Left Deposit on Unseen Car Now Changed My Mind

markavfc2

Hi all,
Last Wednesday I left a £500 deposit on a car (total cost £17500) that I had not seen and am due to pick up tomorrow. It is from a dealer.  I have in writing that if I see the car and I am not happy the deposit is refundable. The dealership is a 5-6 hour round trip away which is why I left a deposit without seeing as it is such a long way to drive, see the car and then come home and have to go back to pick up.
I have now changed my mind on the vehicle and I wondered where I stand with regard to getting the deposit back. Would it come under distance selling? the dealer is getting the vehicle serviced as due to the coronavirus issue the car was a month late on its second service but this has now been done over last few days. This would have needed to have been done regardless of me leaving the deposit.
I suppose worse case I could go to the dealership tomorrow and view the vehicle and say I don't like it and then as already agreed have my money back but that would mean a 5/6 hour round trip for me and also wasting more of the dealers time.
Any advice much appreciated.
Mark

jonesMUFCforever

Lockdown finished for you then?

markavfc2

jonesMUFCforever said:

Lockdown finished for you then?

Excuse me? car dealerships open again tomorrow and you have been able to buy cars via distance selling for some weeks I believe.

George_Michael

Even though you've not seen the car, did you have a face to face meeting with the dealer when the deposit was paid?

markavfc2

George_Michael said:

Even though you've not seen the car, did you have a face to face meeting with the dealer when the deposit was paid?

No. I have never met the dealer or been to the dealership. We have exchanged a number of emails and spoken on phone once when I paid deposit on credit card.

Supersonos

Ask the dealer.

If he says no, you've got a long drive ahead of you just to look at a car you don't want.

AdrianC

Given that the deal involved you travelling to the dealer to collect the car, I don't believe it would come under DSR. It's simply a bit of advance buyer's remorse.

Your best bet to retain the deposit is indeed to travel, then find the vehicle unacceptable in some way - but, clearly, that's silly and hopefully the dealer will agree that it's easiest to just take that as read.

shaun_from_Africa

AdrianC said:

Given that the deal involved you travelling to the dealer to collect the car, I don't believe it would come under DSR. It's simply a bit of advance buyer's remorse.

Travelling to the dealership to collect the car doesn't automatically mean that the sale no longer qualifies as a distance contract.
All that is required is that the contract was concluded at a distance, it doesn't have to be entirely completed at a distance. All that conclusion of the contract means is that it has  been formed and the buyer is required to provide consideration for the goods and the seller is required to provide the specified goods.

452

shaun_from_Africa said:

AdrianC said:

Given that the deal involved you travelling to the dealer to collect the car, I don't believe it would come under DSR. It's simply a bit of advance buyer's remorse.

Travelling to the dealership to collect the car doesn't automatically mean that the sale no longer qualifies as a distance contract.
All that is required is that the contract was concluded at a distance, it doesn't have to be entirely completed at a distance. All that conclusion of the contract means is that it has  been formed and the buyer is required to provide consideration for the goods and the seller is required to provide the specified goods.

When is the deal concluded? If there's finance involved then that would be on the day of collection.

Scrapit

Go look at it and you might change your mind again.

shaun_from_Africa

452 said:

shaun_from_Africa said:

Travelling to the dealership to collect the car doesn't automatically mean that the sale no longer qualifies as a distance contract.
All that is required is that the contract was concluded at a distance, it doesn't have to be entirely completed at a distance. All that conclusion of the contract means is that it has  been formed and the buyer is required to provide consideration for the goods and the seller is required to provide the specified goods.

When is the deal concluded? If there's finance involved then that would be on the day of collection.

A contract is concluded when the buyer becomes liable to pay and the seller becomes liable to provide the goods in question so no, it doesn't have to be on the day of collection. In the case of there being finance involved, the contract would be concluded when the finance contract is accepted by all parties.