Buying a bargain price pre-registered car - pitfalls?

Doc_N

After quite a bit of negotiation on price with a local main dealer, I've been offered an extremely good deal which it's difficult to refuse. It's even better than the deal I can get from an online broker.

Unfortunately, it suffers from exactly the same problem - the car would have to be pre-registered. Which would mean that the V5C DVLA registration document would remain with the main dealer for 6 months (because it would technically be a demonstrator). After that it would be transferred to me.

The upside:

1 Very low price indeed - unachievable any other way
2 The documentation (apart from the V5C) would show me as the outright owner from day one.
3 The car would be built to my specification, to order, with only the delivery mileage on the clock.

The downside:

1 Technically, I'd be the second owner
2 I understand there might be some insurance difficulties (though it's difficult to see why, given that there would be a contract to show that I owned the car from the outset).
3 Possible DVLA problems (though again I'm not sure why).


Have we any experts in here who can give advice on this, please?

colino

This is a very common way for dealers to get volume bonuses while still pretending to maintain an extensive demo fleet. Only three things for you to focus on, does your insurer ask if you are the RK, is the price right and no matter how you slice it or dice it, are you happy paying nearly new money for what will always be recorded as a second-hand car?

OddballJamie

With the dealer keeping hold of the V5C and I presume it would also be in their name until the six months is up.

What would happen if the dealer went bankrupt in that six months?
Would the V5C be immediately signed over to you or would it be counted as one of their assets and have a lengthy court battle on your hands?

Wh05apk

I thought that this was now illegal?

Surely if he garage are keeping the log book, that means they are still the owners? what happens if the garage goes bust?

Wh05apk

There seems to be an echo here!

OddballJamie

Wh05apk wrote: »

There seems to be an echo here!

Glad I'm not the only paranoid one here

Doc_N

OddballJamie wrote: »

With the dealer keeping hold of the V5C and I presume it would also be in their name until the six months is up.

What would happen if the dealer went bankrupt in that six months?
Would the V5C be immediately signed over to you or would it be counted as one of their assets and have a lengthy court battle on your hands?

Wh05apk wrote: »

I thought that this was now illegal?

Surely if he garage are keeping the log book, that means they are still the owners? what happens if the garage goes bust?

Good points. The ownership would definitely be with me, though - that would be very clear from the paperwork. The V5C also states clearly on it that it's not proof of ownership, so that's not an issue.

Help appreciated in teasing out these points, though - I suspect there may be other pitfalls I haven't yet spotted.

OddballJamie

You mentioned you've compared against online brokers, but have you compared against other pre-regs on Autotrader or using the Parkers search?

Doc_N

OddballJamie wrote: »

You mentioned you've compared against online brokers, but have you compared against other pre-regs on Autotrader or using the Parkers search?

Good point - I'll do that. Not sure, though, whether I'd be able to pre-order a specific car built to order that way - colour, engine, extras, exact specification etc..

OddballJamie

You may fall lucky when searching. I did when I bought my car, managed to find the spec and options I wanted in my 2nd colour choice brand new with me as the 1st owner. It was a cancelled order that I got at £8k below list and £4k below what a broker could get it me.

TradePro

OddballJamie wrote: »

It was a cancelled order that I got at £8k below list and £4k below what a broker could get it me.

If you don't mind me saying, those numbers sound almost silly.

Was it a Maybach or something??