anyone been lied to by a used car dealer?
Discussion
Captainawesome said:
On the test drive I noticed a vibration. I returned to the dealer and their tech came out in the car with me. He assured me it was merely a wheel balancing problem and it would be 100% fixed when we collected the car. Sorry, should have said that initially.
Also although the geometry isn't a warranty issue I would expect that as I had paid out for new tires due to a mis-diagnosis of the problem then as an apologetic act of good will they would have done the geo check for free. I think they agreed as when I pointed this out the issue was pushed no further.
Still not sure if the stupid wheel balancing was covering up the problem and that the cars geo was out when I bought it. I would find it odd if they weren't all linked and in that case then it was definitely a warranty issue.
Test drive? Guess it was a new acquisition (of a used car) in which case it's a little different.Also although the geometry isn't a warranty issue I would expect that as I had paid out for new tires due to a mis-diagnosis of the problem then as an apologetic act of good will they would have done the geo check for free. I think they agreed as when I pointed this out the issue was pushed no further.
Still not sure if the stupid wheel balancing was covering up the problem and that the cars geo was out when I bought it. I would find it odd if they weren't all linked and in that case then it was definitely a warranty issue.
hornetrider said:
unrepentant said:
We've fitted plenty of heated seats. The heating element goes in the seat and our people usually fit the button to the side of the seat itself. We've done all sorts of cars from Volvo's to Range Rovers. 300 quid is about right.
That's aftermarket not OEM retrofit though. In BMWs for example all the kit needs coding.So should the majority of the industry carry on lying in retaliation or in anticipation for the public also be potential liars ?
Or should they use due diligence when assessing a car they're taking in? Let's not forget one detail : THEY are supposed to be the professionals. Not the public.
Or should they use due diligence when assessing a car they're taking in? Let's not forget one detail : THEY are supposed to be the professionals. Not the public.
nickfrog said:
So should the majority of the industry carry on lying in retaliation or in anticipation for the public also be potential liars ?
The majority don't lie, some do however they get found out pretty quickly and get tripped up and I'm sure there are liers in other industry's too.I've been selling for 12 odd years and I've never lied to anyone, neither have my colleagues.
spats said:
Yes of course car salespeople are all liars!
no it isn’t, you've removed the expensive alloys and good tyres, stereo, seats, in car kit and tow bar that I explained to you were part of the price. See you signed it just under where I highlighted it to you
Do people actually do this? no it isn’t, you've removed the expensive alloys and good tyres, stereo, seats, in car kit and tow bar that I explained to you were part of the price. See you signed it just under where I highlighted it to you
I'm sure they get the after sales service they deserve if that is their attitude. nickfrog said:
Or should they use due diligence when assessing a car they're taking in? Let's not forget one detail : THEY are supposed to be the professionals. Not the public.
There are some things you have to take at face value - you cant go round insisting you go to their house before they go to work the following morning to hear a car start from cold OR you cant take their trade in for a 50 mile test drive.Took in a vauxhall zafira diesel from a really nice guy, got on great with him, gave him a fair price for his, met him a couple of times actually. Did the handover, no probs. Went to start his zafira the following morning - just churned. Turns out either him or his mechanic had broken all four glow plugs in the head. No way i could have spotted that. But he knew - £500 fix.
Got a lovely Grand Voyager in, fantastic car, all the electrics. Every 40 miles or so it died for no reason - as it happens on the motorway of the people who i sold it to in good faith with their kids in the car. Cost me £1500 to get it sorted.
Mondeo diesel - lovely car, going great. Filled the yard with smoke when you started it from cold the following morning.
Had various people try to trade in written off cars - though i ALWAYS did an HPI check, so that never got past me.
Golf GT TDI - down on power - "my mechanic says it just needs a good run". No, your mechanic has doctored the car up to bypass the turbo and told you to trade it in.
Bulbs taken out of airbag lights, bulbs taken out of engine management lights, you name it, i've seen it.
Yes, its all part of the business, but its really disheartening when you *know* people have went out of their way to stiff you.
