Cancelling car purchase from main dealer

marlot

The speed of this spread as caught many people out, including the Chief Medical Officer.
Here's what he said on 24 January.  So less than two months ago.  " We all agree that the risk to the UK public remains low, but there may well be cases in the UK at some stage. We have tried and tested measures in place to respond. The UK is well prepared for these types of incidents, with excellent readiness against infectious diseases."
He, and each of us, have had to adapt very quickly.

Jonesya

GMAD said:

It’s the usual contract that pretty much states the deposit (£750 in my case) is non-refundable. I get that. But with this virus causing chaos and possible job loss, continuing with the purchase doesn’t make sense.

Anything in the contract about 'force majeure' or act of god ? 

Peter999_2

GMAD said:

Peter999_2 said:

I bought (with part exchange) a car on Wednesday.     Things were already kicking off by then, but I saw no reason to not go ahead with the purchase.  I got a good price from them, and the part exchange was about £1,500 more than webuyanycar.com (which has really plummeted).

I had it in my head that my car was going down in price every month anyway, and my new car wouldn't be much different in loss every month.     It's also an electric car so I know I will be saving a lot of fuel/maintenance costs as well.      The final point was that I also like my local garage and I can imagine they are going to have a rough time over the next few months so I thought I'd help them as well.

I see logic in your decision for sure. I’d possibly do the same, however, I’m financing over £20k after p/x is accounted for - not a number I’m willing to take on right now.

I must admit that if the car I was buying was still over £20k after part exchange then I would pull out.    Mine was only £8k after part exchange.

SkimmySim

I’m in a similar position i wonder if anyone can help... my new car is an hr away on the motorway for me to pick up, i’m currently a keyworker and a carer for my grandad so travelling just to get a car seem unnecessary, do you think there is a way to defer payments for the car (5 yrs HP) until all this is a little more relaxed and i can safely go and collect it?

Car_54

SkimmySim said:

I’m in a similar position i wonder if anyone can help... my new car is an hr away on the motorway for me to pick up, i’m currently a keyworker and a carer for my grandad so travelling just to get a car seem unnecessary, do you think there is a way to defer payments for the car (5 yrs HP) until all this is a little more relaxed and i can safely go and collect it?

There is no risk of infection in travelling for an hour up the motorway. The risk is at the dealership, whether it's an hour away or just round the corner.

marlot

SkimmySim said:

I’m in a similar position i wonder if anyone can help... my new car is an hr away on the motorway for me to pick up, i’m currently a keyworker and a carer for my grandad so travelling just to get a car seem unnecessary, do you think there is a way to defer payments for the car (5 yrs HP) until all this is a little more relaxed and i can safely go and collect it?

I wouldn't worry about that particularly.  But I would sanitise the door handles and car interior before driving away.

billy2shots

marlot said:

The speed of this spread as caught many people out, including the Chief Medical Officer.
Here's what he said on 24 January.  So less than two months ago.  " We all agree that the risk to the UK public remains low, but there may well be cases in the UK at some stage. We have tried and tested measures in place to respond. The UK is well prepared for these types of incidents, with excellent readiness against infectious diseases."
He, and each of us, have had to adapt very quickly.

Not to sure I follow. The 13th of March is very different to the 24th of January. 

I think most most people would have grasped the seriousness of the situation by March 13th. 

We need to be careful that this doesn’t create a free for all regarding poor judgement. We should all way up the pros and cons of any decision we make and not think we have a get out of jail free card.
That’s not aimed solely at the OP, that’s for all of us in general. 

DonRustone

First time poster here, finding myself in a similar situation to the OP.

I went into a dealership last Friday, with the plan to just discuss options and see what deals they could do as they had some promotion running. Like a numpty, and as I like cars, I got sucked into agreeing to a deal which seemed pretty good although with little way to accurately judge it against any others.

It was a car in the showroom (which they claimed meant they could do a better discount) and, after much theatrical work from the sales manager type who went back and forth "talking to management", I paid £1000 of the deposit to secure it.
Afterwards the usual buyers remorse kicked in and I started having doubts. Having mulled it over for a week and with the coronavirus now hitting pretty much every industry it really doesn't feel like a good time to be buying a new car, taking a chunk out of my savings and be more expense per month, when job security is suddenly very uncertain. 

Now I'm willing to chalk this up as a very expensive life lesson and lose the deposit as I clearly made a mistake and rushed in. The dealer has said on the phone that they don't accept cancellations and will charge me things like having the car polished on top of the deposit and I need to put everything in writing to them. I suppose I need to send a grovelling email asking to cancel to formally stop the process, take the hit and never darken their door again!? Am I better off trying to renegotiate to a more favourable deal financially (given the dealer said other customers had been in touch too and surely they still need to shift the cars) or do I not really have a leg to stand on?
All advice and abuse welcome!

This from their website for reference:
Except as provided by law, or under clauses 2©, 7(a)(iii) or 23 of these terms and conditions, no order which has been accepted by [Dealer] may be cancelled by the Customer except with the agreement in writing of [Dealer] and on terms that the Customer’s deposit shall be forfeit and further that the Customer shall indemnify [Dealer] in full against all loss (including loss of profit), costs (including the cost of all labour and materials used), damages, charges and expenses incurred by [Dealer] as a result of cancellation.