Feel misled by car dealer - what are my rights?

Dulce-ridentem

Can anyone suggest best course of action? We went in to get our 10 year old car serviced and after a 4 hours sales pitch came out with an agreement to buy a new car. I was a bit worried we'd been pushed into it but as we'd signed and paid a deposit I thought I had to honour it. One concern was that for the first 3.5 hours I thought this was an ex-demo car and repeatedly mentioned that - I was only corrected 20 minutes before we signed! In fact it was a 'nearly new' car with 4K on the clock. At that point the deal was almost closed - should have walked away :-( We were also told that the 'Active' suspension woud be more comfortable (wrong!).  I didn't get to try the passenger seat as the salesperson was sat in it (and I didn't know it is different from the driver's seat). We drove the car for about 20 minutes between two of us, for me the first time I ever drove an automatic so was mostly focused on driving not comfort.

The issue is that the car is impossible for me to sit in - I am short and it pushes my head forwards and rounds my shoulders inwards because the side wings of the seat come above my shoulders. I am in pain after 4 miles. We went back to the dealer 3 weeks after the purchase, to point this out (a little slow due to a close relation dying). They said they would buy the car back but needed to talk to the directors before they could give us a price (in February). I have chased and chased and they now say they will do a part exchange as a favour. They don't accept they misled us, though I feel it is a classic bit of car selling, to let the customer misunderstand and only let the truth out right at the end of a gruelling process. (it was described 'a car just in' not 'a second-hand, nearly-new car'). They didn't tell us we could change our mind after paying the deposit - they say they are in the business of selling cars and don't have to tell us our rights (consumer rights I think). I feel stupid of course but this is going to cost thousands and we still need to find a car that doesn't cripple me (no back problem before, on first long journey (to relative in hospital) was in tears with pain and after 150 miles had to stop every ten minutes to stretch).

Obviously I've been foolish but can I expect a little more than this? I"ve only ever bought one car before... Should they tell us there's a cooling off period (dealer says it's up to us to know). Apart from misleading us at the time, they did nothing about our complaint for almost 4 months, until I escalated it on their website, despite promising in February to give us a price for buying the car back. We paid the brand new price minus VAT (over 22K) and also gave up our 10 year old car (wish we'd kept it!) so allowing for VAT, I think they sold this car twice for full price already. Looks like second hand price I can now get about 15K.

Do I have to accept the offer of a part exchange? I don't know if another car in the range will be comfortable (the old one had lovely, comfortable seats). I still believe they deliberately misled me.

DrEskimo

You can change your mind after placing a deposit, but you may not get your deposit back.

Did you buy outright, or with finance? AFAIK there is no cooling off period for the actual car. You get a cooling off period for any finance agreement, but that still leaves you having to pay for the car.

No, you don't have to accept their part-exchange offer. In fact part exchange suggests you are buying another car from them, which would be an odd thing to do given your experience. You are free to sell/part-exchange the car to any garage or dealer or even sell privately, but if you have finance on it, it gets a bit more complicated.

The VAT statement is a myth. New cars do not lose their VAT as soon as they are used. The price is determined purely by the market. It just so happens that most new cars drop about 20% from the RRP once they are defined as 'new'. There are plenty of examples where used cars are worth more or even less than the VAT from RRP. Generally they are worth less, otherwise what would the incentive be to buy it over a new car?

What's very important is to check what discounts off the RRP are available first. It's not uncommon for dealers to price 'nearly new' or used cars at higher than discounted new. They are hoping to sell to people who haven't done their research....

Finally, I'm not really sure why you are hung up on the 'nearly new' vs 'ex-demo' definitions? There isn't much difference between them. If anything, nearly new from a single previous owner is probably better than ex-demo, as the ex-demo may have been ragged by lots of drivers...

couriervanman

Well I've never took my car/van in for a service and sat through a sales pitch.....you did a test drive as well and should have noticed any problems

Scrapit

how have they misled you? The seat is the only reason you dont like the vehicle? Can you just adjust it? What car is it?

knightstyle

Buy one of these my DW swears by hers.  

Medipaq® MEMORY FOAM Wedge Cushion for Back Support and Height Boost with Coccyx Cut-Out - Washable Zip Cover

AdrianC

Sorry, you took delivery of this car in January...?

I'm not quite sure what you think the differences between "ex-demo", "just in" and "nearly new" are, but the truth is simple - it was a used car with 4k on the clock. For 20% less than list price.

