So I’ve been looking around for a new (to me) car, and found just the thing at the local main dealer.

Agreed a price, left a deposit; I wait for it to be ready to collect.

The wrinkle is it currently carries a ‘private’ plate; the previous owner is hanging on to that. So I’ve been waiting for 2 weeks for DVLA etc to get on with it and issue a reg number and V5 to the car so I can tax it. So it’s sat at the dealer, going nowhere.

Today the dealer has rung me and told me I need to go in and pay the balance by Monday to get the sale in Novembers figures. And that the car ‘should’ be ready by Friday to collect.

So they want payment up front, in full, for a car they can’t legally sell, and can only guess when it’ll be ready.

My instant reaction was it’s not my problem and there’s no reason for me to go out of my way. They have offered to fill the tank.

This has naffed me off sufficiently I’m tempted to tell them to refund my deposit and I’ll shop around again.

Am I being that unreasonable?

And to add to the tone of this dealer, they initially told me when I rung that I should leave a deposit on the car as it could go quick. Further questioning revealed the car wasn’t actually there for another week. So they were happy to take a payment for something they didn’t have.

Am I being that unreasonable?

No!

I’d be bloody annoyed – sales figures are their problem. If they want the sale in November the car should be ready in November.

Get cash back.
Have you tested the car yet (in and out) and driven it?
You are the customer, they should be treating you like blooming royalty and not like they are doing YOU a favour.

I should just keep messing them about, tell them you’ll ‘try’ and get in. Stretch it out until Friday, you then pay in full when you collect it.
The cars not going anywhere don’t worry about it.

Ask for a discount as you’re going to be paying for something you won’t “own” yet. If they are that desperate for their sales targets you could be on to a winner.

It shouldn’t take too long to remove the private plate.

I paid for mine on Monday, £80. DVLA site said I should remove private plate straight away. Then new V5C arrived on Thursday.

Today the dealer has rung me and told me I need to go in and pay the balance by Monday to get the sale in Novembers figures. And that the car ‘should’ be ready by Friday to collect.

Is the deal you’ve done dependent on getting it into Nov’s figures, ie is it time-limited and did you drive hard enough bargain to force them to need their ‘bonus’ for the deal to make sense?

Is the deal you’ve done dependent on getting it into Nov’s figures

Why would I care? I’m not holding them up; quite the opposite.

If there was a condition on the sale they need to say upfront. Otherwise, the punter will get naffed off.

No. Unless the car is one you couldn’t find again easily I’d say walk.
Here’s our little tale of late…

Shopping for a car (Fiesta) on Saturday.
Found nice one at local Ford dealer. Staff were great, no high pressure sales BS. Happy for the kids to spend an hour crawling around inside new ones, opening & closing doors etc. A really nice no pressure experience.
Actually persuaded us against spending more on a diesel model.

In the end decided on a year old Focus, as it was slightly bigger. (Growing children).
Car we liked was sold new by them, now back as a px’d so for sale with 11k on the clock. Wife loved it,
Said wanted to think it over. None of the usual, deal is for today only BS.

Sunday the wife insisted we visit another dealer, big one in Brum.
Well, what a contrast. Ok, so they were having some work done, but 5 sales “executives” crammed into a portacabin. Constantly running upstairs to “run the figures past the boss”.
Boss eventually comes in & the high pressure stuff starts, lots of long silences waiting for us to crack. All the while under the close scrutiny of all the other sales “executives” & customers.
I got totally fed up with it & we walked, much to their annoyance.

Straight back to local dealers, walked in 5 mins before closing time. No problem, happy to stay open whilst wife went on test drive. Totally different experience, & first time I’ve actually quite enjoyed the “car buying” experience.

So yes, walk away if your not getting a good vibe from it. Otherwise the memory of your acquiring will be of being pissed around, when in fact you should be treated, as said, like valued custom,

No your not being unreasonable. In fact they are being unreasonable asking you to pay in full and having not sorted out the registration issue before they out the car up for sale.

Personally I’d tell them they have a week to get the reg sorted or you’ll have your deposit back and you’ll buy elsewhere

Tell them youd understood the balance was payable on delivery of the goods. as a favour to them, you’re willing to pay them in advance, but need an extra 10% off to reflect the inconvenience.

And if you’re paying for a car, whatever price you settle on, you want a car from then onwards, so they can lend you one, fully insured, while they get yours ready.

