Caravan older than dealer said.

Stormdancer1

We bought a caravan from Yorkshire coast caravans in March 2023 . It was sold to us as a 2020 coachman vip with a registration date of 15/10/2020.This is on our receipt. Our CRiS registration document arrived this week and the actual registration date is the 7/11/2019. I was shocked when I read it as I was sure it was newer than that so found out the original paperwork. I have contacted the dealer and they said...The caravan season starts from the 1st of September with the new season models and runs for 12 months. So our new 2024 models started arriving in late August 2023 and available for despatch from the 1st of September.

Unlike cars, the caravan values are based on the model year and not when the caravan was purchased or registered. The model year is identified by the CRIS number, the 10th digit represents the year as in your case the letter L which is a 2020 model and only Coachman put the model year down after the letter 20 in your case as a 2020 caravan.

The caravan was advertised as a 2020 caravan which it is and this is where the values come from, just the same when you come to re sell it, the date of registration does not affect the future value.I do apologise for the wrong date on your order form, but this does not alter any values of the caravan and was correctly sold as a 2020 caravan as advertised, and on the sales poster of the caravan window.

I feel like I've been ripped off.  I believed the caravan to be almost a year newer than it actually is.  The dealer won't do anything.  Have I got any legal rights?

eskbanker

Stormdancer1 said:

We bought a caravan from Yorkshire coast caravans in March 2023 . It was sold to us as a 2020 coachman vip with a registration date of 15/10/2020.This is on our receipt. Our CRiS registration document arrived this week and the actual registration date is the 7/11/2019.

[...]

I feel like I've been ripped off.  I believed the caravan to be almost a year newer than it actually is.  The dealer won't do anything.  Have I got any legal rights

There seems to be room for valid debate about model years so describing something as being a 2020 model doesn't necessarily signify that it was registered in 2020 as such, but if there was a specific misrepresentation about an actual date of registration then that should be actionable.  How did you pay, i.e. any on a credit card?

user1977

If you believed the year simply referred to the calendar year, then surely it's only about 7 weeks older than 2020? Is that "ripped off"? Can you demonstrate (from other sales evidence) that it actually makes a material difference to the value?

400ixl

It is true that people look at the model year as to the general age and features / layouts etc and this does not relate to a manufacture year.

The other relevant date is the data at which the warranty starts and subsequently expires. If the difference in registration dates means you get less of a warranty then that is what I would be complaining about.

Grumpy_chap

Stormdancer1 said:

We bought a caravan from Yorkshire coast caravans in March 2023 . It was sold to us as a 2020 coachman vip with a registration date of 15/10/2020.This is on our receipt. Our CRiS registration document arrived this week and the actual registration date is the 7/11/2019. I was shocked when I read it as I was sure it was newer than that so found out the original paperwork. I have contacted the dealer and they said...The caravan season starts from the 1st of September with the new season models and runs for 12 months. So our new 2024 models started arriving in late August 2023 and available for despatch from the 1st of September.

Unlike cars, the caravan values are based on the model year and not when the caravan was purchased or registered. The model year is identified by the CRIS number, the 10th digit represents the year as in your case the letter L which is a 2020 model and only Coachman put the model year down after the letter 20 in your case as a 2020 caravan.

The caravan was advertised as a 2020 caravan which it is and this is where the values come from, just the same when you come to re sell it, the date of registration does not affect the future value.I do apologise for the wrong date on your order form, but this does not alter any values of the caravan and was correctly sold as a 2020 caravan as advertised, and on the sales poster of the caravan window.

I feel like I've been ripped off.  I believed the caravan to be almost a year newer than it actually is.  The dealer won't do anything.  Have I got any legal rights?

What is the difference in specification between a 2019 and 2020 caravan?
Will that difference be relevant to a future buyer and affect the value of a, by then, third-hand caravan?
What was the difference in value, in March 2023, of a 2020 model-year caravan first manufactured in November 2019 versus a bit newer?
Why did it take from March 2023 until January 2024 for the CRiS registration paperwork to arrive?
Any rights will depend upon the extent of any loss that the OP has suffered.  Any claim would need to be based upon the item not matching the description.

Stormdancer1

eskbanker said:

Stormdancer1 said:

We bought a caravan from Yorkshire coast caravans in March 2023 . It was sold to us as a 2020 coachman vip with a registration date of 15/10/2020.This is on our receipt. Our CRiS registration document arrived this week and the actual registration date is the 7/11/2019.

[...]

I feel like I've been ripped off.  I believed the caravan to be almost a year newer than it actually is.  The dealer won't do anything.  Have I got any legal rights

There seems to be room for valid debate about model years so describing something as being a 2020 model doesn't necessarily signify that it was registered in 2020 as such, but if there was a specific misrepresentation about an actual date of registration then that should be actionable.  How did you pay, i.e. any on a credit card?

