Misadvertised car - small claims

Squadle

I recently purchased a used car from a dealership and paid for it to be delivered. After finding out that the car arrived with 10,000 miles more than the advertised mileage (50,000) and the car is missing the promised service history, I phoned them up and was told that I will be issued a partial refund and they will mail out the service history docs. Long story short, I have been chasing them for months and each time they verbally agreed to put right these concerns, and yet in reality I still haven't received anything from them. I am getting really sick of their false promises and excuses. I have copies of their original ad showing the advertised mileage but it didn't list FSH there (only promised over the phone). What should I do next? Should I go after them through small claims? In my estimation, the extra mileage and the missing documents would reduce the car's valuation by at least £1500. 

Sandtree

What is the car and its age?  How much did you pay?

Squadle

It's a 2013 bmw 318i for £9200

Sandtree

Squadle said:
In my estimation, the extra mileage and the missing documents would reduce the car's valuation by at least £1500. 

I think your estimated impact is significantly over what it is, looking at a 2013 BMW 320i Lux the difference in mileage causes a £600 movement. Given its a more expensive vehicle to start with the impact on 318i would be less. 

Didn't the 3 series have a digital service history by 2013? The impact of service history, and in particular manufacturer service history, reduces as vehicles age. Given you have no evidence of what service history the seller says the vehicle had its a bit of a long shot. Have you checked with BMW on its history on the vehicle/check the digital service history?

Certainly the mileage will mean you've overpaid but need to temper your expectations

Squadle

Sry should have further clarified my estimation. I was seeing a £400-500 on the mileage difference and I was also told that a car without service history would get a 10-15% hair cut of the total value, hence my £1500 estimate. 

I've contacted BMW for the service history but since the car has been serviced in garages that are not within the network, I couldn't find much. 

I agreed that it might be difficult to make my case since FSH is not printed out in writing. So in this case, should I still pursue small claims? or keep nagging the dealership? 

Sandtree

You can ultimately pay for a Glass/Cap report on the three situations... what you thought you were getting, what the ad said you'd get and what you actually got. It will help substantiate any losses though may also help the dealerships arguement if it shows you've paid less than book price and so they argue the lack of a FSH has already been reflected.

Ultimately before you go to court you should be sending them a letter before action anyway to give them fair warning of your intent to litigate.

TELLIT01

As FSH wasn't in the advert you will have difficulty proving you were told it would be provided.  I would go with demanding a reduction in the price due to the incorrect mileage being stated.  I would suggest requesting £750 off the price, expecting them to come back with a counter offer if they reply at all, along with letter before action if they don't resolve by the given date.

MarvinDay

I know that it's unlikely still be available on wayback:
https://archive.org/web/
but it's worth looking just in case you can find a cached copy of the original advert.

If you're not too sure how to do this, post as many details as you're willing to reveal (name of dealer, make, model and price of vehicle and date that you purchased it).

Grumpy_chap

Squadle said:

I recently purchased a used car from a dealership and paid for it to be delivered. After finding out that the car arrived with 10,000 miles more than the advertised mileage (50,000) and the car is missing the promised service history, I phoned them up and was told that I will be issued a partial refund and they will mail out the service history docs. Long story short, I have been chasing them for months and each time they verbally agreed to put right these concerns, and yet in reality I still haven't received anything from them. I am getting really sick of their false promises and excuses. I have copies of their original ad showing the advertised mileage but it didn't list FSH there (only promised over the phone). What should I do next? Should I go after them through small claims? In my estimation, the extra mileage and the missing documents would reduce the car's valuation by at least £1500. 

Was this a complete "remote" purchase?  It sounds like it could have been given you seem not to know about the mileage being different until the car "arrived".  If so, the simplest solution would have been to reject under the CCR, though reference to "chasing them for months" indicates that remedy has expired so it is a moot point.

It is not clear whether the car was advertised with 40k miles and actually had 50k miles, or advertised with 50k miles and actually had 60k miles.  However, for a 2013 3-series, so 9yo, I would consider that 40k miles or 60k miles makes no difference to the value of the car.

So that then leaves the impact of the service history and it is a subject that comes up often in forums - what does FSH actually mean? 
Does it mean that the vehicle has a full and recorded history of being regularly serviced by brand main dealer in accordance with the manufacturer's service schedule? 
Does it mean there is a full record of all the servicing the car has ever had, even if that is "none"?
As a car gets older, and 9yo is getting older, the value of a FSH (whatever it means) starts to diminish.

If you wanted to take any action, how do you determine the £1.5k that is suggested?  That is 16% of the £9.2k paid for the car.  Seems like a substantial percentage.

Finally, how long have you had the car?  How many months have you been chasing a resolution?  How many miles have you covered in that time?  Given the madness of the used car market right now, how much would you lose if you now sold the car after taking account of the beneficial use that you had form the vehicle?  You might even be "up" on the deal.