Online New Car Buying - ? Pre-Registered Car Con

tiya1990

Hi ,

Original Poster here . 

Just a bit of an update - I have now had quotes from 2 more online brokers - new car discount and car&van discount and both have mentioned that I would be second owner/keeper on the V5C or its digital equivalent. 

Interestingly , I have spoken to Broadspeed this morning and they said that some manufacturers specify this with some online brokers depending on the volume of sales that the broker provides the manufacturer. eg Broadspeed were doing it with their clients in December but not atm.

Without this stipulation they cannot provide the huge discounts that they offer. 

Illuminating !! - any one have a similiar story / info to share. 

Grumpy_chap

Is the RAV 4 you have been offered straight away, a new car on the ship currently and registered in September, or a car that is already in the country and was already registered in March?  If the latter, then offering you a bigger discount to take the car now would be attractive to the dealer as, once the 1st September ticks over, that car will be obviously "used" and likely to retail lower.

tiya1990

They have said that it will be a September Registration. 

Grumpy_chap

My Mum purchased her car from Drive the Deal and had no issues at all at any point - everything was really smooth.  Mum ordered October and had the car in March 2016 (could have been a bit earlier, but she chose to wait for the new registration plate).  Mum was (is) the first registered keeper.  At the time of ordering, Mum made clear she wanted to be first registered keeper and the brokers charged a bit (not significantly) more for that than a pre-reg offer.  Some of the brokers could only offer pre-reg, while some gave the option and two prices.

I have no direct experience of other car brokers such as UK Car Discount, but they are also well-established and I would expect a similar process is followed.

CarMad95

There is a lot gone on here.

Most manufacturers will have an agreement in place that means only their dealer network are allowed to seel the cars from new. That means that any other company that sells a "new" car will have to buy it themselves as a customer and become the registered owner before then selling to a consumer as the second owner. This technically makes it a "used" car, often referred to as a "pre-reg" when basically new.

The reason for this is that when a manufacturer sells a car to a business they will get it much cheaper and it stops them undercutting them when they sell it on.

This is why most brokers will lease a car as when you lease a car to a customer the company remains the registered owner.

As many people have mentioned, selling a pre-reg shortly after registered is not illiegal. However, it is illegal to advertise a Pre-reg car as a new car and similar sites have already been in trouble for this. Had they advertised it as "Pre-reg", "Nearly New", or something else they would probably be okay.

https://www.am-online.com/news/digital-marketing/2020/03/05/retailer-s-advert-banned-by-advertising-watchdog

Car_54

CarMad95 said:

There is a lot gone on here.

Most manufacturers will have an agreement in place that means only their dealer network are allowed to seel the cars from new. That means that any other company that sells a "new" car will have to buy it themselves as a customer and become the registered owner before then selling to a consumer as the second owner. This technically makes it a "used" car, often referred to as a "pre-reg" when basically new.

The reason for this is that when a manufacturer sells a car to a business they will get it much cheaper and it stops them undercutting them when they sell it on.

This is why most brokers will lease a car as when you lease a car to a customer the company remains the registered owner.

As many people have mentioned, selling a pre-reg shortly after registered is not illiegal. However, it is illegal to advertise a Pre-reg car as a new car and similar sites have already been in trouble for this. Had they advertised it as "Pre-reg", "Nearly New", or something else they would probably be okay.

https://www.am-online.com/news/digital-marketing/2020/03/05/retailer-s-advert-banned-by-advertising-watchdog

What is a "registered owner"?

CarMad95

What is a "registered owner"?

A registered owner is what is on the registration document/V5. This is what is normally meant by "previous owners" when buying a used car as it's the only official record or ownership and the only definition with a clear meaning to what an owner is.

If you lease a car, you never own it so you never become a registered owner and only the company you lease it from is the registered owner.

waamo

CarMad95 said:

What is a "registered owner"?

A registered owner is what is on the registration document/V5. This is what is normally meant by "previous owners" when buying a used car as it's the only official record or ownership and the only definition with a clear meaning to what an owner is.

If you lease a car, you never own it so you never become a registered owner and only the company you lease it from is the registered owner.

What does it say in big at the top of the V5c?

Car_54

CarMad95 said:

What is a "registered owner"?

A registered owner is what is on the registration document/V5.

Utter nonsense.

CarMad95

That will be because there is a difference between registered owner (I guess the technical term would be registered keeper) and legal owner.

For example, I beleive when you lease a car you are the legal owner but the company you lease it from is the registered keeper. - As others have pointed out, this is wrong. The Lease company is both the registered keeper and the legal owner.

That document also says it's not proof of ownership, doesn't mean that it isn't a form of ownership, just that the document isn't proof of it - This is kind of correct (although many have said it is wrong). Legally, there are many types of ownership but it's really niche and I probably shouldn't have raised it here. While a V5 document is not PROOF of ownership, doesn't mean it's not a type of ownership. The Goverments official advice is that the V5 should be in the name of the primary user and not the owner, but if this was the case why would a lease not put the V5 in the drivers name? It is because, in practice, a V5 is regularly used to transfer ownership and a lease comapany does not want to allow customers to do this.

It's also why insurance companies ask why is the legal owner and who is the registered keeper. They are not always the same answer.

Edit: Amended to clarify some points/correct myself.