List Price

arashtrip

Hi,
I purchased a car (PCP contract) couple of moths ago and due to some issues mainly Covid 19 the delivery was postponed. Now, the car dealer is ready to hand over the car in the coming weeks.

The problem is that at the time of the original agreement I tried so hard to keep the price under £40K to avoid extra £325 tax per year. Now, the dealer says that the list price is about £40,200 and so I need to pay that extra tax for the first 5 years. Dealer is happy to cover it for the first two years but the problem is that had I known this point I would have ordered better colors or more options. The dealer claims that the list price has been increased by the government levies and it is out of their control.
So, my question is that are they right and it was something out of their control? And do I have any protection in case that their listed price has been increased since the original agreement?

Car_54

What are these "government levies"?

arashtrip

Car_54 said:

What are these "government levies"?

I dont know and they did not tell me! Honestly, I think it is so weird that the car list price is decided by the government.

molerat

The car list price is not determined by the government but is set by a list of features from the government to stop people fiddling the system. The only "government levy" that could have changed is the VED banding due to the new emissions rules, something that is not included in the list price and will only affect the first year.  The only conclusion is the manufacturer must have increased the price of the car, something most do in April, and that is something no one can do anything about. Surely you can get hold of a 2019 and 2020 price list.

arashtrip

molerat said:

The car list price is not determined by the government but is set by a list from the government to stop people fiddling the system. The only "government levy" that could have changed is the VED banding due to the new emissions rules and that is something that is not included in the list price.  The only conclusion is the manufacturer must have increased the price of the car and that is something no one can do anything about.

It is what I was thinking and so you imply that I cannot do anything apart from accepting it or walking away?

AdrianC

The list price relevant is the one in force on the date the car is registered. That is set by the manufacturer's head office or UK importer.

They may have chosen to increase that to allow for increased import duty come the end of this year, and the end of the Brexit transition period. What country was the car built in?

The only government component within the list price is VAT, and that's unchanged since January 2011, at 20%.

What is your actual beef here? Is it the extra £975 you're going to be paying (assuming you keep the car for the full five years, and the rate is unchanged)? Or is that you now have a spec that you wouldn't have chosen given the changed situation?

arashtrip

AdrianC said:

The list price relevant is the one in force on the date the car is registered. That is set by the manufacturer's head office or UK importer.

They may have chosen to increase that to allow for increased import duty come the end of this year, and the end of the Brexit transition period. What country was the car built in?

The only government component within the list price is VAT, and that's unchanged since January 2011, at 20%.

What is your actual beef here? Is it the extra £975 you're going to be paying (assuming you keep the car for the full five years, and the rate is unchanged)? Or is that you now have a spec that you wouldn't have chosen given the changed situation?

The car brand is an EU one so I do not think there is any duty on that. As you said £975 may not be a big issue throughout five year and the bigger issue is the spec. I am more of disappointed

AdrianC

arashtrip said:

AdrianC said:

They may have chosen to increase that to allow for increased import duty come the end of this year, and the end of the Brexit transition period. What country was the car built in?

The car brand is an EU one so I do not think there is any duty on that.

I didn't ask what notional nationality the brand was - I asked what country it was built in.

If it was built within the EU27, then it's entirely likely that duty will increase come the end of December, unless something changes markedly first. Many non-EU27 countries will also do so, where there are current EU trade deals reducing the default tariffs.

As far as disappointment, they've already offered to cover the extra for the first two years. For most owners, that's going to be 2/3 of the financial hit, as well as a £650 goodwill gesture.

arashtrip

AdrianC said:

arashtrip said:

AdrianC said:

They may have chosen to increase that to allow for increased import duty come the end of this year, and the end of the Brexit transition period. What country was the car built in?

The car brand is an EU one so I do not think there is any duty on that.

I didn't ask what notional nationality the brand was - I asked what country it was built in.

If it was built within the EU27, then it's entirely likely that duty will increase come the end of December, unless something changes markedly first. Many non-EU27 countries will also do so, where there are current EU trade deals reducing the default tariffs.

As far as disappointment, they've already offered to cover the extra for the first two years. For most owners, that's going to be 2/3 of the financial hit, as well as a £650 goodwill gesture.

sorry it was my bad the car was built in China and it was the main reason that the delivery postponded

AdrianC

OK, so scratch that theory - there's no EU-China trade deals in place, so default duty anyway.

Volvo?

[Deleted User]

Seems simple enough, you can either cancel and re-order (dealer might not be happy but you can go to a different one) or just accept their offer, or you could try to negotiate.

Actually if you cancel there is a good chance they will offer you a discount anyway. They must be desperate for sales and if you cancel they either have to return the car or try to find another buyer in a nearly dead market.