When buying a car from a dealer, is it standard practice for them to demand the tax disc from the trade in vehicle? As I understood it, unless explicitly stated, the tax falls outside of any negotiations - you rarely get a valid tax disc in the car supplied so why should it be any different for the car being traded in? I've not had sight of the dealer's terms & conditions, nor the contract of sale - would I expect to find it there?
|
|
Not sure of the official answer (or whether there is one) but when I worked in a bank we used to process large batches of cheques (warrants?) that credited the accounts of car dealers. These went into the Bank of England clearing section. Because they were for smallish amounts I always assumed they were tax disc refunds.
|
|
|
I would have thought that it would be standard practice for you to take the disc out before you hand over the keys, unless the dealer has specifically mentioned the trade in value includes the VED.
I would just go ahead and take out the disc and see if anything is mentioned.
DB
|
>I would just go ahead and take out the disc and see if anything is mentioned.
The deal is done. I advised the m-i-l to take the disc out but the dealer demanded the disc before handing over the keys. As a single pensioner she felt intimidated enough to comply. The dealer claims it was bought "as seen", i.e. with the disc. Not how the m-i-l understood it at the time, but there you go.
|
As far as I know this is beer money for the dealers. I do know of a second hand car dealer where the wife sends off all the unexpired Tax Discs from the P/X's for a refund. A nice little earner!!
So, I think unless you've agreed that the tax disc forms part of the sale, remove it and get the money back yourself.
TTFN
|
|
During a previous px negotiation I invited the salesman to the toss of a coin to see who got the 6mnths worth of tax left. It aided negotiations slightly. I recall I lost. :-(
|
|
|
|
The dealer claims it was bought "asseen", i.e. with the disc.
On that basis, he could claim the fur coat she left on the passenger seat and the laptop in the back!
:
:
Who am I? Where am I going? Will I be able to park when I get there?
|
|
I'd always assumed it to be SoP for the dealer to cash in the tax disc. Most sellers probably don't even think about it as a separate assett. Never bought a sh car from a dealer without the being separately invoiced for the VED.
|
|
The dealer I know will try and sell the car with the remaining tax but he passes the money back to the person who traded it in. If it doesn't look like it's being sold for a while or going to auction then he'll send the tax disc back to the previous owner.
|
Park your car on the dealer's forecourt and BEFORE you enter the showroon slip out the tax discQ If he wants to test the car he can use his trade plates - that's what they are for.
Deal done - replace disc & drive home. Don't forget to remove the disc before collecting your new car!
--
Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
|
|
|
|
When the dealer is assessing your car for px value they will ask/note how much tax is remaining. If you want to keep it you should mention it at this point to save confrontation later. If the car is a £200 banger, the remaining tax will be valuable to the dealer. I usually haggle for 6 months tax on my new car, if the dealer won't play I take the tax disc off my old car. I'm not a charity prepared to pay the govt twice
|
|
If the dealer doesn't mention the remaining tax before you sign, as you are signing make it clear that you will be keeping the disc to send off for a refund. If it is mentioned prior to signing, then you make your view heard.
|
|
My method with this is that if on the day of the hand-over the customer has removed the tax or asks if he can then i'll let him have it and reclaim it, if not the car comes in taxed, the dealership reclaims the tax and someone somewhere up above me has a little bit of extra profit on the balance sheet.
|
Depending how many months are remaining on the tax disc (three full months is usually the minimum I consider as only full months are included in refunds), I usually remove the disc before handing over my PX vehicle. I've never had a salesman's unfavourable reaction yet.
Otherwise it's just a easy little earner for the sales outlet and, if it sell plenty of vehicles annually, amounts to a tidy sum.
It's also best to acquire the tax disc for your new vehicle yourself rather than take an "on the road" price, otherwise you are likely to be paying interest on the road tax as well as the vehicle for the full period of any loan repayments.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I have just traded 2 cars for a brand new one. Total value of tax on the 2 trade-ins, about £40. I agreed to a full tank of 80 litres diesel in exchange for the tax disks. They needed to keep one current anyway until my cherished number transfer went through. Satisfied customer over here ...
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land
|
|
i'd say £40 for 80 litres of fuel is a bleedin bargain - thats a fair size tank your got there by the way!
|
When the car is valued the dealer will normally note how much tax is left on the car, therefore it is part of the valuation.
If the buyer wants to keep it then IMO they should say.
The reason the salesman asked for it back is probably because it would have been docked from his wages if the tax was missing, I have worked for an organisation that does this, if you get a manger to value a car and tell them it has 8 months tax left and it comes in with no tax, then guess what, you lose 8 months tax from your wages. If I was in this situation then I'm damned sure that I would refuse to hand over the set of keys until I had the old tax disc.
Sometimes I think buyers take the mickey though, I had one not long ago where I went all out to look after a customer as she had travelled a long way to buy from us, I even performed the major service on her new (used) car free of charge even though the car hadn't quite reached the point where we would normally do it, how did she repay me? She removed the tax disc from her part ex and claimed it had expired, funny, seeing as according to my appraisal card her car was taxed until Feb 05. I wouldn't mind so much except we had also given her 6 months tax free on her new car... I personally wouldn't have kept my tax under those circumstances.
Blue
|
|
having your wages docked because a customer pulls a fast one sounds very harsh - did you get them docked if the car you appraised had wheel trims on and the customer removes them too?
|
Yes, if it affected the value of the car.
If the car was brought in in a worse condition than when you appraised it then you had to inform a manager who would make the appropriate decision about what to do, a prime example been service history. It's not too much of a problem on an old knacker, but on a 3 year old BMW it would make a huge difference to the value if the SH was missing.
Tax was an easy one to dock as it had an easily quantifiable monetery value.
Blue
|
|
i must say that that is extremely harsh - if my gaffer tried that one on me i'd soon tell him where to put his service history!
|
Someone I know traded in his old Metro (no MOT and probably not road legal)and the price given for it was an odd amount like £62.
He thought it was a good price as he considering scrapping the car anyway until I realized that the amount they were offering him was the amount that the tax disc was worth. When I told him that he took the disc when the salesman wasn't looking.
|
|
|
|
