Overcharged Car Tax when buying car!!

d18set

Hi All

We purchased a used car from Polar Ford last July. As part of this we purchased (through them) a years car tax at a cost of £115. However as part of renewing our car tax we have just discovered that the annual car tax cost is actually only £30.00.

We are obviously very angry at this - not sure if it was a mistake or a deliberate overcharging so will be contacting them. Does anyone know if there is a car industry regulator? As part of writing to Polar Ford to complain, I want to say that we intend to raise this issue with the appropriate regulatory. Not sure if there is an equivalent to the Financial Ombudsman for the car industry??

Thanks in advance.

colino

Doesn't the disc have the amount paid on it? Maybe they were victim of a mistake that has now been corrected. However if it says £30 on the old one, take it in to the trader and get a refund.

londonTiger

they may argue that the excess is a handling charge for doing this. Check your papaerwork

Tilt

what cost did it have on the old disk?

flashg67

The rates change every year - as above, the rate is shown on the tax disc. Polar Ford are part-owned by Ford retail, so if you've genuinely been 'had' try contacting Ford Uk if the dealer won't help?

agrinnall

Wasn't finding out what the tax on the tax rate of the car was part of the research you did before buying? What would you think if you'd bought a band M car without realising and would now be facing an annual bill of £490? The rates are readily available online, and I would guess in Post Offices still for those who don't buy online.

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables

System

When my daughter was looking for a car she was finding some models were Group e one year but then drop to Group B the next due to a change of engine/spec etc. I think Corsas were one of the cars that did this.

Tiddlywinks

d18set wrote: »

Hi All

We purchased a used car from Polar Ford last July. As part of this we purchased (through them) a years car tax at a cost of £115. However as part of renewing our car tax we have just discovered that the annual car tax cost is actually only £30.00.

We are obviously very angry at this - not sure if it was a mistake or a deliberate overcharging so will be contacting them. Does anyone know if there is a car industry regulator? As part of writing to Polar Ford to complain, I want to say that we intend to raise this issue with the appropriate regulatory. Not sure if there is an equivalent to the Financial Ombudsman for the car industry??

Ombudsman? That's a bit of an overreaction, don't you think?

Why didn't you check it at the time?

Yet another example of a buyer not paying enough attention and then turning a minor issue into a pantomime.

d18set

Thanks all

I did check the old car tax disc and it was £30. Personally I don't think that complaining about a company charging £115 for something which costs £30 is an overreaction - at no point was a £85 service charge for the tax mentioned. Also it is not the only issue we had with Polar Ford so it is just another issue adding to the list of problems we've experienced. I emailed in a query about this over a week ago to Polar Ford and they have not responded which I thought was pretty rude and hence why I want to escalate.

Fully admit that we should've checked previously and we certainly are not consumers that don't usually pay attention to the finer details when it comes to finance - this just slipped our attention til now.

Thanks again.....