Car manufacturer refuses to honour offer - what recourse do we have?

patman99

Why not name & shame. That way we can all avoid the car maker in question .

Relentless01

If there is a new model out now then the factory would have stopped the build of the previous model months ago! There is a few cars out where the old model and new model were produced at the same time but this is not common.

As an ex new car sales manager. I would agree with other posts that suggest that they run out of stock. Unfortunately it happens especially when the deals on the run out model are that good. We used to have to issue that a customer would order the vehicle at the weekend and the admin department would go to order the vehicle on the Monday and find that all the stock had gone.

I wish you the best of luck getting your new car sorted out :-)

iapetus

Relentless01 wrote: »

If there is a new model out now then the factory would have stopped the build of the previous model months ago! There is a few cars out where the old model and new model were produced at the same time but this is not common.

As an ex new car sales manager. I would agree with other posts that suggest that they run out of stock. Unfortunately it happens especially when the deals on the run out model are that good. We used to have to issue that a customer would order the vehicle at the weekend and the admin department would go to order the vehicle on the Monday and find that all the stock had gone.

I wish you the best of luck getting your new car sorted out :-)

In this case we checked explicitly before putting in an order that the factory was still taking orders for new cars. After placing our order we received an email from the dealer confirming this, and confirming explicitly that the order had been accepted by the factory. It wasn't an 'over-the-weekend' thing - they'd contacted the factory to confirm that they could still place orders, and the confirmation email came through on a Thursday.

The manufacturer also confirmed to us that they were still accepting orders, but that the decision was taken, knowing that they had already committed to provide cars to customers to stop production without honouring those commitments. (They also told us that this happened roughly a week after our order was taken, and that all affected customers were informed. This, of course, was a lie.)

patman99 wrote: »

Why not name & shame. That way we can all avoid the car maker in question .

Because despite everything, we still want to resolve this thing amicably, and we've still got a few avenues to explore to do that. They do make awesome cars, and it's a shame that their customer service doesn't live up to that - it's only fair to give them a chance to put things right. We're currently in touch with the head office, rather than the UK branch and awaiting a response from them. If that doesn't turn up some results then we'll be sure to lose them some custom. Messing us around like this has already cost them at least two sales, and will lose them more.

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

You appear to have spent months arguing about this... don't you have anything better to do with your time?

Most or all of that time is down to the manufacturer. Remember, for a month of this time they were telling us we could expect to receive our car on the expected date, and for most of the second month they were pretending to be making an effort to find a replacement car, either from the old range or the new - a couple of days before I posted, they were telling me that they would be able to provide a new model car, and it was just a question of whether they'd do it through the old deal or with an equivalent good-will payment.

We do now have details of the relevant trade bodies that they belong to, and if head office can't resolve things, we'll be going for conciliation through those.

ILW

What are you hoping to achieve?

bigjl

You won't lose them any custom.

Most consumers can see what has happened.

Franchised dealer took an order, manufacturer couldn't fullfill the order.

You wanted the new shape car for a price that was unrealistic but were offered some discount, I think you said £1000?

A huge discount on a new model.

iapetus

bigjl wrote: »

You won't lose them any custom.

Already have done. Family members were ready to put down money on the new model car, now won't. Not to mention the fact that they've lost our custom not just for this car but future upgrades (this was to be my third car from the same range, and failing to do right by us loses them not only this sale, but subsequent ones).

bigjl wrote: »

Most consumers can see what has happened.

Franchised dealer took an order, manufacturer couldn't fullfill the order.

It frustrates me that after explaining it clearly so many times, you're still misunderstanding this. This isn't a case of miscommunication between the dealer and manufacturer; the factory confirmed that the order was taken and would be delivered. The manufacturer confirmed that they made a decision to stop production despite having committed to deliver cars.

bigjl wrote: »

You wanted the new shape car for a price that was unrealistic but were offered some discount, I think you said £1000?

A huge discount on a new model.

No, I wanted the car I had ordered for the price that was advertised. Given that they deliberately decided not to honour that contract, I wanted as close a replacement as possible at the same value. As for £1000 being a huge discount, we've since discovered they're offering a standard discount of £500 on the new model across at least some of their dealers, which makes that offer even more laughable than it was already.

I guess perspective makes a lot of difference in how you view this. If you'd been strung along and lied to by a manufacturer like this, I imagine you'd be slightly more worked up about it as well.

ILW wrote: »

What are you hoping to achieve?

The delivery of what we ordered or a reasonable replacement. It's that simple.

Oh, and an apology would be nice.

bigjl

Don't forget the dealer is only a franchise.

The dealer didn't do anything wrong here.

The manufacturer did.

I personally think the dealer tried to solve it the best way they could.

But wanting one model down in the new shape for the same price as the old one with I assume the same finance deal is never going to happen.

Sorry if you don't want to hear it but the facts are the facts.

If you get them to do it then good luck to you, you have has a result.

But consider the entire situation.

If you were a fleet buyer that buys 1000 cars a year the manufacturer might pull out all the stops to keep a big customer happy.

But you are not a big customer.

And I don't think anyone will lose much sleep over the tiny amount of potential custom they might have lost.

You seem unable to understand the basic concept that the Franchised Main Dealer has not done anything wrong.

They took an order in good faith, they sent it in as normal and expected it to be fulfilled, but the manufacturer ceased production before it was built.

You do realise that the dealer is not the manufacturer don't you?

