Not sure if motor dealer is pulling a fast one

stufflinkpractice

I'm here to ask for advice as I'm not 100% sure how the second-hand car trade works in the UK.

I recently bought a second-hand car from a used car dealer. I part-exchanged my old vehicle for a lower purchase price on the car I bought. After I paid the remaining money via bank transfer to the dealership and paid the tax for the "new" car, the dealer gave me a sales invoice indicating the sale details (purchase price, car VIN and reg, part-exchange car info, etc) along with the keys and new keeper green slip.

Here's where things got a bit odd. The dealer asked me to hand over the V5C of my old car. I gave it to them. I then said that, while I'm there, I'd like us to register with DVLA online that I'm no longer in possession of the vehicle, just to get it done. The dealer then got very tetchy. They told me that I didn't need to worry about it, that they'd handle the DVLA registration themselves. I explained that I'm only following the advice that DVLA recommends, which is to let the DVLA know once I no longer possess the vehicle. The dealer was adamant that if I did that they would cancel the deal, but couldn't give a clear reason why. This all seemed very strange to me. But, I'd already paid him the money for the new vehicle and had just paid the tax on it too.

According to the dealer, it didn't matter what the V5C logbook said - proof of ownership comes from a sales invoice or receipt. I looked this up and they were right. The dealer also promised me that they'd sort the DVLA registration themselves the next day, so I figured okay, I'll trust them since I have the new car I paid for, the green slip and the sales invoice.

I researched the dealership before I went there to purchase the new car and they've got positive reviews (compared to the slew of bad reviews that a lot of the other second-hand dealerships had). I don't necessarily think I'm being scammed - I got what I wanted out of the transaction, which is the new car at the lower price by part-exchanging my old car. But something still feels off about it. 

My questions are:

1. Is there a legal risk here if I trust the dealer to notify the DVLA rather than doing it myself? If they don't do it, what could happen?

2. Why would a car dealer not want me to notify the DVLA that they've taken possession of my old vehicle? Aside from keeping the number of registered owners down on the V5C, which would make the vehicle seem more attractive to a new buyer, I can't see how this is a problem for them.

3. Is it standard practice among motor traders to avoid registering themselves as being in possession of a part-exchanged vehicle, a bit like their version of keeping things "off the books" for tax or other purposes?

Ectophile

1. If you're still the registered keeper, then all speeding tickets, etc. will still come to you.  If you have evidence that you weren't the driver any more, that would help, but it's still a risk.  As the registered keeper, you're supposed to keep track of who's driving it.  It's a fine and 6 points if you can't.

2. Don't know.  There's a yellow slip on the V5 that you are supposed to keep.  You're supposed to either fill it out and send it off, or gather the information that would be on the slip and do it on the DVLA web site.  A dealer doesn't count as a new keeper on the new V5 that will be issued when someone buys the car.  Unless...

3. Maybe the dealer wants to keep the car for a bit without registering themselves as the keeper.

DE_612183

2. Probably because he doesn't want the V% in his name - it will also add onto the total on "number of previous owners" that reduces the sale price he can get.

Car_54

DE_612183 said:

2. Probably because he doesn't want the V% in his name - it will also add onto the total on "number of previous owners" that reduces the sale price he can get.

No, it doesn't work like that. If a car is transferred to a dealer it's registered as "in trade". The dealer does not become the RK, and it doesn't add a keeper.

NB previous "keepers", not "owners".

Herzlos

My assumption is either that they want the car to remain taxed so that they can park it on the street somewhere, or that they are going to try and pretend to be a private seller to sell it on.

What was the trade-in worth?

Did you get some paper evidence that they took possession of the car? If so then keep that should anything come up.

Goudy

Yes you got a new car.

But you also have an old car still registered to you that who know what somebody is up to in it. 

I suspect the car won't be going into their own stock but passed onto a lower end trader which is why they want it still registered.
Lower end traders often work for the street via Facebook Market Place.

You can registered the car with the trader yourself on the .gov website but I think you need the long digit code from the V5C.