Just discovered car dealer lied about Cat D status

jamiewakeham

Not a Skoda main dealer, no. He says he's spoken to the salesman.

I can ask for a copy of his HPI paperwork (though he's already had me email him the invoice, so I think the chance that he's got the HPI records are low). But he's not claiming it's not Cat D - he's claiming I was aware.

I need to figure out what I should have paid. His claim that £9700 was a fair price for this car with Cat D seems very very high to me.

Edit: Glass thinks dealer prices for a similar car and age would range from £9k to £11k. Again, that suggests that my paying £9700 is bang in the middle of dealer prices, not a Cat D bargain!

dannyrst

jamiewakeham wrote: »

Not a Skoda main dealer, no. He says he's spoken to the salesman.

I can ask for a copy of his HPI paperwork (though he's already had me email him the invoice, so I think the chance that he's got the HPI records are low). But he's not claiming it's not Cat D - he's claiming I was aware.

I need to figure out what I should have paid. His claim that £9700 was a fair price for this car with Cat D seems very very high to me.

Edit: Glass thinks dealer prices for a similar car and age would range from £9k to £11k. Again, that suggests that my paying £9700 is bang in the middle of dealer prices, not a Cat D bargain!

Looking at AT, I can see an 11 plate 1.2 TSI SE with 25k miles for £9,893. Seems about what you paid. There aren't any cat D's around near me to compare the value of. But maybe if you have time you could do some analysis of similar cars and the loss in value for being cat D then offer that to the garage owner as a settlement?

AdrianC

dannyrst wrote: »

Looking at AT, I can see an 11 plate 1.2 TSI SE with 25k miles for £9,893. Seems about what you paid.

Apart from the minor detail that the OP's car was 4yo when they bought it, while that one's 5.5yo... you're assuming the market for 4yo Yetis now is the same as it was two and a half years ago when the OP bought theirs. As a 2009/10 car, the OP's would have been one of the first Yetis on the market when new, and the facelift had not long been on sale - whereas the Yeti is now approaching replacement in a year and a bit's time. So, all in all, that price could well be taken to suggest the OP got a decent buy. But, really, you'd need to be looking at Spring 2014 price guides to get any kind of relevant comparable guide prices.

dannyrst

AdrianC wrote: »

Apart from the minor detail that the OP's car was 4yo when they bought it, while that one's 5.5yo... you're assuming the market for 4yo Yetis now is the same as it was two and a half years ago when the OP bought theirs. As a 2009/10 car, the OP's would have been one of the first Yetis on the market when new, and the facelift had not long been on sale - whereas the Yeti is now approaching replacement in a year and a bit's time. So, all in all, that price could well be taken to suggest the OP got a decent buy. But, really, you'd need to be looking at Spring 2014 price guides to get any kind of relevant comparable guide prices.

I mean, yeah...I don't have a glass' guide from 2014 so couldn't possibly say what the market was like back then.

It was just some basic search for 10 minutes whilst on lunch, not something to print off and take to court as evidence.

jamiewakeham

I've gone back to the dealer and said:

1) I don't accept I was made aware of the Cat D - not on the invoice, or the advert, or in person.

2) I don't accept that £9700 was a fair price for the car with Cat D, but was in fact a good price for the car with no tags. Given slightly shoddy paintwork, one missing key fob, missing trim from alloys, etc, it by no means represents the huge discount I'd want for a Cat D car.

3) I think I should be entitled to the difference between the car with and without Cat D as it was in 2014, but I am going to settle for ending up with what I expected to receive on resale.

Then gave him the option: he buys it back at un-tagged value, or he makes up the difference between the £3800 and untagged value.

He is sticking to his line that his salesman did tell me it was a Cat D, that it was worth £12k at the time so £9700 represents a fair discount, and that he won't do anything.

Is there any sensible way I can get hold of price guides from 2014? The data is presumably held in Glass's databases but I don't know if I can access it. Anyone got a paper copy from the time? Or is there a way to get hold of Autotrader records of the time?

Tothepoint.

You obviously did your homework before buying, what were similar cars priced at when you bought?

There must have been a reason why you went for this car, was it the price?

jamiewakeham

I certainly did do my homework. The car was at the cheap end of the spectrum, and when I set off to see it I was wondering why, but it was hundreds cheap, not thousands cheap, and the scrappy paint finish seemed plenty sufficient to explain it.

I did go a long way for the car - Oxford to Southend - and he's saying that the distance I travelled proves I was sarching for a bargain. Actually, it's a fairly unusual spec (most of the little petrols are low-spec and I wanted SE minimum) so there was little choice nationwide.

Problem is, I've not saved all my web searchs and valuation from the time, and they're what I need to challenge his assertion that the car was worth £12k and £9700 was a reasonable Cat D price.

Tothepoint.

jamiewakeham wrote: »

I certainly did do my homework. The car was at the cheap end of the spectrum, and when I set off to see it I was wondering why, but it was hundreds cheap, not thousands cheap, and the scrappy paint finish seemed plenty sufficient to explain it.

I did go a long way for the car - Oxford to Southend - and he's saying that the distance I travelled proves I was sarching for a bargain. Actually, it's a fairly unusual spec (most of the little petrols are low-spec and I wanted SE minimum) so there was little choice nationwide.

Problem is, I've not saved all my web searchs and valuation from the time, and they're what I need to challenge his assertion that the car was worth £12k and £9700 was a reasonable Cat D price.

And at the time we're there similar cars at 12k?

jamiewakeham

Honestly, I don't remember. I imagine so. My budget was £10k, and I do remember being pleased that I could get a four-yr-old with low miles for that. But pleased, not astonished.

dannyrst

Tothepoint. wrote: »

And at the time we're there similar cars at 12k?

Regardless, the dealer still didn't disclose the CAT D on the car. If the dealer priced the car appropriately as a CAT D, what did they have to gain from not disclosing it to the OP (as proved by the lack of entry on invoice or in the advert)?