car dealer telling the truth re. taxing a new car

Lemonade_Pockets

Now it seems we need insurance to register a vehicle, although on the bright side from that link it looks like emailed certificates are valid

Sorry that maybe misleading i meant they do the two things simultaneously.

This sounds completely wrong to me as I'm sure that the chance of a new car owner driving without insurance is vanishingly small. The comment about anyone knocking up a certificate on the computer is nonsense, do post offices do anything other than a visual check if you give them a certificate when taxing a car? How do they know whether the certificate is genuine or one I made an hour ago?

They don't and neither would a salesman. However i would wager that someone would be more likely to try if they didn't have to send a hard copy. For instance its not that hard to change the reg number and date on a cover note by covering it up with a small strategically placed bit of paper, photcopy and then fax it.
It takes more effort to completley doctor a cover note and more front to go and pass it off in person.

Its just reducing the risk not eliminating it as you've pointed out nothing is fool proof. But due to the number of un-insured cars on the road i personally welcome any measure possible. Maybe if it became impossible to tax your car without a years insurance (paid in advance) then we might all get cheaper insurance and safer roads?

Anyway i am impartial merely just trying to explain the facts and logic behind the OP's problem. If you don't like it write a letter to the DVLA, your MP or something.

Mark_Hewitt

When I got 14 day driveaway insurance with Ford it involved me ringing them up (had to me me, not the salesman) and giving them my details. To which they gave me a code number and then the salesman used that to get the cover note via email.

Lemonade_Pockets

Mark_Hewitt wrote: »

When I got 14 day driveaway insurance with Ford it involved me ringing them up (had to me me, not the salesman) and giving them my details. To which they gave me a code number and then the salesman used that to get the cover note via email.

This is how most of them work including MINI's own driveaway insurance. Just seems its unfortunate they don't cover NI

Lemonade_Pockets

Just to update; i knew there was another good reason dealers usually made sure you provided a cover note:

s.143(b) RTA 1988 makes it an offence to cause or permit a person to use a vehicle on a road or other public place without insurance. The penalties are identical to actually using a vehicle without insurance.

I.e. They are covering their !!!! by taking "reasonable" steps to make sure you are adequately covered before they give you they keys to drive away.

harveybobbles

We don't go out of our way to make sure the car is insured.

We do, however offer customers free 7 day Driveaway Insurance. Which is emailed to us. We print the cert off and hand it over to the customer.

ozvaldinho

A salesman who cuts corners and gets found out during an audit that he's not properly checked insurance when taxing a vehicle is very likely to lose his job. Imagine a large dealership having to go to the post office and join the queue every time they need a tax disk? It would be a full-time job.
Sales staff are quite right to refuse if the paperwork isn't in order, just like the post office counter staff do, and rightly so.

vaio

Lemonade_Pockets wrote: »

Just to update; i knew there was another good reason dealers usually made sure you provided a cover note:

s.143(b) RTA 1988 makes it an offence to cause or permit a person to use a vehicle on a road or other public place without insurance. The penalties are identical to actually using a vehicle without insurance.

I.e. They are covering their !!!! by taking "reasonable" steps to make sure you are adequately covered before they give you they keys to drive away.

Surely this would also apply when handing a car back after servicing?

harveybobbles

very interested to see that there are still Post Offices who will tax cars on dealer's certificates despite being repeatedly told that they shouldn't

Luckily we have 7 Post Offices around here, so we alternate if we ever need to tax a car using our own trade insurance. The cars we run ourselfs are taxed this way, but never register them into our names so when we come to sell them in 2/3 years time they are still one owner with the original leasing company as the reg'd keeper. Naughty, yes.