Car dealership changing contract agreement

ginagg

Hi all,

I am looking for some advice regarding a dispute between me and Renault.

I agreed to buy a new car in April.  I told the salesman, I wanted this new car before having to deal with my MOT and service due in mid June.  Saleman obliged by me chosing a colour I did not really want, but delivery time was important to me.  I only agreed to sign when he confirmed the cost of MOT and service would be free if they did not deliver my new car by that date.

Salesman inspected my car and offered me £6300 for my car.  He drew up a contract with my £6300 part ex figure listed and said I need to pay a £550 deposit in order for him to order the car.  I agreed.  Signed, paid, got a reciept and copy of the contract with estimated delivery on 30th June (he said it would be the beginging, but I missed that part)

I then get an update from saleman at the end of April saying car is now due in July.  I remind him about the MOT and Service and he is still obliging.  I also get a text from Pentagon reminding me to book it in a few weeks later.  I book and MOT failed miserably.  They came back at me with repairs required at £2000 !!  I did not even have an advisory the previous year!  I only aurthorised the brakes, which I knew needed doing as I had asked them to look at them as they had started squeeking the previous day.  When I went in, they said I had to pay £500 which I negotiated with the manager to share the cost as I had this previous agreement and contract for the new car.

Car arrived today and a different salesman rings me to say, that my part ex which is in my signed contract needs to be reduced by £1200... the car has depreciated in the time it has taken for them to not deliver my new one.

I am shocked and do not think I should have to accept these new terms and have a signed contract with the price they gave me on.  There are terms and conditions also provided but nothing says the part ex value can change.  

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

user1977

Are they insinuating that you do have to accept the new terms? What does the contract say about cancellation?

sheramber

is it worth less because of all the MOT failures which you have not done  (  I only aurthorised the brakes)  so the car  does not have a valid MOT  certificate

ginagg

user1977 said:

Are they insinuating that you do have to accept the new terms? What does the contract say about cancellation?

No they were trying to persuade me that I should accept the reduced offer.  I have said we had an agreement and you're changing the goal posts, which I do not accept.  She said she would have to speak to the manager and get back to me.  The T&C's give lots of examples where the contact can be cancelled but none include cancellation.  I don't want to cancel, in my eyes.  I have made a deal, signed a contract and was just awaiting delivery.

ginagg

sheramber said:

is it worth less because of all the MOT failures which you have not done  (  I only aurthorised the brakes)  so the car  does not have a valid MOT  certificate

Yes I imagine so and suggested to her but she is not putting it that way.  She is saying it has depreciated in the 3 months they have taken to deliver my new one.  In my eyes, the salesman made a mistake by not fully inspecting my car.  Hand on my heart though, I was shocked at the reccomendations/ advisorys were, when I had none the previous year.  The car does have a full MOT as it was only the brakes that failed and I had those done.  

Grumpy_chap

ginagg said:

Hi all,

I am looking for some advice regarding a dispute between me and Renault.

I agreed to buy a new car in April.  I told the salesman, I wanted this new car before having to deal with my MOT and service due in mid June.  Saleman obliged by me chosing a colour I did not really want, but delivery time was important to me.  I only agreed to sign when he confirmed the cost of MOT and service would be free if they did not deliver my new car by that date.

Salesman inspected my car and offered me £6300 for my car.  He drew up a contract with my £6300 part ex figure listed and said I need to pay a £550 deposit in order for him to order the car.  I agreed.  Signed, paid, got a reciept and copy of the contract with estimated delivery on 30th June (he said it would be the beginging, but I missed that part)

I then get an update from saleman at the end of April saying car is now due in July.  I remind him about the MOT and Service and he is still obliging.  I also get a text from Pentagon reminding me to book it in a few weeks later.  I book and MOT failed miserably.  They came back at me with repairs required at £2000 !!  I did not even have an advisory the previous year!  I only aurthorised the brakes, which I knew needed doing as I had asked them to look at them as they had started squeeking the previous day.  When I went in, they said I had to pay £500 which I negotiated with the manager to share the cost as I had this previous agreement and contract for the new car.

Car arrived today and a different salesman rings me to say, that my part ex which is in my signed contract needs to be reduced by £1200... the car has depreciated in the time it has taken for them to not deliver my new one.

I am shocked and do not think I should have to accept these new terms and have a signed contract with the price they gave me on.  There are terms and conditions also provided but nothing says the part ex value can change.  

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

You were offered £6.3k for your old car.

You have now been offered £5.1k.

What can you sell the old car for elsewhere?  WBAC, Motorway, Arnold Clark, etc.

Presumably the garage will let you simply pay them the £6.3k rather than the trade in, so selling elsewhere may be an option worth checking out.

WellKnownSid

Tell them it has taken so long and they have moved the goalposts so you are now forced to sell your car privately - but this will take time so you will pick your new car up with a new registration on 1st September...

user1977

ginagg said:

user1977 said:

Are they insinuating that you do have to accept the new terms? What does the contract say about cancellation?

No they were trying to persuade me that I should accept the reduced offer.  I have said we had an agreement and you're changing the goal posts, which I do not accept.  She said she would have to speak to the manager and get back to me.  The T&C's give lots of examples where the contact can be cancelled but none include cancellation.  I don't want to cancel, in my eyes.  I have made a deal, signed a contract and was just awaiting delivery.

I was meaning more does the dealer have the right to cancel - I would guess (especially given the current market) that they wouldn't tie themselves in to promising delivery times/prices so may well be able to walk away from the contract - in which case they could just say the deal's off if you don't like their proposed new terms.

Keep_pedalling

When I bought my EV just under 2 years ago the dealership made it clear the the trade in price would be subject to depreciation and I had a very long wait for that car. They also provided a free MOT but I had that done just before the three year warranty ran out and it only cost me a new tyre after they found a nail in it. 

I was fortunate that the new car arrived during that strange period where the price of used cars were rising rather than falling so my trade in price was actually higher than I was originally quoted. Depreciation was clearly stated in the paperwork and I would be surprised if there was not a similar clause in yours.

rigolith

WellKnownSid said:

Tell them it has taken so long and they have moved the goalposts so you are now forced to sell your car privately - but this will take time so you will pick your new car up with a new registration on 1st September...

Not a bad idea. The dealer has a car coming that they don't want to be sitting on, particularly if it's an unpopular colour. You have some leverage, assuming you can walk away with your deposit returned.

Alanp

I had exactly the opposite, I ordered a new Yaris cross in January, I was told the delivery would be end of April, I’d agreed a px as the sales manager said this is what it would be worth by then, I even called back in March and was still assured end of April for delivery, a couple of weeks after that I received a phone call saying it would now be end of July but they would honour the px agreement as it wasn’t my fault and shouldn’t be out of pocket, I collected the car on the 15th and paid exactly what was agreed..