Advice on sale or return offer from car dealership

Sausage11

Hello All,

I have a car for sale on Autotrader. Priced at just under £40K. I've been contacted by a used-car dealership, Automotive Direct, about their selling my car. They don't charge a commission as they would make their money if the buyer uses finance. (I would pay a modest fee if it was a cash sale). They would attempt to sell the car for 1 month. If it doesn't sell during that time I would then have to pay a monthly fee if I wanted them to continue to market the car. At any time I can take the car back.

They tell me that they would require the following:

"Logbook in your name, Full service history documents, spare key and locking wheel nut. And if you could also bring your driving license so we can confirm you are the registered keeper"

I'm interested in their service as I think the ability to buy the car with finance would open up a much wider pool of buyers. However, I had never heard of such a service before.

Does anyone have any experience of using this service? Of Automotive Direct? There is a horror story thread about someone who used such a service on this board. But are these services usually perfectly legit?

Any advice MUCH appreciated!

AdrianC

Either private-sell, or sell it to a trader who are willing to purchase it from you.

Sale-or-return, commission-sale, whatever you want to call it - it's a potential mess.

Automotive Direct do claim to buy cars, too...
https://www.automotivedirectltd.co.uk/sell-your-car

Herzlos

My assumption is that it's a scam where they key part of it is to get you to pay them the fees - for the sale and the monthly fee.

If they were confident they could sell the car they'd be offering to buy it from you. You're also going to leave your £40k car with them, with no security, until they eventually sell it? What if they use it for "test drives" and boost the mileage right up?

How will you know if it's purchased with cash or finance?

They don't look like a particularly big or expensive dealership, selling some very expensive cars. That just seems kind of odd (though not impossible, I remember someone with a business plan to sell high end vehicles in a very no frills way).

You are correct that at £40k you're probably looking at buyers on finance. Are there any local dealerships to you that'd sell it on commission? Even if they take 10% you're going to get a lot more than trade-in value.

Sausage11

Thanks Both. You're definitely swaying me against this as a course of action. I downloaded the accounts from Companies House and it didn't inspire confidence. If I did pursue it then the key thing would be to establish what security of ownership I actually have once they have the car. But unless some more positive comments turn up I don't think I'll even investigate this possibility.

Does anyone have any positive experiences of this kind of service? Of Automotive Direct?

foxy-stoat

Sausage11 said:

Does anyone have any positive experiences of this kind of service? Of Automotive Direct?

Nope, years ago I used to get many calls from people saying that they 100% had buyers lined up for whatever car i was selling at the time, all I had to do was to pay a £45 fee.  I used to say, pass my details onto the person and when I sell my car and I will pay you double that......they never took me up on my offer.

100% its just a scam.

Jackmydad

AdrianC said:

Either private-sell, or sell it to a trader who are willing to purchase it from you.

Sale-or-return, commission-sale, whatever you want to call it - it's a potential mess.

Automotive Direct do claim to buy cars, too...
https://www.automotivedirectltd.co.uk/sell-your-car

This. It's also known as "selling on consignment" generally seen as a bad way of doing business for the supplier.
If they want it, they pay for it. End of.

dogshome

So if they do sell the car within the first month - The BIG question is 'When do you get the money'

Some years ago there was a similar scheme dealing with classic cars. but buried within the terms was the condition that when a sale took place, the proceeds would be paid to the owner in not less than 21 days, which actually means the dealer could hang on to the cash forever

boundy

I've read stories before of dealerships going bankrupt whilst having a large inventory of sale or return cars and all of the owners are treated as unsecured creditors with little chance of getting  the full value back. 

foxy-stoat

dogshome said:

So if they do sell the car within the first month - The BIG question is 'When do you get the money'

Some years ago there was a similar scheme dealing with classic cars. but buried within the terms was the condition that when a sale took place, the proceeds would be paid to the owner in not less than 21 days, which actually means the dealer could hang on to the cash forever

They do not sell the car, they will make the poor sap pay £45 or whatever and then on to the next one.