If they want the sale in November the car should be ready in November.

First answer nailed it and the only one they’d be getting from me.

My answer would be.

“Although I can understand your sales figures issue, they are not really my problem. But if you supply me the car in November, I’d be happy to pay for it and drive it away. But I’m not going to pay for a car in full if I can’t actually take it away drive it. Let me know how you get on”

We bought a new to us car last year (after the 900 never came back from its MOT).

Skoda dealer was in Inverness, phoned them up, had nice chat, they had a car we were interested in, (as it happens a hatch rather than estate), they’d even come and collect us on Sunday. Late Saturday, salesman phones up to say sorry, they’d sold the car, did we still want a lift to view cars. Yes I said.

Agreed that only I would come through – when he turned up (poured himself out of car) – I said it would only be me – he looked a bit disappointed, he turned up in a Rapid and tried to tell me that was all I needed, despite me telling him our circumstances. He made little or no conversation, wasn’t able to help when we got to dealership and was 100% useless really.

Went on to Autotrader, found the car we did want, was in Perth, phoned the dealer there, couldn’t have been more helpful, emailed pics, description, decent price (bit high but happy to pay), I explained we were car-less and in Elgin, took the train and got collected from the station by a great old guy, went through the stuff, they were great and was on way home with it in a couple of hours.

Chalk & cheese, as always..

You can take the car on the private plate. I did this when I bought my last one. All I did was sign a waiver stating I wanted no claim on the plate and I would relinquish it when asked. Took the car when I wanted with the V5 in my name on the private plate. Eventually the DVLA pulled their finger out and sorted out the transfer, got the new V5 with the original plate on, dealer sent me a set on new plates and I put the old ones in the bin. Frankly I didn’t want a plate that basically read ‘turds’ anyway.

No. Its a completely unnecessary risk to take with your money. I wouldn’t use early payment as a bargaining tool either still too risky.

Tell them to jog on. What happens if they go under before you get the car?

Kcal….. Funny you should say that about Inverness Skoda. I was in there last week looking at the Octavia. Trying to sell me a year old model for more than I have been quoted for a new model by dealers down south. I’m still waiting for a call back from the salesman about a px price for our car.

There does seem to be a “Scotland” Mark up on prices up here.

The Suzuki dealership in Stirling showed us a SEAT with minor damage, but half the rear interior removed, not serviced and bald tyre….and then said if we were interested we had to pay upfront and THEN they would fix the car.

Apparently laughing was not the appropriate response… 😆 they were bemused when we walked away. Genuinely, they could not understand.

The Toyota dealer wouldn’t see us or let us look round the £6k Auris that evening, as it was within 30mins of closing, and besides which why was family of five wanting small car, perhaps mrs_oab should look at the £30k land cruiser…..

I think some dealers live in lala land.

Tell them to lend you car while it is sorted, with final ‘backstop’ date in writing, or demand deposit back.

You certainly have a case to get the deposit back and walk away.

Depends whether it’s a good car for the price vs the hassle I guess.. Cam they even legally sell it when there’s a dispute over the reg plate?

I digress.. Getting the run around by a dealer is a bad sign.. What if you have more issues down the road? Like warranty issues etc.?

I’d move on unless it’s a particularly special car, plenty more fish in the sea.

I had a similar experience to matt and kcal – although Arnold Shark in different guises was the protagonist.
I had one of the sales monkeys in Harry Fairbairn just outside Glasgow rambling on about how he couldn’t do a deal because this car was worth £Xk of clean money every day of the week. And then Perth Mercedes couldn’t source the spec of car I wanted, but took the hump when I politely declined to show interest in a completely different model ‘tards!

But Grassicks in Perth were fantastic and happy to price match Motorpoint prices.

Found nice one at local Ford dealer. Staff were great, no high pressure sales BS. Happy for the kids to spend an hour crawling around inside new ones, opening & closing doors etc. A really nice no pressure experience.
Actually persuaded us against spending more on a diesel model.

In the end decided on a year old Focus, as it was slightly bigger. (Growing children).
Car we liked was sold new by them, now back as a px’d so for sale with 11k on the clock. Wife loved it,
Said wanted to think it over. None of the usual, deal is for today only BS.

