Question about dealership sale.

suckindiesel

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I fully agree with what you say, id buy a car at £1000 with my eyes open and wouldn't be expecting any kind of warrantee. But what happens if a dealer has a £1000 car, nice useable car but a bit old to be offering any sort of warrantee with it?

Legally, can they only sell it as a trade sale to another trader, who will then be in the same predicament as the first dealer, or sell it to the public with a warrantee and probably make no money or loose a bit on it when inevitably something goes wrong in a few months time?

It's just a very grey/messy area and really comes down to how reasonable both parties are and how realistic expectations are, along the general theme of what should be reasonably expected given the price, and that's how small claims would view it. I generally trade/auction cars in this category for this reason (some dealers wouldn't lose a moments sleep over passing a parcel on or shafting someone intention, that's not for me), but in the past would have tried to make it abundantly clear what the person was buying, I suppose like a gentleman's agreement as someone else said, a lot of people get that (so long as the dealer is not trying to pass something off with a major undisclosed fault that they are aware of). If I didn't feel the person grasped that then I would suggest it's not the car for them. I guess also it's different if the car completely quits - like an electric window going, brake calliper sticking or something doesn't mean the car is not fit for purpose, but full engine failure might be different, and again it does depend on how long they have had it. As other dealers will tell you (and I'm not judging or generalising here) often (not always) the person buying a car at the very bottom of the market cannot cope with a £1,000 loss or can't afford to spend more on the car, might have young kids depending on the car etc and that's when it gets really messy as the person can just view it as I bought it off a dealer so it's their fault and that's why I did so, and in that case the £1,000 is a lot of money to them personally and the dealer is going to get the raw end of it. They are much less reasonable than the person who bought the £20k car as a rule.

Reminds me of a woman lambasting me for days - I sold her an old high mileage X5, as it blew a brake line and I could have killed her kids and obviously knew about it etc etc etc. The car had recently been through MOT too, and this was several months post sale. I guess some people are bad at taking responsibility for their own life choices, especially when the pressure is on, the money would have bought a much fresher hatchback.
 

PAULW

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It's just a very grey/messy area and really comes down to how reasonable both parties are and how realistic expectations are, along the general theme of what should be reasonably expected given the price, and that's how small claims would view it. I generally trade/auction cars in this category for this reason (some dealers wouldn't lose a moments sleep over passing a parcel on or shafting someone intention, that's not for me), but in the past would have tried to make it abundantly clear what the person was buying, I suppose like a gentleman's agreement as someone else said, a lot of people get that (so long as the dealer is not trying to pass something off with a major undisclosed fault that they are aware of). If I didn't feel the person grasped that then I would suggest it's not the car for them. I guess also it's different if the car completely quits - like an electric window going, brake calliper sticking or something doesn't mean the car is not fit for purpose, but full engine failure might be different, and again it does depend on how long they have had it. As other dealers will tell you (and I'm not judging or generalising here) often (not always) the person buying a car at the very bottom of the market cannot cope with a £1,000 loss or can't afford to spend more on the car, might have young kids depending on the car etc and that's when it gets really messy as the person can just view it as I bought it off a dealer so it's their fault and that's why I did so, and in that case the £1,000 is a lot of money to them personally and the dealer is going to get the raw end of it. They are much less reasonable than the person who bought the £20k car as a rule.

Reminds me of a woman lambasting me for days - I sold her an old high mileage X5, as it blew a brake line and I could have killed her kids and obviously knew about it etc etc etc. The car had recently been through MOT too, and this was several months post sale. I guess some people are bad at taking responsibility for their own life choices, especially when the pressure is on, the money would have bought a much fresher hatchback.

Interesting reading, we all complain about used cars being more expensive these days etc but when you read the above from @suckindiesel it quickly explains why. A low value used car means there's very little room for profit and big potential for the dealer to get burnt with the requirement to warrant what is likely to be a vehicle with at least some faults, small or otherwise. In the above circumstance, it would be a why bother with the hassle scenario IMO.
 

vw1500

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I fully agree with what you say, id buy a car at £1000 with my eyes open and wouldn't be expecting any kind of warrantee. But what happens if a dealer has a £1000 car, nice useable car but a bit old to be offering any sort of warrantee with it?

Legally, can they only sell it as a trade sale to another trader, who will then be in the same predicament as the first dealer, or sell it to the public with a warrantee and probably make no money or loose a bit on it when inevitably something goes wrong in a few months time?
Think someone covered this already, it's meant to be sold as seen or parts or repair. Dealer has to pay for warranty etc so wouldn't make sense for a cheaper car.

I bought the MK4 from a dealer for £2200 I think about 10years ago, accepted that it was a discounted cash sale no warranty price and was told so.
 

suckindiesel

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Think someone covered this already, it's meant to be sold as seen or parts or repair. Dealer has to pay for warranty etc so wouldn't make sense for a cheaper car.

I bought the MK4 from a dealer for £2200 I think about 10years ago, accepted that it was a discounted cash sale no warranty price and was told so.

I'm afraid what makes sense is irrelevant, the point we're touching on is that there is no legal way around a dealer detaching themselves of liability when selling to the public - you can't just say "sold as seen", even if the person agrees or signs an invoice, unless they are in the motor trade they still have legal rights.

The agreement you made with the dealer you obviously accepted, but in this instance the person the OP is talking about also agreed to buy as a "trade sale", but that doesn't stop them going back to the dealer when there is an issue.
 

KevM

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Thankfully, the Law will consider the age, mileage and price of the car when making a judgement & they know it takes 2 to tango. If the dealer has taken steps to check over the car & is unlikely to have known that the fault was pre-existing, they wont necessarily side with the customer.
 

stevieturbo

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He sells a few for friends him. He had a MX5 up for sale - selling for a friend.

Undoubtedly they are not for friends...but why a dealer would bother with the risks associated with that ? Or maybe all the auctions are still messed up from all the covid bull**** ?
 

KevM

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He could easily sell it on behalf of a mate, while letting the mate post the ad.

What he's stating in the ad, is bs.
 

_James_

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I went and viewed a car at J Hair in Bangor that I was told belonged to his brothers aunties cousins mother when I arrived. Needless to say this rang alarm bells with me and just a quick inspection of the car backed up my initial thoughts.

Luckily I have a brain and didn’t buy it.
 

NI_Volvo_Nut

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I went and viewed a car at J Hair in Bangor that I was told belonged to his brothers aunties cousins mother when I arrived. Needless to say this rang alarm bells with me and just a quick inspection of the car backed up my initial thoughts.

Luckily I have a brain and didn’t buy it.
He has high mileage stuff and is good living as far as I know, he's usually quite honest for a dealer. Surprised he had something "not as described"
 

_James_

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He has high mileage stuff and is good living as far as I know, he's usually quite honest for a dealer. Surprised he had something "not as described"

I have told this story a million times and I’ll tell it again. The car I viewed had serious transmission noise and of course, “they all do that” was the usual answer. I asked that he startup the the convertible version of the same car he had for sale to confirm this and guess what? He wouldn’t.

Good living indeed.
 

NI_Volvo_Nut

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I have told this story a million times and I’ll tell it again. The car I viewed had serious transmission noise and of course, “they all do that” was the usual answer. I asked that he startup the the convertible version of the same car he had for sale to confirm this and guess what? He wouldn’t.

Good living indeed.
Not doubting your word, just surprised at him.
 
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