Weird Dealership Situation - Thoughts please!

ForumNewbie14

Hi,

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this situation...long one I'm afraid...

My husband and I 'bought' a car from a well known German dealership last June. On the day of collection we were handed the keys by the salesman and weren't asked to sign anything or provide any proof of ID. We did ask but he seemed to think nothing else was required so we drove home.

2 months later I rang the DVLA to check ownership as the V5 had not arrived. Not registered to us they said. Hmm. Called dealership HQ, told them situation on day of collection and that we'd not been asked to sign a finance agreement. A number of weeks passed, they finally worked out what the new finance package should be and asked us to go to garage to sign. We advised finance package was now unattainable for us and that we'd like to return the car (also because we still hadn't got a V5 and we were concerned about legality/insurance etc). This was last September and we have still not had a reply re returning the car.

In March we were contacted as HQ had received an unpaid parking ticket fine for the car (hubby's fault!). They apologised for having never sent the V5 off for us and said this would be rectified ASAP. Having chased them for this again on Tuesday, we finally received the change of ownership slip today and will have the official V5 in a couple of weeks.

HOWEVER...we have still never signed a finance agreement and are not paying for the car. We also randomly received our £1500 order deposit back into our bank account a few months ago!! We have no intention of selling the car for a couple of years at least but does anyone know where we stand when we do decide to sell and would we owe the dealership anything or is there a cut off point that they have no financial come back after?

Thanks very much for reading, any advice gratefully received!

Mankysteve

They'll be looking for there car back at some point. You've not paid for the car so its currently yours the V5means nothing, you don't get anything for free just because of a mistake

They have 6years to claim back off you they may also well be able to claim cost.

You should have sorted as soon as you realised no finance package and kept chasing till sorted. Its your own intrest to keep chasing unless you want a court case.

That's presuming your not just trolling

ForumNewbie14

Thank you Mankysteve. I'm not sure what 'trolling' is but I don't think I'm doing it, I don't frequent forums much I'm afraid so not up on the lingo!

We're not expecting to have the car for free and have chased and tried to rectify, not that I would have expected to have to really, the level of incompetence has been shocking. We were just wondering what the time cut off was as obviously don't want to be chasing for ever. Thanks for letting us know it's 6 years though, I think we might be leaving it on a forecourt and letting them know if no more luck!

neilmcl

So you agreed to buy the car, albeit on finance, and V5 and document signing mixup aside, you no longer wish to pay for the car?

taxiphil

ForumNewbie14 wrote: »

We also randomly received our £1500 order deposit back into our bank account a few months ago!!

Be careful here because there's a criminal offence of "dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit" (Theft Act 1968). If you know the credit was made to you in error but don't take reasonable steps to pay it back, the law says that you've stolen the money.

The fact that it happened a few months ago and you've not paid it back isn't going to sound very good in a courtroom.

I'd seriously advise you to send them a cheque for £1500 by Recorded Delivery tomorrow morning.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Return car to dealership.


make a complaint with dealership manager.


make good the owed amount of finance and deposit.
if that's not possible return vehicle keys to manage there and then.
if they didn't process the finance and require to rerun credit check it will be at current prices and APR, if this is now not obtainable for some reason, then you are due your part ex price on your old part ex vehicle minus your use of the current vehicle and wear and tear.

ForumNewbie14

Thank you all for your responses. We will contact them again as soon as they're open and insist we want to return it I think unless they can honour their original finance proposal that we were happy with before we placed the order.

Need to clarify what the £1500 was for Taxiphil, we have a second car with them so it's not clear as there was no reference on the payment but I didn't realise the law around this so thank you for that.

arcon5

taxiphil wrote: »

Be careful here because there's a criminal offence of "dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit" (Theft Act 1968). If you know the credit was made to you in error but don't take reasonable steps to pay it back, the law says that you've stolen the money.

The fact that it happened a few months ago and you've not paid it back isn't going to sound very good in a courtroom.

I'd seriously advise you to send them a cheque for £1500 by Recorded Delivery tomorrow morning.

Now now stop over reacting.
This is not really a situation the police would get involved in

arcon5

To certain members... Let's stop accusing every other poster of being a troll hey

arcon5

Op
Not sure what rights you have to return the car.
But what you should be doing is putting the deposit and monthly payments in to a separate bank account so when they pull their fingers out you have the money for them. Put it in an interest account.

Write them a letter recorded delivery advising them again of the issue. Keep proof of postage.

bclark

arcon5 wrote: »

Now now stop over reacting.
This is not really a situation the police would get involved in

It potentially is you know.