VolvoT5 said:
spats said:
Yes of course car salespeople are all liars!
no it isn’t, you've removed the expensive alloys and good tyres, stereo, seats, in car kit and tow bar that I explained to you were part of the price. See you signed it just under where I highlighted it to you
Do people actually do this? no it isn’t, you've removed the expensive alloys and good tyres, stereo, seats, in car kit and tow bar that I explained to you were part of the price. See you signed it just under where I highlighted it to you
I'm sure they get the after sales service they deserve if that is their attitude. Me - "Any accidents"
Customer - "No, none at all"
5 mins later at my desk after I've put the car into V-Auto
Me - "Carfax is showing a wreck 3 months ago, car hit tree and had to be towed from the scene, airbags deployed apparently".
Customer - "Oh yeah, I forgot about that".
Then they get miffed when you show them a trade value below what they were expecting because of the f
king great red warning triangle on the Carfax because the car's been wrecked. 
VolvoT5 said:
Do people actually do this? I'm sure they get the after sales service they deserve if that is their attitude.
They do, in fact a Saab i once agreed a deal on had 4 nearly new Michelin tyres on it. I'm sure they get the after sales service they deserve if that is their attitude. That was, until i picked it up and found a mix of tyres with a couple of mm of tread on them, of course, they knew nothing of this and even suggested i must have confused it with another car. Luckily, their own pictures they put on the internet clearly showed each wheel and the tyres that lived on it.
Presumably one of the salesmen must have earmarked them for their own car
Many years before that, i bought a Punto which had (at the time) a pretty decent CD stereo in it. When i collected, i wasn't impressed with the shyte old tape deck that had replaced it.
VolvoT5 said:
spats said:
Yes of course car salespeople are all liars!
no it isn’t, you've removed the expensive alloys and good tyres, stereo, seats, in car kit and tow bar that I explained to you were part of the price. See you signed it just under where I highlighted it to you
Do people actually do this? no it isn’t, you've removed the expensive alloys and good tyres, stereo, seats, in car kit and tow bar that I explained to you were part of the price. See you signed it just under where I highlighted it to you
I'm sure they get the after sales service they deserve if that is their attitude. Bloke took a factory fit CD player out of his car leaving a gaping hole in the dash. Fortunately he rang back a week later saying "my mechanic says this car you sold me needs an alternator at £100". Oh, thats handy - it cost me £100 to get a replacement CD player for the one you took out of your trade in? "oh...." click, brrrr.
Tyres swapped, batteries swapped, spare wheels removed.....
curtainrail said:
Has anyone been lied to about repairs that were carried out prior to sale or had a bad experience with a used car dealer??
The slow puncture on the car i bought had apparently been sorted, 200 miles later it was quite flat so got it looked at and it had never been sorted at all and cost me 20 quid. The dealer flat out lied to my face it had been done.
So Mr C did the dealer stump up?The slow puncture on the car i bought had apparently been sorted, 200 miles later it was quite flat so got it looked at and it had never been sorted at all and cost me 20 quid. The dealer flat out lied to my face it had been done.
unrepentant said:
hornetrider said:
unrepentant said:
We've fitted plenty of heated seats. The heating element goes in the seat and our people usually fit the button to the side of the seat itself. We've done all sorts of cars from Volvo's to Range Rovers. 300 quid is about right.
That's aftermarket not OEM retrofit though. In BMWs for example all the kit needs coding.HTP99 said:
nickfrog said:
So should the majority of the industry carry on lying in retaliation or in anticipation for the public also be potential liars ?
The majority don't lie, some do however they get found out pretty quickly and get tripped up and I'm sure there are liers in other industry's too.I've been selling for 12 odd years and I've never lied to anyone, neither have my colleagues.
Had a lovely lady in today looking at a 63 plate Astra that we've got it on sale for £9999, her swapper was a 58 plate Golf Match TDi with 81k on it, and whilst talking to her before the appraisal she mentioned that the MOT was renewed last week, it according to her had flown through with no advisories!...
So a thorough walk round then an interior check and a little blat up the road just to check it out, during the test drive I do my usual test of letting the car slow down in gear with the clutch up then give it a boot full, the smoke out of the back resembled a low pass by the Red Arrows!!, and the turbo was whistling like a canary on speed!
