Car Part Exchange problem

DaveReith

My son Part Exchanged his 16 plate KIA for a 10 plate Jaguar as a straight swap (no money changed hands). Now 6/7 weeks later the Car Dealer has said it wasn't declared as a CAT S category when the deal was done, even though they did full legal checks on his vehicle before the deal was completed. They are demanding £3k from him and within 24 hrs of first contacting him, are threatening court action because he hasn't instantly agreed to pay. Can they demand money like this after this amount of time has elapsed? How should he respond? He has made contact with CAB but not had a response yet. Any help would be great. Thanks

marlot

Did your son know it was a cat S?

DaveReith

He saw CAT S on the original advert for the KIA but had no idea what it meant. That deal was also a straight swap for his Citroen DS5. The dealer now in question has advertised it as CAT S since a couple of days after the P/Ex deal was done but have only contacted him now.

couriervanman

DaveReith said:

He saw CAT S on the original advert for the KIA but had no idea what it meant. That deal was also a straight swap for his Citroen DS5. The dealer now in question has advertised it as CAT S since a couple of days after the P/Ex deal was done but have only contacted him now.

"He saw CAT S on the original advert for the KIA but had no idea what it meant".........he is very naive then

couriervanman

I think the car dealer has a very good case against your son

AoVmike

marlot said:

Did your son know it was a cat S?

Just to clarify, I bought the Kia last year and the seller hadn't listed the car as CAT S, nothing was listed on the V5. When the car was offered as a part ex on the new car, (after 3 hours of paperwork & checks) at dealership they confirmed they were satisfied with the part ex and valued it like for like with the new purchase.
The Kia (Part Ex) was listed within a few days on AutoTrader by the dealership as CAT S and obviously several thousand pounds higher than valued (understandably). 
After nearly 6 weeks the vehicle is still for sale (reduced by £500) and they've chosen to contact me to demand £3000 + as they're not able to sell the car at the moment for the listed price.
Seems like a very dodgy & desperate move by them. 

EdGasketTheSecond

Aren't dealers supposed to use HPI? You can even look the car up for free on Auttrader to see if it has a cat mark against it (by just creating a dummy advert with the reg.). Seems like they didn't do due dilligence; I'd say its their problem.

AdrianC

Cat S write-offs show on the V5C front page, under "Notes". Cat N don't.

But "Well, the ad when I bought it said it was, but I didn't know what it meant" - I mean, really...? That's a lousy excuse for failing to disclose on sale. Equally, the dealer are incompetent for failing to check. The legal presumption is that they are the experts, being in the trade as opposed to individuals, so it's unlikely that it's going to get very far if they do chase him up.

Can you clarify - he saw the ad for the Kia, and he swapped it straight for his DS5 - yet you bought it...?

bengalknights

Its down to due diligence, if the dealer did HPI checks etc then it would have been flagged at the time. If they have been advertising for 6 weeks as CAT S then they have known about it.

NBLondon

AdrianC said:

Can you clarify - he saw the ad for the Kia, and he swapped it straight for his DS5 - yet you bought it...?

Presumably AoVmike is the son and DaveReith the parent.
I agree that the dealer should have checked more carefully because it is possible that a buyer might see the term and not think to find out what it means.   Effectively - it wasn't declared as it wasn't known to be significant.

The_Rainmaker

NBLondon said:
  Effectively - it wasn't declared as it wasn't known to be significant.

But the dealer may try to argue that the seller did know and knew the significance and was acting fraudulently.

Having said that the dealer didn't do his due diligence and as has been said he is the expert.