Selling a mistake to raise some £££s

Stevefromdonny

Bought a 62 reg Citroen DS4 in January. Cost me more than I wanted to pay for a car, and more than I should have paid. Made the big mistake of getting caught up in the moment. Anyway, I immediately cancelled the expensive finance (16%) the dealer sold me and took out a loan at 8%. However on analysis, my 4-weekly pay just covers all my direct debits now. All our disposable income is my partner's wage (I'm main breadwinner, her wage is significantly less than mine) and my "free" month (get paid 13 times a year) and my managers bonus (if I get one).

We want to save money for a bigger house now, and can't wait 5 years to start doing this (new arrival in April, one on way within a couple of years, only got a 2 bed house now).

My aim is to buy a cheaper (inferior) car and pay off a lump of the loan. I'll then make a decision whether to reduce the term of the loan or the monthly payments.

The car cost £12499, paying £260/month 5 years. I valued it on WBAC.com and they gave me best price at £9000. I KNOW I'm going to loose money on it, I've nearly doubled the mileage on the odo (was 11k now 18k). Am I likely to get better price part exing it? I've never part ex'd for a cheaper car - is this actually possible? So I walk away with money and a car?

One final thing. The car has no service book (sold as FSH). Numerous wranglings with the dealer (CARSHOP DONCASTER to name and shame) have lead to . . . nothing . . . and I still have no service book. I've already filed a small claim and had money back for GAP insurance that I cancelled but not refunded. Would I be within my rights to get 2 valuations from a dealer and submit a new small claim for the difference fsh to nsh? The difference on WBAC was £360 which is less than I thought. Or should I take it back to carshop and get it valued by them and request the FSH value? My worry with that is that they may remember me and the car and all my dealings with them.

I'm tempted to private sale the car because it also has 3 years £699 of warranty on it (as I said, caught up in the moment), set to run from the end of the manufacturers 3 years, which the next owner can take advantage of - a dealer would want to sell their own. Can't cancel this (biggest scandal going that you cant cancel a warranty that hasnt even started protecting you yet). Never private saled before though, and wouldn't want to for £10k of car either.

Captaincodpiece

If it's full Citroen service history can you not get it from them?

You want to save money for a bigger home but have no disposable, you've bought yourself out of one finance deal with another and now need to get out of that one, yet you still need a car.

You need a miracle not a forum.

Stevefromdonny

Captaincodpiece wrote: »

If it's full Citroen service history can you not get it from them?

You want to save money for a bigger home but have no disposable, you've bought yourself out of one finance deal with another and now need to get out of that one, yet you still need a car.

You need a miracle not a forum.

Hmm, if only. No, I want to trade down to a cheaper car in order to repay some of the finance. It is going to be a costly mistake, but I figure if I cut my losses now I can recoup more than I will in 5 years time when the car will have depreciated much more. And by then I can have saved money for a bigger house.

Citroen UK have been less than helpful. All they know about the car is that it was registered at Evans Halshaw in Hull. They have never serviced the car. Carshop did a "free service" on the car at 11k miles due to lack of service history but all I got was a certificate reminiscent of the certificates you get at a holiday camp for coming first in the 3 legged race. No invoice or detail. "congratulations your car has been serviced".

Bantex_2

Stevefromdonny wrote: »

Hmm, if only. No, I want to trade down to a cheaper car in order to repay some of the finance. It is going to be a costly mistake, but I figure if I cut my losses now I can recoup more than I will in 5 years time when the car will have depreciated much more. And by then I can have saved money for a bigger house.

Citroen UK have been less than helpful. All they know about the car is that it was registered at Evans Halshaw in Hull. They have never serviced the car. Carshop did a "free service" on the car at 11k miles due to lack of service history but all I got was a certificate reminiscent of the certificates you get at a holiday camp for coming first in the 3 legged race. No invoice or detail. "congratulations your car has been serviced".

How many miles has the car done?

DUTR

Stevefromdonny wrote: »

Hmm, if only. No, I want to trade down to a cheaper car in order to repay some of the finance. It is going to be a costly mistake, but I figure if I cut my losses now I can recoup more than I will in 5 years time when the car will have depreciated much more. And by then I can have saved money for a bigger house.

