Car misdescription

LandyAndy

harveybobbles wrote: »

God, you sound like the sort of person who dithers about for ten minutes deciding if you should have beans or peas with your chips...

So you drove around for two months with the car not sounding good? I can't blame the garage for not wanting to fix this.

I can't see what you want to do about the low fuel level in the car two months after you picked it up?

The car WAS 1 PREVIOUS keeper (ie 1 previous to the current reg'd keeper at the time)

That's a surprise to me.

If I saw a car at a dealer described as 'one previous keeper' I would assume that if I bought it I would be the second keeper.

redped

Yes

I'm with LandyAndy on this one - I wouldn't expect the dealer to have the car registered in his name (unless it was an ex-demo). Having said that, I'd have checked the V5 as soon as I received it just to make sure all the details (including number of owners) was correct, rather than waiting a couple of months.

OP - what age is the car, and what sort of warranty did it come with? I'd be asking the garage why they won't fix the manifold - are they blaming you for the damage? what sort of damage are we talking about here?

redped

Yes

One other thought - you say the DVLA mentions 2 owners - do we know if one of them is actually the dealer you bought it off? Is it possible that it had two owners before the dealer bought the car? Have you spoken to the dealer about the number of owners?

scheming_gypsy

LandyAndy wrote: »

That's a surprise to me.

If I saw a car at a dealer described as 'one previous keeper' I would assume that if I bought it I would be the second keeper.

I think the key word may be 'previous'. "One owner from new" would suggest that the buyer would be the second owner but previous would suggest that there was one owner before they got it.
Although the V5 should clarify that. If the last owner is showing as the garage then it's all explained but if it isn't; somebody is telling porkies.

Ghostrider

No

Well I have to say firstly, you should have checked the log book when you signed it at the dealership, and it also depends EXACTLY how it was described, as quite often you'll find that a cars first owner can be the original dealership that registered themselves as a first keeper in order to register a car before the new plates come in. A lot of people don't actually count that as a previous owner, although technically in the DVLAs eyes it is. It possibly is mis-description if you're, but be honest with yourslef, would you have not bought the car if you had realised at the time it 2 owners on the logbook?

Secondly - what does your warranty cover? Who issued the warranty? When does the warranty expire?

If you don't have a warranty then i'm afraid you probably are on your own here unless the car garage decides to fix it as a gesture of goodwill. If you expect a garage to help you out you need to take the car back at the first sign of there being something wrong with it.

Question - when you took the car in for a new gearbox was the car making a noise then? If so did you point it out to them? If not then how long after you buying the car did it start making the noise?

If it was a couple of months after purchasing the car then unless there is a good warranty on the vehicle then I suspect the answer is you will be footing the bill yourself - and rightly so too if i'm honest, like has been said above there comes a time when you have to expect to maintain a car yourself.

harveybobbles

No

I'm assuming the car was advertised as "one pervious owner". Which it would have been if you had looked at the reg doc.

This means it has one previous keeper to the current reg'd one. ie two in total. Hence why the OP is now the 3rd keeper.

Ghostrider

No

harveybobbles wrote: »

I'm assuming the car was advertised as "one pervious owner". Which it would have been if you had looked at the reg doc.

This means it has one previous keeper to the current reg'd one. ie two in total. Hence why the OP is now the 3rd keeper.

The OP also needs to understand the difference between "owner" and "registered keeper".

I could own a car and register it in my name as the first "registered keeper" I could then decided for a variety of reasons to register the car in my wifes name, but I haven't sold her the car. So I would still be the legal "owner" and my wife would become the second "registered keeper". In fact I could have registered it as many times as i'd like if I wanted to without selling it...in the eyes of the law, i'd be the only legal owner of the car.

SO it could be perfectly legitimate and thats just one example which happens quite often.

I doubt very much the garage will feel threatened by such a desperate technicality personally, especially if all the facts of the previous keepers are not known.

iolanthe07

No

Beware that the DVLA make mistakes. When I sent in my V5 to have an address change recorded recently, it came back with an extra owner added. I got it sorted easily enough, but you do need to check.

LandyAndy

harveybobbles wrote: »

I'm assuming the car was advertised as "one pervious owner". Which it would have been if you had looked at the reg doc.

This means it has one previous keeper to the current reg'd one. ie two in total. Hence why the OP is now the 3rd keeper.

I still think it is rather confusing, possibly deliberately. 'n' previous owners means, to me, 'n' people owned this car before I (the dealer) came to sell it.

I can well see why it might be done by dealers because the words one and owner give a better impression than the words two and owners.

None of that removes the OPs obligation to check the V5.

harveybobbles

No

...but on the reg doc where it says "number of previous keepers" it will have said 1. Which is what the garage have also said