Car delivered with 1750 more miles on clock than when bought

matthewp81

Bit of advice needed please.
Just bought a 1 year old Vauxhall Corsa from Evans Halshaw in Stockport. When we bought the car it had 14012 miles on the clock. This was on the 25/03. It needed some paintwork touching-up and a service, so we agreed to collect it on the Friday (ended up being on the Saturday, as they hadn't bothered to tax it.)
We signed for and collected the car on Saturday 31/03, and I've just noticed 2 days later that the car has done 15759 miles. Thats 1750 miles in a week, which isnt on.
What is my legal position on this? Can I reject the car, or should I be asking for cash back?
Thanks in advance.
Matt

sgun

I assume as it was sold by EH that the paperwork you signed gives the mileage when you put the deposit down NOT the mileage when you collected it? Have you contacted them - leave it too long then they might say that it was you that put the miles on the car.

I would ask for a slight refund, if you go by Parkers valuation criteria, depending on your model you would expect £30 to £50 per 1000 miles over average for age. Check Parkers to see what the average for your model is and work it out.

The matter of trust is a different issue, I think they need to tell you exactly who had your car and why. How was it driven? Any worries you have that it might have been thrashed about a bit need bringing up too. Perhaps they will offer you a free service next year by way of compensating?

matthewp81

on the order form it states the 14012 miles, but on the invoice/collection form it states the 15759. The finance was sorted out on the Saturday that we bought/ordered the car, so as far as we are concerned, the car was ours from that date! I know what the law would say had we have collected a brand spnking new car with 1750 miles put on it!
You raise a very good point though in terms of who has had it (bearing in mind that the car wasnt taxed) how have they managed to drive it 1750 miles on trade plates in 7 days? thats 250 miles a day, which isnt healthy for a 1.2 corsa!!

vax2002

Did you actually see the odometer reading at 14012 ?

matthewp81

yes, as I remember saying at the time that it was a little on the high side. Now its even higher!

forgotmyname

Why is 250 miles a day bad for a 1.2 corsa?

Would you prefer it if the engine had been started and left ticking over for upto 20 minutes every day but never driven?

Short journey's are far worse than long drives.

Personally i think mountains and mole hills, At that mileage its nothing.

What probably happened was, Car came in with 14000 miles, Transferred from one dealer to another, test driven several times. Used to collect parts or as a curtesy car.

Then you buy it and they have not updated the mileage?

matthewp81

forgotmyname

I do 50 miles a day in my 1.4 fiesta, and I know, from experience, that these types of cars arent really designed to do high mileages in short spaces of time. But we digress...
When we said to the dealer "Yes,I will take that car please" We recieved a piece of paper with an odometer reading of 14012 miles on it.
When my wife collected the car. The paperwork stated 15759 (which she didnt notice at the time).
Therefore, the car which we (rightly IMO) thought would be sitting on a forecourt for a week until we collected it, had in fact, been collecting 1750 miles.

Strider590

It's been used as the garage runaround, fairly standard practice. I'd place bet's that it's been doing that for a while......

How does this happen?

Well.... Dealerships move stock up and down the country depending on where it's needed, sometimes they just continuously rotate stock.

What happens is 2 "drivers" take two cars the length of the country, leave one car at the other dealership and then both jump in the 2nd car to drive home. They also use these cars for the same purpose when dropping off customers cars AND also the same vehicles are often used as courtesy cars.

The cars are always the models that are easy to shift and a 1.2 Corsa is a prime choice in the current climate.

It's very easy to clock up that sort of mileage with that sort of use.

What if a customer bought their car in for repair and took the courtesy car to Spain for the week? It happens...... In your shoes id be pretty annoyed, but what can ye do?

matthewp81

well this is what I'm asking! Have I a leg to stand on? Or do I have to just accept it? Surely now this is 'goods not as advertised' territory?
I'll put it this way, had we have been strolling around the forecourt and looked at the car with 15759 miles on it, I'd have said the mileage was too high and walked off. As it was 14009 was just on the cusp of being too high.

each_uisge

matthewp81 wrote: »

I do 50 miles a day in my 1.4 fiesta, and I know, from experience, that these types of cars arent really designed to do high mileages in short spaces of time.

I know this is taking it off topic but I'd be interested to know why you think that a small engined car isn't "designed" to do high mileage trips?

I'm the owner of a 1.3l car and it's got me from one end of the country and back again within a week without any bother.

Strider590

each_uisge wrote: »

I know this is taking it off topic but I'd be interested to know why you think that a small engined car isn't "designed" to do high mileage trips?

I'm the owner of a 1.3l car and it's got me from one end of the country and back again within a week without any bother.

You could also walk it in a pair of traditional clogs, you'd have serious problems with your feet, your legs and your knee's in 10years time, but you could do it.

The point being made is that everything is designed for a purpose, a small 1.2 was not designed to cruise the motorways, it was for low speeds, designed to be small, economical, good for nipping in/out of traffic and easy to park in small spaces.

Your Mondeo, Vectra, 3 series, etc etc etc, were designed to be at home on the long distance journeys. To get you there in relative comfort and without any mechanical wear.

The suspension geometry of both types of car are different, the larger cars are more stable at high speeds, they shrug off bumps at 70mph like there was nothing there, but bring them into a town centre and they can be a real pain.

Small vehicles at high speed, they ride higher up (unless sports versions which will just feel crashy at motorway speed), they hop about over every bump, they feel unstable, they're much more noisy.....
You could not possibly understand this without driving both types over the same roads.