Bought a car and feeling ripped off!!

mcclix

Can anyone offer advice on the following?
Went car hunting on Saturday and saw a car i liked but didn't test drive it, the car was priced at £12499. My dad kind of knows a mechanic who works there and so rang him on Monday am to check out the car's history and to see if it was likely that they would come down on the price. The history checked out ok and he said that he'd managed to get £300 discount making the car £12200.
I rang and arranged a test drive for Tuesday evening. Meanwhile whilst looking at the dealers site on Monday evening i saw the car had been reduced to £11999. I went along for the test drive on Tuesday and said that the car had been reduced to £11999 at which stage the salesman denied all knowledge showed me the price on his system and lo and behold the internet price was back to £12499. I agreed to buy the car for £12200 and paid a £300 deposit. I have today bought the Autotrader and the car is advertised at £11999. I therefore feel i've been ripped off for £200 as i've agreed to pay more than the advertised price. Can anyone tell me where i stand on this? Am i able to claim back my deposit if the dealer won't agree to now sell me the car for £11999?

Keith

The dealer made an invitation for offers at £12,200 and online at £11,999.

You made an offer at £12,200 which was accepted.

The dealer is not ripping you off, you made the offer.

However, in the current market, if you called back tomorrow and said you won't be buying unless they knock the price down to £11,999 then unless they are sure the car will sell in the next few weeks then I would expect them to accept your new offer.

sandy_smith_2

Even at £11,999 I'd think twice.

The used car market is DEAD; even more so than the housing market. Dealers just can't shift motors off the forecourt.

You should be aiming for a 10-15% discount on the listed price.

I've had 3 friends buy cars in the last 6 weeks (all in the 12k-18k range) and the discounts varied from a whooping 22% to just over 10%.

The £300 you were offered is an insult.

Forget about your deposit and walk away.

RegWorts

mcclix wrote: »

Can anyone offer advice on the following?
Went car hunting on Saturday and saw a car i liked but didn't test drive it, the car was priced at £12499. My dad kind of knows a mechanic who works there and so rang him on Monday am to check out the car's history and to see if it was likely that they would come down on the price. The history checked out ok and he said that he'd managed to get £300 discount making the car £12200.
I rang and arranged a test drive for Tuesday evening. Meanwhile whilst looking at the dealers site on Monday evening i saw the car had been reduced to £11999. I went along for the test drive on Tuesday and said that the car had been reduced to £11999 at which stage the salesman denied all knowledge showed me the price on his system and lo and behold the internet price was back to £12499. I agreed to buy the car for £12200 and paid a £300 deposit. I have today bought the Autotrader and the car is advertised at £11999. I therefore feel i've been ripped off for £200 as i've agreed to pay more than the advertised price. Can anyone tell me where i stand on this? Am i able to claim back my deposit if the dealer won't agree to now sell me the car for £11999?

I think that it is fairly common practice to reduce cars on the internet to £400 / £500 less than the forecourt price.

My son bought one from a renown National Dealer and thought that he`d got a good deal ( free tax, tank of petrol ,as well as a discounted price ) but was rather shocked to see that it was even cheaper on the dealer`s internet site.
He hadn`t picked it up so when he did, he was all set for an argument ...but to be fair , they apologised and reduced the price without any further hassle.

As someone else has already posted , buyers hold the ace card at the moment as there aren`t too many buyers around. In my son`s case , he was becoming quite desperate to purchase a particular model ( 2007 Vauxhall Design 1.6 Estate ,...not silver or black) and there weren`too many about ...even though he waited until after the 2008/58 registrations to appear , expecting a glut of traded in models.....but they didn`t appear !