I have every sympathy, you wanted a car at a knock down price and thought you had done it all right, but for reasons not evident it was not fulfilled, most likely be side your order was fairly specific in terms of the options you wanted fitted, with a run out model that is the risk you take.

I would be surprised if there are none of the old model available in the UK, wether they for your requirements I don't know.

I would take the discount on the new model, it will be a better vehicle and will have better residuals, not forgetting it will likely be more economical, possibly cheaper to tax and will not look old in a few months.

I am sorry you don't like my opinion.

But that is the risk when you post on a public forum.

You are free to it ore my advice or follow it.

The choice is yours.


But without the make and model of car advice will be more generalised.

I can assure you telnet situation you are in is unlikely to cost the dealer or manufacturer any sales or future business.

I personally think the dealer has tried hard to come to a solution.

But selling a car at a loss is never going to be a solution they can take.

They are in business to make money, not lose it.

You are aware how difficult it is to get money off a new model?

Maybe try to increase the discount by another £500 and try for some freebies like mats.

iapetus

bigjl wrote: »

Don't forget the dealer is only a franchise.

The dealer didn't do anything wrong here.

The manufacturer did.

While "The dealer didn't do anything wrong," doesn't exactly match up with what happened, I agree with you. That's why this is about the manufacturer, not the dealer.

bigjl wrote: »

But wanting one model down in the new shape for the same price as the old one with I assume the same finance deal is never going to happen.

The list price for one model down in the new shape is the same as the old model, give or take. All we're asking for is the same deal.

bigjl wrote: »

But consider the entire situation.

If you were a fleet buyer that buys 1000 cars a year the manufacturer might pull out all the stops to keep a big customer happy.

But you are not a big customer.

And I don't think anyone will lose much sleep over the tiny amount of potential custom they might have lost.

So you're saying it's fine to screw over individual customers because the amount of money is smaller? Sorry, but I don't agree with that.

bigjl wrote: »

You seem unable to understand the basic concept that the Franchised Main Dealer has not done anything wrong.

They took an order in good faith, they sent it in as normal and expected it to be fulfilled, but the manufacturer ceased production before it was built.

You do realise that the dealer is not the manufacturer don't you?

You seem unable to understand the basic fact that I know that, and have distinguished clearly in this thread between the dealer and manufacturer. The dealer has been inept and unhelpful through all of this, but it's the manufacturer that's in the wrong.

bigjl wrote: »

I have every sympathy, you wanted a car at a knock down price and thought you had done it all right, but for reasons not evident it was not fulfilled, most likely be side your order was fairly specific in terms of the options you wanted fitted, with a run out model that is the risk you take.

That may have made it harder for them to find a replacement afterwards, but it makes no difference when they committed to build our car to our spec, because there should have been factory time for that. They chose to make it difficult for themselves, they can deal with the results.

bigjl wrote: »

I would be surprised if there are none of the old model available in the UK, wether they for your requirements I don't know.

What little effort they've put into finding one suggests not.

bigjl wrote: »

I am sorry you don't like my opinion.

I don't dislike your opinion as such; I just find it frustrating that a lot of the time you seem to be giving advice to someone in a different situation to me, where the problem's caused by a miscommunication between dealer and manufacturer rather than a deliberate decision by the manufacturer and the person is going after the dealer for it. Neither of these is the case.

bigjl wrote: »

I personally think the dealer has tried hard to come to a solution.

Then I haven't described the situation very well. The dealer has been lazy and inept throughout, whether the problem's their fault or not.

bigjl wrote: »

But selling a car at a loss is never going to be a solution they can take.

And I'm not asking them to. When the manufacturer discussed making the replacement vehicle available at the reduced price, they were clear that this would be done by providing it to the dealer at an appropriately reduced price.

GJ_WRX

As frustrating as it is I don't think you're going to get much further with this.

It sounds like the dealer has been pretty poor in communicating with you, likewise the manufacturer has not done all they can to keep you in the loop.

Can they find you an ex-demo or pre reg in the network with a similar spec?

I'd go for the new car option though, as the older model will depreciate faster and look older sooner. As mentioned above see if they will give you an extra £500 (£1500 in total) and a few extras, then consider it a win win, they keep the sale and you get the latest model at a great price.

iapetus

Just an update on the current state of play - we dropped into the dealer this morning and put in an order for the new model car, with the same additional extras as the old one plus the few bits and pieces required to bring the new mid-range trim up to the standard of the old top-range trim. The dealer offered a very good discount on the car - very impressed with them at the end of the day, given that as far as we can tell it wasn't their fault that the original problem took place. Having contacted head office, the manufacturer doubled their offer, and clarified that it would stack with any other discounts, so we took advantage of their finance deal for three years free servicing and £500 deposit contribution. Total discount off list price ended up substantially over the £3200 from the original deal (though we're missing out on the 0% finance deal, which brings it back into line with that). We're paying more than we originally would have done, because the options to bring the car up to the spec we wanted are a bit more expensive this time round (automatic headlights; were £65, now £440 because they're bundled with other safety measures) but we're happy with the result - we're getting the closest equivalent possible to the car we ordered at a price that's not too much more than we'd intended to pay, which is all we wanted at the end of the day. And we get to carry on telling all our friends how wonderful our favourite car is rather than feeling like we have to warn them off, which is nice. For a moment there I was in serious danger of ending up a Volvo driver. Yes, it was a lot of stress and effort, but we knew what we wanted and stuck to our position, and at the end of the day I think we ended up with a reasonable result all round.