About to collect new car- dealer ordered wrong thing. Making me pay more

LightFlare

Maybe the OP will come back and fill in the gaps and/or update 

A_Geordie

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

If the dealership are in breach of contract then they are liable for any foreseeable damages.

Rights to vary the terms are very limited and unlikely to be fair if written to cover a screw up by the trader.

What does the contract say about the delivery date OP? 

Personally I’d be a very polite thorn in their side in the hope they give you the higher spec car at the agreed upon price. 

@A_Geordie might have more to say on this one. 

Bit late on this but agree with LightFlare above that maybe more information is needed. On the face of it, it does seem like the dealer has breached the contract. Breaches could include section 11 (goods to be as described), section 12 (other pre-contract information forming part of the contract) and section 14 (goods to match the one examined or seen). 

A note about section 12, variations to that pre-contractual information can only be varied by the consumer expressly agreeing to it (section 12(3)).

Enforcing rights/terminating contract depends on whether the OP is buying outright under a sales contract or if its leased or on hire purchase or something similar.

As far as remedies are concerned, OP could seek to:

1. cancel and do nothing other than look at another dealer for the same car.

2. cancel and then look at another supplier who has the same spec available and claim any cost difference if worse off than the original contract

3. negotiate the price for the incorrect car spec

4. hire a car for 6 months (at a reasonable price based on needs/requirements) whilst waiting for the new car to come and then claim back that loss or expense.

Kim_13

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

If the dealership are in breach of contract then they are liable for any foreseeable damages.

Rights to vary the terms are very limited and unlikely to be fair if written to cover a screw up by the trader.

What does the contract say about the delivery date OP? 

Personally I’d be a very polite thorn in their side in the hope they give you the higher spec car at the agreed upon price. 

@A_Geordie might have more to say on this one. 

Only if the list price of the higher spec car is not £40,000 or over though - that would incur a minimum of £410 per annum extra tax for 5 years, assuming that the car as ordered would not trigger the supplement.

Foreseeable damages would include admin fees charged by your insurance company to change the policy to an interim car, if you end up having to buy one (as you should only have had to pay this once, when changing to your new car.) As you were not trading in, they should have known that you would be selling your car on the basis that the car you ordered was supposed to be ready. Perhaps also reasonable travel expenses to obtain a stopgap car - the average seems to be buying a car 50 miles away.

That they produced a higher spec car than ordered and expected you to pay full price for it, knowing you had no car wouldn’t make a very good TrustPilot review (but I’d not leave it without trying to reach an agreement first - either a discount on the car you ordered to reflect the waiting time, or the car they have at the agreed price.)

And why are they quoting longer for the replacement than the original order? Wider economic circumstances mean orders are likely to slow over the coming months, I’d suggest. Shouldn’t they at least give some degree of priority to the replacement, if that’s the route you choose?

Kim_13

Hoenir said:

[Deleted User] said:

It's highly suspicious that the dealer first of all orders the wrong spec then, within hours of you telling them you are committed to the purchase because you have sold your car

That's a highly unlikely scenario I'd suggest.  The option is to agree to purchase the vehicle that has been manufactured. That's a take it or leave it choice. 

OP is between a rock and a hard place because of the dealer’s mistake, and subsequent failure to notice that mistake in a timely fashion (any time between ordering and OP selling their car months later.) If the paperwork OP has lists the spec they wanted, this is entirely on the dealer as the OP could not have realised earlier that the wrong vehicle was being manufactured. 

Buying a new car should be a free choice - this isn’t. The point of buying new is to not have to compromise on anything (as a used purchase is likely to mean a compromise on one of colour, spec or mileage.)