Some dealer/brokers are offering discounts for a private buyer if they register a new car as the 2nd registered owner. This enables them to claim volume bonuses from the manufacturer for selling more cars which in turn allows them to sell a 2nd registered owned car to a private buyer at an additional discount. The downside is the new private buyer doesn't receive the V5 document for 2 to 6 months as the company needs it for auditing purposes etc.

However, some dealers are warning against private buyers purchasing 2nd registered cars and even pre-registered cars for various reasons.

Does anyone know if there are any real downsides or negative consequences of buying a new car as the 2nd registered owner or a pre-registered car ?

It is actually illegal for dealers to keep the registration document, loads of info in mags and on-line about this.

Problems can start if you get pulled since you are not the legal owner of the car. Same applies with insurance, one you tell them you are not the owner i.e. not your name on the V5 they will run a mile, if you don't tell them and have an accident you will not be insured.One major issue rarely touched upon is the cases where the "owner" of the car i.e. the garage goes into liquidation, since you don't have the V5 the car is an asset of the creditors and you will probably have a battle on to keep the car.

Buying a pre-registerd car and getting the documents with the car is not a problem, done it twice in the past but I would not buy one where the dealer keeps the documents however good the deal.

I suspect that many such deals are on cars 1st registered to fleets, ie pre-registered. Reason for V5 retention may be that certain manufacturers demand that the fleet keeps the car for 3 or 6 months. I too would be very very wary of that, and insure with care.

However I did buy a Hyundai i30 on such a deal 18 months ago. The car was ordered for me, to my spec, and I collected it from the broker on its 1st day of registration. The ownership /V5 etc was transferred to me as soon as the broker received it from DVLC. I was lucky that it all went smoothly with a reputable broker, and I saved about £4000 on the showroom price. Only downside was DVLC would not register the car to me on the same day as it was 1st registered to the fleet (in my case a hire company), and so I am shown on V5 from day 2. That means that I (albeit unwittingly) had 1 dodgy day for insurance where I didnt officially own the car.

Yes - I would certainly go there again (but hopefully not for a year or 2).