You don't have to sell it to them - you can sell it to anybody who'll give you a good price on it. But I don't think you're going to unwind the deal because you simply don't like the car you freely agreed to buy.

chrisw

I can't see that you've been misled. To me, 'just in' would mean a second hand car that had just come in, not necessarily nearly new either.

Seat comfort is very objective. For the average person the seat may well have been the most comfortable ever. I appreciate you may not find out until having been sat in it for some time but I don't see that's mis-sold.

I think you're very much at their discretion and how much they would value your repeat business rather than have any actual claim against them.

Takmon

Dulce-ridentem said:

Can anyone suggest best course of action? We went in to get our 10 year old car serviced and after a 4 hours sales pitch came out with an agreement to buy a new car. I was a bit worried we'd been pushed into it but as we'd signed and paid a deposit I thought I had to honour it. One concern was that for the first 3.5 hours I thought this was an ex-demo car and repeatedly mentioned that - I was only corrected 20 minutes before we signed! In fact it was a 'nearly new' car with 4K on the clock. At that point the deal was almost closed - should have walked away :-( We were also told that the 'Active' suspension woud be more comfortable (wrong!).  I didn't get to try the passenger seat as the salesperson was sat in it (and I didn't know it is different from the driver's seat). We drove the car for about 20 minutes between two of us, for me the first time I ever drove an automatic so was mostly focused on driving not comfort.

The issue is that the car is impossible for me to sit in - I am short and it pushes my head forwards and rounds my shoulders inwards because the side wings of the seat come above my shoulders. I am in pain after 4 miles. We went back to the dealer 3 weeks after the purchase, to point this out (a little slow due to a close relation dying). They said they would buy the car back but needed to talk to the directors before they could give us a price (in February). I have chased and chased and they now say they will do a part exchange as a favour. They don't accept they misled us, though I feel it is a classic bit of car selling, to let the customer misunderstand and only let the truth out right at the end of a gruelling process. (it was described 'a car just in' not 'a second-hand, nearly-new car'). They didn't tell us we could change our mind after paying the deposit - they say they are in the business of selling cars and don't have to tell us our rights (consumer rights I think). I feel stupid of course but this is going to cost thousands and we still need to find a car that doesn't cripple me (no back problem before, on first long journey (to relative in hospital) was in tears with pain and after 150 miles had to stop every ten minutes to stretch).

Obviously I've been foolish but can I expect a little more than this? I"ve only ever bought one car before... Should they tell us there's a cooling off period (dealer says it's up to us to know). Apart from misleading us at the time, they did nothing about our complaint for almost 4 months, until I escalated it on their website, despite promising in February to give us a price for buying the car back. We paid the brand new price minus VAT (over 22K) and also gave up our 10 year old car (wish we'd kept it!) so allowing for VAT, I think they sold this car twice for full price already. Looks like second hand price I can now get about 15K.

Do I have to accept the offer of a part exchange? I don't know if another car in the range will be comfortable (the old one had lovely, comfortable seats). I still believe they deliberately misled me.

I have no idea how you managed to be there for 4 hours and didn't do hardly any checks of the car, if i was there for 4 hours i would have sat in every seat (especially if i have an issue that some car seats cause pain), tried every function, gone for a much longer test drive than 20 minutes and looked in every compartment and under the car etc. It seems you didn't even look at the dashboard while driving it because then you would have at least seen the mileage....
It seems you have been easily taken in by the salesperson and just couldn't say no and you really need to build up your confidence to say no so you don't waste money on things in the future. 

Jumblebumble

AdrianC said:

Sorry, you took delivery of this car in January...?

I'm not quite sure what you think the differences between "ex-demo", "just in" and "nearly new" are, but the truth is simple - it was a used car with 4k on the clock. For 20% less than list price.

You don't have to sell it to them - you can sell it to anybody who'll give you a good price on it. But I don't think you're going to unwind the deal because you simply don't like the car you freely agreed to buy.

I hesitate to disagree but the OP has also Part exchanged her old car and without knowing the value of this in the deal we have no idea what the cost to change was compared to the actual price a dealer would let a new car go for..
However the OP will not be able to do anything about the problem 

spiro

The only point I would add is I have never come across a car where the passenger and driver seats are different, they are normally a mirror of each other.
Out of interest what car is it and how tall are you?

photome

spiro said:

The only point I would add is I have never come across a car where the passenger and driver seats are different, they are normally a mirror of each other.
Out of interest what car is it and how tall are you?

Many cars have lumber supports in the drivers seat but not the passengers, some drivers seats have multiple electric adjustments, where the passenger seat doesnt.  both of those can make the seat feel different