Environmental charge on test driving car!

madware

Peter Vardy. Well yesterday my daughter went to view a car so they said test drive? Yes.  So nothing said..the PV salesman brought car around no disinfectant and we test drove it. Another Peter Vardy salesman took it away. When we looked again..another PV salesman brought it back...then away to be touched up. Then pick up tonight...I noticed and Environmental fee??
£138 for Covid cleaning the car? Well it will get cleaned anyway as it's new. How many people have used this car other than me? I cant understand this...anyone else had this???

AdrianC

Thank them very kindly, explain you won't be paying it as it wasn't brought to your attention beforehand...

...then buy a car from somewhere else.

As for "How many others..." - well, probably a good few. I mean, why would you assume you were the only ones?

madware

Well it's a 21 year old girl 1st car. I will be mentioning it before we take ownership  this evening. Not happy and not right should.have said before.

MinuteNoodles

Refuse to pay it and make the sale dependent on not paying it. I refused to pay Quicks admin fees which were for things like insurance to cover if the vehicle was stolen. Pointed out that everything they were trying to get me to pay a fee for were their responsibility and if they wanted the sale I don't pay it or I'll go elsewhere.

There are currently a plethora of dealerships wanting your money who will walk over hot coals for a sale so you don't have to play this game.

Grumpy_chap

Sounds like the OP already agreed to pay for the car.  The OP should pay whatever is on the order form, nothing more, nothing less.

AdrianC

madware said:

Well it's a 21 year old girl 1st car.

You may need to explain the relevance...

madware

She will want the car no matter what. I will talk to them tonight.

Grumpy_chap

She can want all she likes.  Is she paying or is Bank of Mum & Dad paying?  Whoever is paying sets the rules.  If she is paying, you can offer guidance but it is entirely her choice if she chooses to pay the extra charge.

But

madware said:
 we take ownership  this evening.

Surely that means the price you pay (with or without the charge) is already agreed and documented.  Pay nothing more and nothing less than stated on the order form.

madware

She is paying..I am just picking up car tonight I will guide her into mentioning it tonight. No bank of mum and dad here. She will sort it and say something.

macman

What sort of 'COVID cleaning' is it getting? For £138 they could get someone on minimum wage to do 15 hours work on it: I rather doubt that it will get that. Most likely a normal pre-delivery valet and a quick rub-over with a household disinfectant spray. 
The price was fixed when she signed the contract and paid the deposit. Don't let her pay a penny more.

Grumpy_chap

It could be that this is all "presentation" in the paperwork and, possibly, linked to VAT.
Your daughter saw the car, took a test drive and agreed a deal at, say £5k, to include a free set of car mats and a full tank of fuel.  Against this deal, she paid a deposit of £250 and got the basic order form, so £4,750 left to pay.  Then the garage do the full paperwork and it is set out like the following:
Car mats £125 + VAT = £150
Tank fuel £50 + VAT = £60
Pre-Delivery Inspection and Vehicle Prep for Sale £500 + VAT = £600
COVID-Clean £115 + VAT = £138
Used Car £4,052 (no VAT) = £4,052
Total £5k
Road tax £170+
Deposit £250-
Balance to be paid on collection £4,920

Obviously the paperwork is never set out that clearly, so it easily causes confusion.  It was unreal how confusing the details of my wife's car was when we bought that, given that all we'd agreed was to have the car at £14k including full tank of fuel plus new mats.  No-one could ever work it out tbh, but we did pay the £14k and did get the car with the mats and the tank of petrol.

It is really whatever the total she agreed to pay and on the signed order form is what she should pay.  As much as you should not pay anything extra because the garage left something out, the garage would not accept it if you went in and offered to pay £500 less than was agreed and signed on the order form.

There may also be a "presentation" thing that the garage want to make it look like they are doing a lot to be COVID-secure.  Although the costs do have to be somewhere in the agreed price, it should not be an extra after the deal is done.  That would be like buy a tin of beans at the Supermarket and then being asked to pay £0.99 at the exit door to cover the check-out screen.

Hope this works out and hopes she likes the car