We paid bank transfer.  The sales document states the caravan registration date as 15/10/20 but the true registration date was 7/11/19. We were lead to believe it was newer than it actually was. Thank you for your response 

Stormdancer1

user1977 said:

If you believed the year simply referred to the calendar year, then surely it's only about 7 weeks older than 2020? Is that "ripped off"? Can you demonstrate (from other sales evidence) that it actually makes a material difference to the value?

We believe the caravan to have been registered in October 2020 as our paperwork stated that when we purchased the caravan.  Only on receiving the CRiS did I find out it was registered a year earlier.  I feel we have been mislead and the van was made more appealing by seeming a year newer than it actually is. 

Stormdancer1

Grumpy_chap said:

Stormdancer1 said:

We bought a caravan from Yorkshire coast caravans in March 2023 . It was sold to us as a 2020 coachman vip with a registration date of 15/10/2020.This is on our receipt. Our CRiS registration document arrived this week and the actual registration date is the 7/11/2019. I was shocked when I read it as I was sure it was newer than that so found out the original paperwork. I have contacted the dealer and they said...The caravan season starts from the 1st of September with the new season models and runs for 12 months. So our new 2024 models started arriving in late August 2023 and available for despatch from the 1st of September.

Unlike cars, the caravan values are based on the model year and not when the caravan was purchased or registered. The model year is identified by the CRIS number, the 10th digit represents the year as in your case the letter L which is a 2020 model and only Coachman put the model year down after the letter 20 in your case as a 2020 caravan.

The caravan was advertised as a 2020 caravan which it is and this is where the values come from, just the same when you come to re sell it, the date of registration does not affect the future value.I do apologise for the wrong date on your order form, but this does not alter any values of the caravan and was correctly sold as a 2020 caravan as advertised, and on the sales poster of the caravan window.

I feel like I've been ripped off.  I believed the caravan to be almost a year newer than it actually is.  The dealer won't do anything.  Have I got any legal rights?

What is the difference in specification between a 2019 and 2020 caravan?
Will that difference be relevant to a future buyer and affect the value of a, by then, third-hand caravan?
What was the difference in value, in March 2023, of a 2020 model-year caravan first manufactured in November 2019 versus a bit newer?
Why did it take from March 2023 until January 2024 for the CRiS registration paperwork to arrive?
Any rights will depend upon the extent of any loss that the OP has suffered.  Any claim would need to be based upon the item not matching the description.

There is no difference in the model.  But we bought it believing it to be a lot newer than it actually was.  We paid a premium for it and would not have done so had we known that it was older and therefore had a years more use. I have no idea why the CRiS registration document took so long to arrive.  We signed and paid for the registration to be transferred to us in the caravan sales office when we pick it up last march. 

Aylesbury_Duck

What do you actually want as an outcome?

ThumbRemote

Stormdancer1 said:

We bought a caravan from Yorkshire coast caravans in March 2023 . It was sold to us as a 2020 coachman vip with a registration date of 15/10/2020. This is on our receipt. Our CRiS registration document arrived this week and the actual registration date is the 7/11/2019.

This is the key piece of information.

Were you told this date BEFORE you bought, ie not just written on your receipt, but as part of the information you were given when deciding to buy?

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations says:
A commercial practice is a misleading action ... if it contains false information (about the existence or nature of the product) ... and it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/contents

I would have said the difference between a roughly 2.5 year-old caravan and a roughly 3.5 year-old was fairly significant. If you made the decision to buy based on an age of 2.5 years then I'd argue you should be due a 'right to redress'. This could be a refund or a discount. However, this is complicated by the fact that you've clearly owned the caravan for nearly a year - how come it's taken so long for your own registration? It may no longer be possible for a full refund, a discount may be more plausible. You'd have to work out what would be reasonable (ie the price difference between what you bought and what you received) - can you quantify that? Then you'd ask the dealer for that, and if they refuse be willing to go to small claims court. 

On the other hand, if it's just a date printed on the receipt and you only knew about it after you'd decided to buy, then you have no rights whatsoever. 

Rodders53

Are you a member of the caravan and motorhome club or the other caravan and camping one?  They have legal advice bods that could probably advise you better than most other places.
They also have access to the Glass's Guide equivalent that Caravan traders use to work out if there's actually a real life price difference in the value.

Our last "new" caravan was the Dealer's forecourt demo model and only CRIS registered when we bought it in December of the year.  It was built around July IIRC from the test paperwork supplied to the spec of the relevant (next) year.  As seasoned caravanners we knew all this model year date fiasco was normal.

The Dealer would have had the CRiS document on file when they traded it, so could have shown it to you (perhaps with previous owner details obscured for data protection reasons).  The delay in receiving the CRiS document is appalling... over 9 months... they were far quicker (weeks) in acknowledging my sale notification when we disposed of the above Caravan last year.