Citroen UK have been less than helpful. All they know about the car is that it was registered at Evans Halshaw in Hull. They have never serviced the car. Carshop did a "free service" on the car at 11k miles due to lack of service history but all I got was a certificate reminiscent of the certificates you get at a holiday camp for coming first in the 3 legged race. No invoice or detail. "congratulations your car has been serviced".

Well you mentioned manager's bonus, so that suggests you are some kind of manager. It is time to re-assess (which you sort of have) and frankly, live within your means and manage your finances etc much more admireably.
As the previous responder says, there is no quick fix, but it does seem like you are doing everything on the spur of the moment and possibly always on credit. A baby on the way is going to further burden the finances, and what if one of you lost your income? Instant debt and a downwards spiral.

force_ten

if you bought the car at 11k miles chances are it had never been serviced, what is the service interval on the car is it the standard 12 months or 12 K which ever comes first?

I know the car was over 12 months and chances are whoever owned it didn't have it serviced and the service the selling dealer did is all the car has ever had

Nodding_Donkey

Do new Citroens even have a service book? Most new cars seem to rely on digital service records now.

AdrianC

force_ten wrote: »

if you bought the car at 11k miles chances are it had never been serviced, what is the service interval on the car is it the standard 12 months or 12 K which ever comes first?

I know the car was over 12 months and chances are whoever owned it didn't have it serviced and the service the selling dealer did is all the car has ever had

62-reg, so 1/9/12 to 28/2/13 first registered. Service interval for DS4, first reg after 7/12, is 20k miles (petrol or 2.0HDi), 12k miles (1.6HDi) OR ONE YEAR.
http://info.citroen.co.uk/finance-and-services/caring-for-your-citroen/service-intervals

Depending on exactly when it was first registered, it may not have needed a service before you bought it in Jan '14 - but it certainly will have by now. And, if not done by a dealer, that will have needed to have been done in line with the manufacturer's recommendation (backed up with parts invoice showing OEM-quality parts), or else you now have a car with a worthless manufacturer warranty. Is the aftermarket warranty transferable to a new keeper?

gilbert_and_sullivan

A lesson for many there and very honest of you to air your story, hopefully others will take note.

One of the problems is going to be to establish if the car is still under terms of makers warranty, and thats going to depend on proof of service to Citroen standards and genuine parts when it was apparently serviced by Car Shop, i have my doubts that either time or parts condition will have been met here.

Quite how you persuade a finance house that happens to offer a car with their finance package to do the right thing and send you proper service documentation i haven't a clue, generally you're forgotten and a nuisance the second they have your signature and have moved on to the next kill.

I think you have to assume that the warranty is now null and void, so the car's value whilst under 3 years old takes a hit IMO, once its over 3 years old that won't make such a difference, but i would try to recover as much proof of continued servicing as possible.
Ask Citroen the direct question...is it still under warranty?...if its not you might as well forget expensive Cit servicing...if you want to go the private sale route i would be inclined to get it serviced now by someone so you can get a proper receipt and establish a service regime to tempt the private buyer, hopefully that will add to the CarShop's all but useless certificate.

Sorry to say but i have my doubts that you'll sell this privately unless very cheap, say £2k+ cheaper than an equivalent car from a dealer, very few people have access to an instant £10k, and very few of those would risk such a private purchase unless in a specialist car market, especially it must be said for a modern French car, and even more so one that even the most cursory inspection of its service history would deem it almost certainly void of makers warranty and any subsequent goodwill after warranty expires.
Let alone genuine concerns that the car has been running the correct oil, or even had an oil change of any sort given there is nothing worth tuppence as proof at present.

I hope it works out for you.

Apples2

Why did you cancel GAP insurance?
Out of that whole sorry saga, the GAP was the one thing you do need,

You certainly don't need to be paying for a worthless warranty.

Why didn't you follow up with your LBA and take it to Court?

arcon5

What grounds to go to court over the warranty? Op has no grounds