Car purchase - misrepresentation?

k3lvc

Boobyjood wrote: »

The car is a Cooper D, just under 2 months old. The RRP with options (inc chilli pack etc) is just over £20k.

So what are the actual options ? Did it then have paintguard (or Mini equivalent) or any other dealer fit options

UNless I'm missing something there are equivalent spec cars on Mini website for sub £14k :eek:

Boobyjood

k3lvc wrote: »

So what are the actual options ? Did it then have paintguard (or Mini equivalent) or any other dealer fit options

UNless I'm missing something there are equivalent spec cars on Mini website for sub £14k :eek:

Mini specification and reported RRP

XN32 MINI Cooper D 3dr hatch 1.5 Vocanic Orange £15,930
7Y2 CHILI Pack £2,250
345 Chrome Line Interior £110
4BD Interior trim - Piano black £125
4F2 Colour Line - Shadow grey £75
6NE Enhanced Bluetooth with USB audio £360
Fuel new cars £40
Delivery £488.64
TLC & MOT Protect £299
Seal & Protect £349
First Reg fee £55 (Sept 14)

Total £20,081.65

Point of interest, the Seal and Protect was applied in the workshop (and didn't include the cleaning kit )at point of sale as part of my negotiation, so should not be included in the initial value of the car as quoted pre-sale.

That would therefore bring the RRP down to £19,732.65

Also, the agreed deal was £18,430 for the Mini with £5000 PX for my car. The invoice lists it as £18,280 for the Mini with £4850 PX. I didn't query this at the time as effectively the cost to change was the same, but the dealership could effectively argue that I got the Mini at a slightly cheaper price. I negotiated about £400 off the advertised price.

My question now remains, who should I approach in the first instance regarding my grievance? An apology and a gesture of goodwill would go a long way and maybe prevent the issue from being taken further; should I address the Manager of the dealership or Mini UK Customer Services? I have sent an enquiry to OFT for further advice and await a reply.

Thanks in advance

k3lvc

Mini website lists base price @ £16,450 - don't know whether this is a recent increase

My personal opinion is that you're on a hiding to nothing and there's not much they can give you (you already have servicing/warranty etc)

If I was spending that amount I'd certainly have done my homework before and ensured that the saving quoted was correct (if that was the most important thing to me). Presumably in your case Johnny Salesman has realised that you were motivated by saving rather than price and played along with it.

My suspicion is that if you go back they'll find a way of bricking it up to £22k (or at least over £21,501) i.e. include components of Chili Pack rather than pack price, show full cost of all aftersales options (mats/protection/fuel etc)

Sure you can complain but what do you want out of it ? Your offer was a price, they accepted your offer, you paid the money and drove away.

Your only other escape clause might be if they offer a 30 day/1,000 mile replacement policy in which case you could return it, pay any costs and then start again

Puttytat

Yay, you're went for Volcanic Orange, welcome to the club! Go team VO

Boobyjood

Puttytat wrote: »

Yay, you're went for Volcanic Orange, welcome to the club! Go team VO

:rotfl: It is a bit gorgeous isn't it?

I've put my grievances into an email and will send it to the manager of the dealership tomorrow. I'm hoping to reach a fair resolution without having to pursue the matter further. I'll keep you informed. Thanks again for your advice and comments everyone.

Puttytat

Try Mini Customer Services too as we got a better response once the dealership knew they were involved too.

We got scr*wed with the loyalty bonus and also complained over how we were treated when we picked up our VO MCS and Mini Customer Service stepped in and suddenly the dealership were on the phone!

Great cars but the sales aspect is a bit hit and miss. It appears some are much better than others.

Good luck!

k3lvc

Still not quite sure what you're after. You've bought a second hand car at a price that was acceptable to you at the time. You now find that a new one wouldn't have cost quite as much as you expected.

Personally I'd have expected that if the difference in price was so (relatively) small the salesman would have been pushing to get you into a new car and showing you how little the difference was rather than inflating the price to highlight the saving on an ex-demo

At the end of the day you had the opportunity to check what he said and challenge it at the time and you chose not to

That said I'm interested to see what the outcome is - please keep us updated

Country_Cousin

Was it just a word of mouth thing re the price or did it have that price on the car crossed through and then the new, reduced price quoted underneath?

JustLikeThat

Reading this has made me feel aggrieved with my own experience. I went to Turners (Bury St Edmunds) to look for an almost new Hyundai i40. I loved the look of the one I was shown and assumed at first it was a 'blue drive'. As I started to 'buy' I realized it wasn't a 'blue drive' and asked about mpg as all my research had been for one. The salesman looked in the book and pointed to the 'blue drive' mpg (confusing layout) and said it was the same. After researching after buying, I find the car I bought is much less economical. I know both sets of figures are inflated but I am only getting 42 mpg. The 6 year old Vectra I part-exed got nearly 50mpg!
I doubt I would have bought the car if I'd known as my agenda was for good mpg and £0/30 VED. I know this is my fault, but I feel aggrieved as the salesman misquoted the figures. Oh well!

powerful_Rogue

JustLikeThat wrote: »

Reading this has made me feel aggrieved with my own experience. I went to Turners (Bury St Edmunds) to look for an almost new Hyundai i40. I loved the look of the one I was shown and assumed at first it was a 'blue drive'. As I started to 'buy' I realized it wasn't a 'blue drive' and asked about mpg as all my research had been for one. The salesman looked in the book and pointed to the 'blue drive' mpg (confusing layout) and said it was the same. After researching after buying, I find the car I bought is much less economical. I know both sets of figures are inflated but I am only getting 42 mpg. The 6 year old Vectra I part-exed got nearly 50mpg!
I doubt I would have bought the car if I'd known as my agenda was for good mpg and £0/30 VED. I know this is my fault, but I feel aggrieved as the salesman misquoted the figures. Oh well!

Why didnt you query it at the time or ask to see the actual model of your vehicle in the book to see the real mpg.