IN we come and we get ready to test drive the Astra, but I have a niggle at the back of my mind about the MOT so as we have the V5 I asked out MOT tech to check it out (she had conveniently left it at home) after the Astra test drive I take the trade plates back to the key room, and pop into the MOT bay that's next to it, my tech hands me a copy of the MOT yes it'd passed, but with a long list of advisories, including corroded brake pipes and worn suspension components to name but a few.
So back to the customer we sit down to the deal, gets all the way through to the P/X price and she most miffed to see us offering her only £4300 for her Golf (which it turns out was only £300 less than our local Ford Garage) so we explain it's because of the corroded brake pipes and worn suspension that she forgot to tell us about, but she say's "her car has just passed an MOT so it can't possibly have those issues" so sensing all was lost anyway I flourished a freshly printed copy of her forgotten MOT in front of her, It was hard to remain calm at this point but I managed it, her face went a bit red, she shrugged her shoulders and said quite brazenly "well it was worth a try my mechanic has said that it'd be best to get shot of the Golf as the next MOT was going to be expensive" to which I added that the Turbo was on the way out as well, to which she said "Yeah! that's what he said as well!" we were still prepared to stand on our price of £4300 for her Golf, but she was having none of it, and swept out of the place....
So as you can see we get lied to regularly, and when you sell as many cars a month as we do (nearly 500) it happens most days, someone tries to get one over you, it pays to be vigilent......
So a thorough walk round then an interior check and a little blat up the road just to check it out, during the test drive I do my usual test of letting the car slow down in gear with the clutch up then give it a boot full, the smoke out of the back resembled a low pass by the Red Arrows!!, and the turbo was whistling like a canary on speed!
IN we come and we get ready to test drive the Astra, but I have a niggle at the back of my mind about the MOT so as we have the V5 I asked out MOT tech to check it out (she had conveniently left it at home) after the Astra test drive I take the trade plates back to the key room, and pop into the MOT bay that's next to it, my tech hands me a copy of the MOT yes it'd passed, but with a long list of advisories, including corroded brake pipes and worn suspension components to name but a few.
So back to the customer we sit down to the deal, gets all the way through to the P/X price and she most miffed to see us offering her only £4300 for her Golf (which it turns out was only £300 less than our local Ford Garage) so we explain it's because of the corroded brake pipes and worn suspension that she forgot to tell us about, but she say's "her car has just passed an MOT so it can't possibly have those issues" so sensing all was lost anyway I flourished a freshly printed copy of her forgotten MOT in front of her, It was hard to remain calm at this point but I managed it, her face went a bit red, she shrugged her shoulders and said quite brazenly "well it was worth a try my mechanic has said that it'd be best to get shot of the Golf as the next MOT was going to be expensive" to which I added that the Turbo was on the way out as well, to which she said "Yeah! that's what he said as well!" we were still prepared to stand on our price of £4300 for her Golf, but she was having none of it, and swept out of the place....
So as you can see we get lied to regularly, and when you sell as many cars a month as we do (nearly 500) it happens most days, someone tries to get one over you, it pays to be vigilent......
tdm34 said:
So a thorough walk round then an interior check and a little blat up the road just to check it out, during the test drive I do my usual test of letting the car slow down in gear with the clutch up then give it a boot full, the smoke out of the back resembled a low pass by the Red Arrows!!, and the turbo was whistling like a canary on speed!
.
Are these the tell tale signs of a worn turbo? I thought the whistle from a turbo was normal?.
Every turbo I have ever owned, be it petrol or Diesel has had a nice turbo spooling whistle.
lord trumpton said:
tdm34 said:
So a thorough walk round then an interior check and a little blat up the road just to check it out, during the test drive I do my usual test of letting the car slow down in gear with the clutch up then give it a boot full, the smoke out of the back resembled a low pass by the Red Arrows!!, and the turbo was whistling like a canary on speed!
.
Are these the tell tale signs of a worn turbo? I thought the whistle from a turbo was normal?.
Every turbo I have ever owned, be it petrol or Diesel has had a nice turbo spooling whistle.
Believe it or not most people don't expect that you will actually drive their car as part of the appraisal
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff