the credit price has been paid, including any deposit.
Also, note my comment about 'credit protection insurance' that my friend was unable to cancel. Make sure your mother hasn't been signed up (Maybe he didn't push hard enough, but apathy and ignorance are the two main profit sources for these cowboys).
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This is a pretty good example of the usefulness of Honest John's site. A couple of questions asked here about "does this sound like a good deal....etc." would have brought so much good advice that Mum would never have got into this situation in the first place. I think I would always come here first before buying second-hand again.
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That deal is outrageous. She could have bought a *brand new* Punto 1.2 from Trade Sales for just £5,400ish, she has paid significantly more than that for an old, and obviously unloved one! :O
Blue
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Blue - it is outrageous. I knew about the Mias available for (to be specific) £5695 at *a different dealer* ;)
I told her all about it and was told that she was meeting a salesman, who would be better help, and not to interfere. Consequentially Im quite cynically amused but the nice son in me wants to find out if there are any options - I'll give Trading Standards a quick ring to see if they can offer any advice and if not ,at least I tried.
Thanks everyone for the advice!
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