Just discovered car dealer lied about Cat D status

BeenThroughItAll

pelo wrote: »

Are Cat C?
I was told mine was catD but it says
"THIS VEHICLE HAS BEEN SALVAGED BECAUSE THE ESTIMATED COST OF COMMERCIAL REPAIR WAS MORE THAN THE VALUE OF THE VEHICLE"

Yes, Cat C are recorded on the V5. Cat D isn't, simple as that.

jamiewakeham

The WayBack Machine is an internet archive service - it records snapshots of interesting webpages. Have a look - it's quite fascinating to see what well known pages used to look like! Anyway, it happened to have recorded the dealer's website in the months before I bought the car, so I have a copy of how he described the car - with no mention of Cat D.

And yes, that's exactly right: Cat C goes on the V5 but Cat D doesn't. Much to my cost.

jamiewakeham

Right: the Cat D occurred in July '13, and I bought April '14, so plenty of time for it to have been registered and the dealer to have been aware.

Wonder what my best move is now. I could go straight to the dealer, but this is now going to be an acrimonious message because there is no way he's innocently sold it on before the details were updated. Or should I go via Trading Standards?

Tothepoint.

jamiewakeham wrote: »

Right: the Cat D occurred in July '13, and I bought April '14, so plenty of time for it to have been registered and the dealer to have been aware.

Wonder what my best move is now. I could go straight to the dealer, but this is now going to be an acrimonious message because there is no way he's innocently sold it on before the details were updated. Or should I go via Trading Standards?

Speak to the dealer first and give him the chance to sort it.
Then letter before action.
Then court.

You cannot go direct to Trading Standards, you'll need to go via the Citizens Adivce Bureau.

AdrianC

pelo wrote: »

Are Cat C?
I was told mine was catD but it says
"THIS VEHICLE HAS BEEN SALVAGED BECAUSE THE ESTIMATED COST OF COMMERCIAL REPAIR WAS MORE THAN THE VALUE OF THE VEHICLE"

B'sides CatD not being recorded, the wording of that tells you it was CatC - CatD is damage below the value, but which the insurer's decided not to repair for other reasons. They may well be totally unrelated to the damage itself - perhaps parts were on back order, and the hire car costs were stacking up. The decision to go CatD rather than repair is entirely a paperwork one. If the insurer had made the other decision, there would be zero record - yet the damage would have been identical.

shaun_from_Africa

AdrianC wrote: »

The decision to go CatD rather than repair is entirely a paperwork one. If the insurer had made the other decision, there would be zero record - yet the damage would have been identical.

And if my aunt had bal** she would be my uncle.

Paperwork decision or not, stating what could have happened but didn't actually happen is pointless as the simple fact is that the OP has a car that now has a cat D marker against it, something that will reduce the value or make it harder to sell and if the dealer was aware of this then they were under a legal obligation to inform any prospective buyers.

DoaM

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

if the dealer was aware of this then they were under a legal obligation to inform any prospective buyers.

I thought dealers were obliged to be aware regardless? That ignorance is no defence? (I'm aware that this doesn't apply for private sellers, but dealers are obliged to know or take reasonable steps to ascertain such information and make it known to prospective buyers unbidden).

arcon5

I doubt it's a simple open closed case.
Your blanket 1/3 off is baseless. What proof do you have that the price now is the true market value?

Of course assuming the dealer doesn't spin a story in which case how you going to persuade a judge your version is more likely to be correct? Especially after all this time.

If they don't respond positively is it really worth it? It's more of a gamble than a sure thing imo

jamiewakeham

I'm sure it's not open and shut.

I'm going to email the dealer tonight and see how they respond. If they hold their hand up and admit they didn't tell me about the Cat D then we'll see what they offer. However, I fear they're going to lie and state that they did tell me.

Then I have some very difficult decisions to make. You're right that persuading a judge isn't going to be trivial and if I do go to the small claims court I could be chucking good money after bad. OTOH I hate the idea that he's profited by telling lies.

salubrious

If you still have the bill of sale, and it hasn't been disclosed on there, then there is good amount of proof right there that the dealer was negligent.