Can anyone help please

alij

We bought a 3 year old Ford Mondeo via Autotrader. The car was advertised as full tax,mot and £16,150 miles on the clock. The guy we bought off owns 3 business's and breeds race horses and seemed genuine enough. We paid £5250 for it. We paid via CHAPS (direct transfer from our account to his) on the day my husband collected the car
To cut a long story short we had been using the car for a week when we realised that the tax disc expired 18/04/08( yes 08). My husband then did a vehicle check ( I so wish we had done that first) which stated the car has over 84,000 miles on the clock. The guy has said he will refund but have been fobbed off with excuses and he said he would collect. He even had the cheek to ask us to tax the car and he would refund us.We have the buyers portion of the Reg document but not his. Stupidly all we have is a first name and mobile.
We are out of pocket by about £80 due to car ins,petrol,making the CHAPS payment cost £20,etc. Do we have any hope of getting our money back. Do we go to police or trading standards- how can we find out his details which presumably DVLA have. We would be very grateful if anyone can advise. I am not well-battling cancer and this is making me ill.

Thanks in advance
ali

jeannieblue

alij wrote: »

We bought a 3 year old Ford Mondeo via Autotrader. The car was advertised as full tax,mot and £16,150 miles on the clock. The guy we bought off owns 3 business's and breeds race horses and seemed genuine enough. We paid £5250 for it. We paid via CHAPS (direct transfer from our account to his) on the day my husband collected the car
To cut a long story short we had been using the car for a week when we realised that the tax disc expired 18/04/08( yes 08). My husband then did a vehicle check ( I so wish we had done that first) which stated the car has over 84,000 miles on the clock. The guy has said he will refund but have been fobbed off with excuses and he said he would collect. He even had the cheek to ask us to tax the car and he would refund us.We have the buyers portion of the Reg document but not his. Stupidly all we have is a first name and mobile.
We are out of pocket by about £80 due to car ins,petrol,making the CHAPS payment cost £20,etc. Do we have any hope of getting our money back. Do we go to police or trading standards- how can we find out his details which presumably DVLA have. We would be very grateful if anyone can advise. I am not well-battling cancer and this is making me ill.

Thanks in advance
ali

I'm sure that something can be done - and hopefully an expert will come along shortly on this.

Do you have a copy of the original advertisement? That would help re Trading Standards.

I'm hoping that no one comes along and starts telling you what you should have done etc.......... and you just get the advice that you need now.

It may be worth a phone call to Trading Standards and ask for their opinion on this matter.

Silk

Hi alij,
When you say you only have his first name and a mobile number but say he had 3 other businesses do you know what they are ?
Did you collect from his house ?
Where does it record the 84k milage and what did the seller say about this ?
How many previous owners were listed do you know ?

Premier_2

Caveat emptor!

You bought a car privately from a bloke you only know the first name & mobile number of, advertised with "full tax" and you didn't even check there was any there before you drove the car on the public highway! :eek:

This is a wind up innit!

alij

Silk wrote: »

Hi alij,
When you say you only have his first name and a mobile number but say he had 3 other businesses do you know what they are ?
Did you collect from his house ?
Where does it record the 84k milage and what did the seller say about this ?
How many previous owners were listed do you know ?

He owns the land of two industrial sites and breeds race horses. We actually collected the car from one of the sites and not at his address.
The HPI vehicle check states "mileage recorded by the National Mileage Register - 15 sept 2008 recorded by franchised dealer 84,303 mileage reading.
When my hustband spoke to him he said he thought we had done a vehicle check but declined to answer question as to the tax disc. We wonder where the car has been all that time. At that point he said straight away he would take the car back and refund us.
MOT cert dated 15th June 2009 states mileage 16,115
No previous owners.Current keeper acquired 9th may 2006 which is the date of first registration in UK (from HPI vehicle check)

Thank you for your help. It is appreciated.

To "Premier" no this is not a wind up-we really have been that stupid.

Ali

jeannieblue

Ali,

Don't be hard on yourself - we all make mistakes, even Premier must've done at some point in his life.

Are you going to take the money back and return the car?

I know it must awful hassle for you what with everything else going on - but if you can put up with it, I would return the car, grab the money and look for a better deal. I would imagine that there are plenty of Mondeo's out there with less than 84k on the clock at an ok price.

Do you have another car to run around in for the time being?

Hintza

Oh dear. Sorry haven't got any useful suggestions except to say been there done that but not quite to the same extent.

Silk

alij wrote: »

He owns the land of two industrial sites and breeds race horses. We actually collected the car from one of the sites and not at his address.
The HPI vehicle check states "mileage recorded by the National Mileage Register - 15 sept 2008 recorded by franchised dealer 84,303 mileage reading.
When my hustband spoke to him he said he thought we had done a vehicle check but declined to answer question as to the tax disc. We wonder where the car has been all that time. At that point he said straight away he would take the car back and refund us.
MOT cert dated 15th June 2009 states mileage 16,115
No previous owners.Current keeper acquired 9th may 2006 which is the date of first registration in UK (from HPI vehicle check)

Hi Ali,
I think if you can it would be best to get your money back. Sometimes the mileage can be a decimal point in the wrong place ie 8,500.6 miles is taken for 85,006 but it doesn't look as if thats the case here.
Do you actualy know he owns the sites and breeds horses or was it just what he told you ?
What name was on the bank account you transferred the money to ?