I'm going to say this is all theoretical, but it sort of isn't...
Say a finance company from one of the major manufacturers had reclaimed a car due to an unpaid debt, then passed it on for sale through their dealer network, would it be normal practice to change the registration plate to make sure the original owner wouldn't find it?
It would make perfect sense to me, but wondered if anyone knew how this normally worked?
Why wouldn't they want the original keeper (not owner) to find it? Seems like a lot of hassle for them to go to.
I doubt they would, as scotroutes said, they're interested in selling the car so they wouldn't care who can find it
Doesn't normally happen. Might happen if it had been put on a private plate at some point and then they applied to the DVLA for a new plate after that.
to make sure the original owner wouldn't find it?
And if they did find it, so what?
If it's all legal and above board what could they do?
Scotchegg the original 'owner' may be quite unsavoury.
TBH IF I ever bought one (wouldn't anyway) I would rather the plates were changed.
The finance company are the owners , I've never seen it happen in 25 years in the motor trade and I've bought and sold plenty of finance repos .
Thanks for the reply's all.
I was just thinking that if the original owner still had a key they could walk up the dealership and walk off with the car, though if they re-code the keys then it wouldn't be necessary.
HPI check comes out clean and the plate change is all legit, I'm just wondering why they did it.
Could have been on a personal plate?
If it really bothered you that much £300 will get you a generic crap "personal" plate (+fees I would imagine).
It was on a private plate at some point in the past, then changed back to the original registration, and then on to another generic type plate that was geographically local to the dealer.
Slightly muddy, but I don't think enough to concern me...
If he defaulted on the payments did he skip the servicing.
I saw a very inexpensive Range Rover on eBay a while ago that was being sold after being seized by the Police - a bit too pimped for me (and not really a bike carrier or what I would drive) but I thought a new number plate was a definite!
Probably a good idea to change the plates on any flashy car being sold after police seizure.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/daniel-clan-are-prime-suspects-in-twin-1053784