Just to follow up this post, I phoned the Citygate Volkswagen Colindale dealership on the weekend to find out if the car was available, they said it was.
I then went to the garage and initially spoke to a different salesman to the one I had been dealing with on the phone. I explained which car I was interested in and she asked me at what price I had seen the car for on the internet. To this I replied that I had put a deposit on the car when it was priced at £8000.
At this point she disappeared into the back room to get the sales manager who had previously dealt with me on the phone. After what seemed like a long disussion behind closed doors the guy came out and explained that the car was a trade in. He said that between the time of valuing the car and actually taking delivery of the car, the owner had damaged the panels of the doors and rear bumper. He also explained that the car was currently in the body shop being repaired.
For this reason, he said, it was no longer profitable for them to sell the car at £8000.
At this point I should have asked them to show me the car (to prove it had actually been damaged) and also got them to explain to me why they had paid the same price for the car if it was damaged (which I assume they would not).
Unfortunately I kind of bottled it, got kind of angry, mumbled about writing to VW group about the incident, got up and left.
So that's it. Can't win them all I guess. Cheers, Chris
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