Dodgy garage? 2 parts story.

Rotarywashingline

Hello all. We've just replaced my daughter's car and am a bit concerned we may have bought from a dodgy garage.

Her old car had a string of advisories that the MOT garage didn't even want to quote for- lots of welding etc. Their advice was to get a new car instead. Fair enough. We were able to use the old car as a part-ex for a newer used car. We only got a few hundred for it, which was to be expected considering the work that needs to be done.

I was a bit surprised to see the car up for sale by the same garage less than a week later, for a couple of grand more than the part-ex price. Now, it could well have had this work done BUT it's been listed as sold without a warranty due to it being a trade-in. The advert states that it drives well with no known issues (it does drive well, TBF). The number of previous owners is incorrect in the listing and reflects how many there were when my daughter bought it. Fishy?

The 'new' car has a good MOT history, with only advisories being for tyres and wipers. There's 6 months left on the MOT. It seems to drive well in the week that my daughter has had it.

I can't help feeling uncomfortable about how the part-ex has been advertised for sale. The garage we got it from has almost all 5 start reviews on Google, so I don't know if I'm being daft about this. I'm thinking of asking a trusted local mechanic (friend of a family member) to look over it to see if there's any concerns for peace of mind. This would be within 30 days of collecting the car so I presume if there's anything major picked up, we could reject it. Does that sound sensible?

Also, should I do anything about how the part-ex has been advertised? Like I say, I don't know if the required work has been done or not, but the incorrect information about the number of previous keepers seems a bit dodgy to me. Who would I even contact about that?

Quite happy to be told I'm being unreasonable or over cautious. My daughter has only been driving for a year so I'm trying to help her as best as I can.

Thanks for any advice.

PTP123

You're being unreasonable about the part exchange. It's none of your business now and what they do with it or how much they ask for it is not down to you to judge.

eskbanker

As above, the part about what they do with the old car is irrelevant, but there's no downside in getting a trusted mechanic to look over the new one.

Herzlos

There's no harm in getting someone to give the new car a once over or dummy MOT.

But assuming it wasn't the garage hamming up the failures to get you trade it in cheap, then I don't think there's anything too suspect. £2k markup given they've done work on it is pretty normal, and if they've fixed the MOT failures to a decent standard then there's no concern there. Hopefully anyone buying it will look at the MOT history and verify the work has been done.

Rotarywashingline

Fair enough about the old car, thank you for your comments.

Rotarywashingline

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82069064#Comment_82069064

Thanks for this. I'm not concerned about the amount we got for the trade-in- it was reasonable for the amount of work needed and I fully understand that businesses need to be able to make a profit. Like you said, hopefully the buyer will check the MOT history and ask the relevant questions.

I might actually ask the garage to do a fresh MOT. Daughter will be away at university when it expires, so would be convenient to move the expiry to when she'll be home for the holidays.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Herzlos

Did the selling garage do the current MOT?

Rotarywashingline

No, they didn't. It was done elsewhere.

I might have immediately changed my mind over getting the MOT done now- she'll be home at Christmas and we can do it then. I'll speak to the garage and see what they recommend.

daveyjp

Previous owners is a common one. The garage won't have registered it, so the number of previous owners (actually keepers) is everyone before the keeper at trade in.

Its a cheap car, £2k mark up is quite normal, MOT histories are available online for details to be checked. Its no longer your concern so it isn't worth losing sleep over.

Rotarywashingline

Really appreciate all the responses, thank you. Absolutely, I won't give this any more thought and concentrate on getting the new car checked over instead.

I forgot how stressful I find shopping for cars!

facade

I'd get a fresh MOT with around a week of the 30 days left, then if any serious problem gets picked up you can take the car back as it was an existing fault. You are only "losing" £25 worth of existing MOT.

You will have taxed the car from 1st July, so there will be no problem about taxing it next year as it will have a valid MOT on 1st july, then you can get the MOT done as soon as you can when she is home next year for the Summer holidays.

Winter is a bad time to have to get an MOT done due to the weather if you have to do anything like changing bulbs, and with this extreme weather we keep getting there could be 2 feet of snow when you need it done…..