Car Retailer Lied About Service History

Gilbs

I bought a vehicle a few weeks ago from a car dealershipBirmingham. Before collecting the vehicle I called and asked what the service history was and was told it had a full service history (it said Part service history on their website and still does). 

 

On the day of collection I arrive and realise there is no service history booklet or invoices but there is a piece of paper printed list which looks to be from some sort of BMW system titled "Service Visits Enquiry". It shows the dates and mileages that it had visited over it's lifetime. There are 9 times on this piece of paper when it has apparently visited for a service however there is a gap at one point of 5 years. Becuase of this I negotiated the price down from £7450 to £7200 as this is a part service history rather than full like I was told over the phone.

 

I take the vechicle away and have subsequently called BMW to validate this. Having contacted BMW they informed me that although it did visit dealerships on those dates, they were all for repairs/warranty work/tyres rather than any servicing. Not one date on that list is for a service, effectively meaning that the vehicle has absolutely no service history.

 

Now... I've learnt my lesson the hard way and being in this situation again I would absolutely double check the information I'm given and ensure it was a proper service book with stamps etc.

 

I've since tried to contact the previous owner via post (have their name/address from the previous log book) to get the service history but have heard nothing and it's been 2 weeks.

 

On the way back from buying the car there was an issue with the battery. The car got recovered to them and whilst it was with them and being repaired I sent this text:

"Hi mate, I've had absolutely no luck with the service history at all. Heard nothing back from the previous owner and I've tried to contact previous garages from the MOT history and I've gotten nowhere. I bought the car with that list you gave me after you said they were services and it's turned out to be incorrect. For that reason I don't want to keep the car and just want my money back. Not trying to be difficult or anything I'm just not comfortable owning it with having no history at all. Will save you having to bring the car back to me. Can send the 2nd key/v5 and paperwork you gave me by first class post. Like you said you had a lot of enquiries etc so I'm sure you'll sell it quickly again. My account number is ***** and sort code is **** and name on the account is *****. Will give you a bell in the morning."

 

Called the next day and in a lot less words he essentially said he wouldn't be accepting the car back and I can't return it at all, my options were to either have the car delivered back to me or leave it on the road outside his dealership. I've now taken the car back.

 

My question is this - if I was to go down a small claims court route would I have a leg to stand on at all or would I simply be wasting my time and money? I'm not comfortable owning this car with no service history and feel I've been misled and provided with incorrect information.

 

Any advice would be incredibly appreciated.  

Ergates

That would seem to fit into the "Not as described" bucket for reasons you can reject something you've bought.

How this fits into the world of second hand car sales, I'm not so sure.

zoob

Ergates said:

That would seem to fit into the "Not as described" bucket for reasons you can reject something you've bought.

How this fits into the world of second hand car sales, I'm not so sure.

Not sure if this applies, car was already purchased and contract formed before asking about service history

MarvinDay

zoob said:

Ergates said:

That would seem to fit into the "Not as described" bucket for reasons you can reject something you've bought.

How this fits into the world of second hand car sales, I'm not so sure.

Not sure if this applies, car was already purchased and contract formed before asking about service history

But as the website listing for the car stated that there was a partial service history and from what the OP has stated there is no recorded service history at all, then even without having to argue that they were verbally informed of a full history, they still have proof that the car was misdescribed.

Sandtree

To play devils advocate... is there a clear definition of "service history"?

Clearly the garage has queried ECU and got the "service history log" that the BMW garage had loaded into the system. Whilst BMW have since said what they loaded into the Service History was actually warranty work or repairs do these not count as a partial service? Ultimately they were loaded into the Service History which would imply they are.

The OP has already confirmed that they got a further discount for the service history not being as complete as first thought based on the Service History from the ECU.

Gilbs said:

I would absolutely double check the information I'm given and ensure it was a proper service book with stamps etc. 

You will therefore be limited on only buying older cars than the one you have now. My Merc from 6 years ago (brand new at point of purchase) didnt even come with a physical book to get stamps in, its all to be programmed into the ECU which also tells you when the service is actually due based on a number of different factors.

m0bov

Ask for proof of the "part service history". See what they offer.

Sandtree

m0bov said:

Ask for proof of the "part service history". See what they offer.

They have already provided the service history as recorded by the ECU of the car, the OP used this to negotiate a bigger discount due to the 5 year gap between "services" recorded in the system. The issue is that on further investigation what is in the ECU Service History memory BMW are saying were warranty fixes and repairs rather than traditional/general services.

Jumblebumble

Gilbs said:

I bought a vehicle a few weeks ago from a car dealershipBirmingham. Before collecting the vehicle I called and asked what the service history was and was told it had a full service history (it said Part service history on their website and still does). 

 

On the day of collection I arrive and realise there is no service history booklet or invoices but there is a piece of paper printed list which looks to be from some sort of BMW system titled "Service Visits Enquiry". It shows the dates and mileages that it had visited over it's lifetime. There are 9 times on this piece of paper when it has apparently visited for a service however there is a gap at one point of 5 years. Becuase of this I negotiated the price down from £7450 to £7200 as this is a part service history rather than full like I was told over the phone.

 

I take the vechicle away and have subsequently called BMW to validate this. Having contacted BMW they informed me that although it did visit dealerships on those dates, they were all for repairs/warranty work/tyres rather than any servicing. Not one date on that list is for a service, effectively meaning that the vehicle has absolutely no service history.

 

Now... I've learnt my lesson the hard way and being in this situation again I would absolutely double check the information I'm given and ensure it was a proper service book with stamps etc.

 

I've since tried to contact the previous owner via post (have their name/address from the previous log book) to get the service history but have heard nothing and it's been 2 weeks.

 

On the way back from buying the car there was an issue with the battery. The car got recovered to them and whilst it was with them and being repaired I sent this text:

"Hi mate, I've had absolutely no luck with the service history at all. Heard nothing back from the previous owner and I've tried to contact previous garages from the MOT history and I've gotten nowhere. I bought the car with that list you gave me after you said they were services and it's turned out to be incorrect. For that reason I don't want to keep the car and just want my money back. Not trying to be difficult or anything I'm just not comfortable owning it with having no history at all. Will save you having to bring the car back to me. Can send the 2nd key/v5 and paperwork you gave me by first class post. Like you said you had a lot of enquiries etc so I'm sure you'll sell it quickly again. My account number is ***** and sort code is **** and name on the account is *****. Will give you a bell in the morning."

 

Called the next day and in a lot less words he essentially said he wouldn't be accepting the car back and I can't return it at all, my options were to either have the car delivered back to me or leave it on the road outside his dealership. I've now taken the car back.

 

My question is this - if I was to go down a small claims court route would I have a leg to stand on at all or would I simply be wasting my time and money? I'm not comfortable owning this car with no service history and feel I've been misled and provided with incorrect information.

 

Any advice would be incredibly appreciated.  

Do you have anything in writing that says there is any kind of service history?
( I do not include the website or what the salesman told you in this question)
If you don't the dealer is  going to say you bought what you bought and the website was referring to the BMW service visits history.
You of course have no knowledge as to whether the car was serviced outside the dealer network