One used car - TWO prices!

Waffle_On

Me and the OH have been looking to trade in our car. Not looking for anything particularly special, probably spending around £4k.

We're been looking on Autotrader, then visiting garages that have cars of interest. There seems to be a common theme though - the price on Autotrader is always approx £500 lower than the price on the forecourt :mad:

To me this practise is at best dubious, although some might say it's downright dishonest.... are they breaking any rules though?

pitkin2020

They aren't breaking any rules but if your interested take the autotrader with you and point it out, then negotiate from there.

stugib

I had similar for the last car I bought. Have you actually spoken to the trader to find out what the price is? I was clear I was there after seeing the online ad, I paid the online price, was no dispute or trying it on.

Some traders use a forecourt price for passing traffic/'traditional' trade and a lower online price to compete with Internet prices.

Not dubious, just trading in different markets.

paddyrg

You may well find the forecourt price is inflated in order for the salesman to be able to knock something off to close the deal, where the autotrader price has no commission margin built in, and is more like 'the' price.

trumpton

The most annoying thing with Auto Trader is that when you put criteria in - say 20k miles - you get loads of cars that have done 100k plus miles. Some traders even put 'sorry 120k miles' in the ad. It's just makes me not bother with AT anymore.

I agree with the OP that it's dodgy to advertise at 2 prices, but it's not that unusual. HMV and Game for example often have different prices online and instore. They don't usually honour the cheaper online price though. Currys often have stuff on clearance on the web site whereas it will be much higher instore - at least you can reserve it at the cheaper price.

I would think it would only be illegal if they insisted on you paying the higher advertised price, and refused to sell at the lower AT price.

s_b

a lot of people put a mileage limit on cars into autotrader and are not being realistic in their budget to attain their dream,it therefore follows that a trader might stoop to putting wrong mileages to stimulate interest
of course to be in autotrader you have to be ultra competitive to cutting your throat so you would also price it lower than your dream price on the lot or its a waste of an advert

somethingcorporate

trumpton wrote: »

I would think it would only be illegal if they insisted on you paying the higher advertised price, and refused to sell at the lower AT price.

Wrong. It is their private property and they do not have to sell it to you at ANY price.

biscit

trumpton wrote: »

I agree with the OP that it's dodgy to advertise at 2 prices, but it's not that unusual. HMV and Game for example often have different prices online and in store.

It's not the same thing. We're talking one outlet having different prices on the fourcourt as in the advertising. HMV online and HMV Manchester are two different outlets, legally they're two separate businesses, not sure they're even owned by the same company.

suited-aces

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Wrong. It is their private property and they do not have to sell it to you at ANY price.

In contract law terms you're perfectly right for a one off event, but in terms of statute, if this activity was repeated in the course of business, it might attract trading standards?

Either way, I would make it clear I came to look at the car with the asking price of £3,500, and if it wasn't "available", I'd walk away.

bingo_bango

suited-aces wrote: »

In contract law terms you're perfectly right for a one off event, but in terms of statute, if this activity was repeated in the course of business, it might attract trading standards?

Either way, I would make it clear I came to look at the car with the asking price of £3,500, and if it wasn't "available", I'd walk away.

Agreed. This would constitute a misleading action which is an offence under Reg. 5 of the CPRs. It comes down to supplying information which is false, or is likely to mislead the average consumer in its presentation, even if the information is correct, and leads the consumer to take a different transactional decision.

Travelling to view a car is classed as a transactional decision, and an incorrect price on a website is misleading information.

All depends if this is a one off, or if they do this as a matter of course. They could claim a one off incident is a mistake which would be a reasonable defence. If you want to know the answer, report it to your local TS.