This is exactly why I keep going back to my local Ford dealer, Skipton Ford. They’re great and take all the stress out of buying cars.

Our lass got her BMW from one of their dealers and although it wasn’t an unpleasant experience I felt like the hard sell was coming if we tried to walk away. They took us in to a side room once the deal was done to try and sell us some extras we didn’t want which was a strange carry on as the rest of the showroom is open plan. Felt like we were being interrogated!

As for the Alfa dealer…. They all seemed nice enough but didn’t seem to have much interest in selling cars and didn’t seem to know very much.

The whole pressure to pay now before you get the car etc would make me very suspicious. It sounds like more than monthly figure boosting.

Now what would a business that was going under and needing cashflow do? Something like that.

You could end up no car, no money, and a possible chance of 3p in the £1 in 5 years.

If you have to pay early, the car has to be in your name.

When presented with the hard sell the standard response is to queitly and firmly say to the salesman (always a man in these circumstances*): “I’ve come to buy a car. Don’t **** me about or I’m leaving.”

Surprisingly effective, but TBH there are plenty of dealers and even more cars out there that it’s hardly necessary these days.

Tell them you can’t wait for them any longer and you’ll be in for a refund on Monday.

*last car I bought from a main dealer was from a woman. Zero bullshit and did a great deal. I’d buy from her again.

geoffj – it was indeed Arnold Shark in Inverness. Lucky escape I think.

Garage in Perth was Strathearn Motors, they’re mostly a Volvo dealer but my guess was they got Octavias in to shift more easily against the Volvos! I think they’re also an Audi dealer – in Edinburgh – Cameron Motors?

I don’t mind the whole monthly target thing as long as they’re honest about it. The bloke who I deal with will ring me up before the end of my current deal if he’s got a target to meet and can drop some more off a car over and above the norm. He’s quite up front about it and isn’t anything other than polite if I’m not interested.

“Arnold Shark”?
For real?

/Strathmore Motors/

I had a similar experience to matt and kcal – although Arnold Shark in different guises was the protagonist.

Arnold **** – went in to get a car after being out of the country for many years, thought finance would be OK for us so it didn’t eat into the savings in one go.

Guy at Arnold Clark told me it was x% finance – on asking for the APR, he told me it was too difficult to calculate.

I pushed a bit more, he said it simply wasn’t possible to tell me. I asked about his training to sell finance packages to customers and whether he was legally allowed to do it again, he got really upset with me.

Pulled his boss over and told the boss that his member of staff was unable to give me the APR on a finance deal, and was he licensed to offer it.

Boss was a complete **** as well.

Left without a car

I nearly bought a car from Arnold a couple of years ago. Signed papers, shook hands, then he said “You’ll have to pick up on Tuesday. You have to collect within 48 hours”

But I was travelling for the next 2 days so it didn’t suit.

“But you have to; it’s policy” I told him I didn’t have to do anything and walked.

I’ll be ringing them today and telling them I won’t be paying early. If they have a problem I’ll get my deposit back. If they get arsey about that I will be making a fuss.

And if you’re paying for a car, whatever price you settle on, you want a car from then onwards, so they can lend you one, fully insured, while they get yours ready.

Yes. This. We bought a 2006 Civic last year, dealer was fine, “pay the deposit now and we’ll valet the car ready for pick up tomorrow”. Went in the next day to see our car hooked up to a laptop held by a man in Honda overalls. Turns out something had wiped the immobiliser chips in the keys from the car. Dealer gave us a fully-insured Focus until the Honda was fixed, which took a long weekend.

If you’re paying on the day, you should get a car that day.

And if you’re paying for a car, whatever price you settle on, you want a car from then onwards, so they can lend you one, fully insured, while they get yours ready.

Yes. This. We bought a 2006 Civic last year, dealer was fine, “pay the deposit now and we’ll valet the car ready for pick up tomorrow”. Went in the next day to see our car hooked up to a laptop held by a man in Honda overalls. Turns out something had wiped the immobiliser chips in the keys from the car. Dealer gave us a fully-insured Focus until the Honda was fixed, which took a long weekend.

If you’re paying on the day, you should get a car that day.

Turns out something had wiped the immobiliser chips in the keys from the car

Ah yes, connect jump leads up to a Honda with the keys in the ignition. Wipes the immobiliser every time and quite pricey to fix. I suspect someone will have got a rocket for that one…