dodgy dealers

forgotmyname

The longer a car sits unsold the shorter the MOT, So why would the dealer MOT a car that might not sell at thr profit he wants in that location.

Having a new MOT should be a bonus to you, You have 12 months before it needs doing again. If you think the MOT will be dodgy then you chose the wrong seller.

colino

Yes, absolutely criminal. They should MOT the car the day it goes on to Autotrader/Motors/RAC and then put up with the crap from the buyer who takes it two days later when it doesn't then have a full MOT.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Maybe to assuage the paranoia of some buyers they could state the present MOT expiry but state they will put a full one on when it's sold.

Maybe dealers give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to sense they were born with, and they might not actually want customers who think like that, haven't even looked at the car and the dealer's dodgy.

bartelbe

Then put that in the ad. The ad says the car has an MOT, that I as a buyer can legally test drive it. A car with an MOT is worth more than one wthout.

As for the cost of an MOT it is buttons, even without trade rates.

I don't buy this it could sit there for 12 months. If it has sat there for 12 months it is overpriced and the dealer doesn't know what they are doing. The depreciation will get them if they keep stock that long.

I and most of the public don't trust dealers as far as I can throw them. If it has no MOT at the moment advertise it as having no MOT.

Not to mention the fact there is more than one horror story about cars with no MOT sold by dealers, with their garage supplying one at sale, for the MOT to be found to be dubious, and the car riddled with faults.

An MOT costs £56 max, and will be far less to a dealer. Are the dealers on here seriously saying that they run their businesses so badly that the margin on a car priced in the thousands is £20?

BeenThroughItAll

bartelbe wrote: »

Then put that in the ad. The ad says the car has an MOT, that I as a buyer can legally test drive it. A car with an MOT is worth more than one wthout.

As for the cost of an MOT it is buttons, even without trade rates.

I don't buy this it could sit there for 12 months. If it has sat there for 12 months it is overpriced and the dealer doesn't know what they are doing. The depreciation will get them if they keep stock that long.

I and most of the public don't trust dealers as far as I can throw them. If it has no MOT at the moment advertise it as having no MOT.

Show us the ad.

fat-pudding

bartelbe wrote: »

I don't buy this it could sit there for 12 months.

It isn't about the car sitting there for 12 months, it's that if you put an MOT on a car and it sits for 1 month and you sell it you need to put /another/ MOT on the car. Whenever the place I worked for advertised a car it would say "all cars are sold fully serviced and with a full MOT", that work was never done until the car was sold and a date was made to have the customer pick it up.

When selling a car as a dealer is that when you get the car you do a very quick check over and test drive to make sure it's legal and nothing is obviously severely wrong. When you sell the car you then service it properly and put the MOT on it and resolve any faults. This is because although the car might sit on your forecourt you may end up selling it via another dealer who may work out a different deal.

Having worked in the trade you sometimes inexplicably get cars that just sit on your forecourt for months when they are keenly priced and a good specification and history and then you get other cars that you think you'll struggle to sell and they disappear in a few days.

Every time you do some work to a car on a forecourt it costs you money so you try and minimize what it will cost you at that point. For example, if the car has halfway worn brakes and tyres all at 4mm as a dealer you will not want to change them without a negotiation with the buyer. If they want the car cheap they won't get much movement to do these things, if they pay full retail they will.

What people don't realise is how stupid many of the car buying public are. For example I refused to sell cars with a DPF to people who only do very few miles a year and 4 miles to and from work despite their protests that they wanted it as I knew it would come back to us with them wanting things done under warranty which would be the result of them owning the wrong car.

You also get the class of people who want to buy a car but won't buy a car with basic features as they want extra toys. These people are then the ones to complain when the extras break down and cost money to repair and say they don't understand why manufacturers fit all this stuff as nobody wants it. I've had people expect to do warranty work for free on a £600 car when they'd had it for 18 months. I've had people try and trade in cars they knew were written off as having no faults, cars they've had clocked, cars with major faults etc. etc.

It all goes to show that even though there are dodgy dealers out there that there are also dodgy buyers.

bartelbe

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Show us the ad.

Why is the dealers union getting so outraged?

It is fairly simple, members of the publics want to be able to legally test drive your cars. They will assume that a car advertised with 12 months MOT with have an MOT. So they can test drive.

If it does not have an MOT, put that in the ad. Do not lie by omission assuming that most of the public will think the car has a current MOT. Of course for £20-30 you will have knocked hundreds off the value, but that is the dealers problem.

An MOT costs nothing, a car with an MOT is worth far more than one without. It is as simple as that.

bartelbe

fat-pudding wrote: »

It isn't about the car sitting there for 12 months, it's that if you put an MOT on a car and it sits for 1 month and you sell it you need to put /another/ MOT on the car. Whenever the place I worked for advertised a car it would say "all cars are sold fully serviced and with a full MOT", that work was never done until the car was sold and a date was made to have the customer pick it up.

When selling a car as a dealer is that when you get the car you do a very quick check over and test drive to make sure it's legal and nothing is obviously severely wrong. When you sell the car you then service it properly and put the MOT on it and resolve any faults. This is because although the car might sit on your forecourt you may end up selling it via another dealer who may work out a different deal.

Having worked in the trade you sometimes inexplicably get cars that just sit on your forecourt for months when they are keenly priced and a good specification and history and then you get other cars that you think you'll struggle to sell and they disappear in a few days.

Every time you do some work to a car on a forecourt it costs you money so you try and minimize what it will cost you at that point. For example, if the car has halfway worn brakes and tyres all at 4mm as a dealer you will not want to change them without a negotiation with the buyer. If they want the car cheap they won't get much movement to do these things, if they pay full retail they will.

What people don't realise is how stupid many of the car buying public are. For example I refused to sell cars with a DPF to people who only do very few miles a year and 4 miles to and from work despite their protests that they wanted it as I knew it would come back to us with them wanting things done under warranty which would be the result of them owning the wrong car.

You also get the class of people who want to buy a car but won't buy a car with basic features as they want extra toys. These people are then the ones to complain when the extras break down and cost money to repair and say they don't understand why manufacturers fit all this stuff as nobody wants it. I've had people expect to do warranty work for free on a £600 car when they'd had it for 18 months. I've had people try and trade in cars they knew were written off as having no faults, cars they've had clocked, cars with major faults etc. etc.

It all goes to show that even though there are dodgy dealers out there that there are also dodgy buyers.

Then put the words no current MOT in the ad. See how simple that is, eliminates all confussion.

What exactly is the problem with that? The car has no MOT, and that fact is rather important to most car buyers.

To be blunt I would rather buy a car with 2 months MOT, and get my garage to do it. It costs me nothing to get a ticket, and I trust them, unlike some dealer I don't know.

And yes outraged dealers union I don't trust any of you. That isn't me being paranoid, it is the number of dealers who ruining the reputation of the good dealers. Get outraged at them.

bartelbe

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Maybe to assuage the paranoia of some buyers they could state the present MOT expiry but state they will put a full one on when it's sold.

Maybe dealers give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to sense they were born with, and they might not actually want customers who think like that, haven't even looked at the car and the dealer's dodgy.

Well maybe dealers should put the words no current MOT in the ad, MOT at point of sale.

So why doesn't the dealers union want to do that?

Because you all know that inexperienced buyers will assume that 12 months MOT in ad means car has a current valid MOT. Without which there can be no legal test drive and the buyer has to take your word about condition.

No buyer with commonsense is going to buy a dealer car without a test drive.

You do understand that secondhand dealers have a very bad rep? It is misleading stuff like this that is part of the problem.

bartelbe

Did a data check, according to that what the dealer told me is wrong, it has a months MOT, but the tax ran out last month.

Before the dealers union gets outraged again, I know the new owner pays for car tax when they get the car now.

Correct me if I am wrong, but you can't road test a car without tax? What happens if plod pulls me over in an untaxed car?