Dealer mis-sold car - not told it was an import
Discussion
Id be very grateful for some advice to help out my brother in law.
Apologies if this comes across as blunt. Just want to state the facts important to this.
He has a 2004 range rover vogue, has had it for a year.
He lives in the north of scotland and bought the range rover from a dealer in the north of england.
After contemplating selling it to fund a newer sportier motor he decided to get a quote from we buy any car, getting a quote online for around £7000, being satisifed with this quote he took the car to his nearest we buy any car office and was given a significantly lower quote of less than £4000.
The stupidly low quote wasnt based on the condition, mileage or service history of the car. But because its an import.
He never knew the car was an import (R/H drive, speedo in mph etc etc) and was never told it was imported by the dealer he bought it from.
As you can apreciate he is extremely p***ed off thats hes paid way too much for what its actually worth, not to mention that technically hes not properly insured either.
Given the length of time he has owned the car does he stand any chance of getting any of his money back from the dealer he bought the car from? Or even being able to hand back the car to the dealer for a full refund?
Im also led to beleive that car dealers have to carry put HPI checks by law (was told that when i bought my car last year from a dealer and shown the HPI paperwork) is this correct?
I would hope the dealer he bought the car from will refund him a substantial ammount of the price he paid for it and a little bit more; as i cant see them coming all the way up to the top of scotland to take it back nor him taking it to them.
Had anyone else had a similar experience? What was the outcome?
All advice much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Yarders.
Apologies if this comes across as blunt. Just want to state the facts important to this.
He has a 2004 range rover vogue, has had it for a year.
He lives in the north of scotland and bought the range rover from a dealer in the north of england.
After contemplating selling it to fund a newer sportier motor he decided to get a quote from we buy any car, getting a quote online for around £7000, being satisifed with this quote he took the car to his nearest we buy any car office and was given a significantly lower quote of less than £4000.
The stupidly low quote wasnt based on the condition, mileage or service history of the car. But because its an import.
He never knew the car was an import (R/H drive, speedo in mph etc etc) and was never told it was imported by the dealer he bought it from.
As you can apreciate he is extremely p***ed off thats hes paid way too much for what its actually worth, not to mention that technically hes not properly insured either.
Given the length of time he has owned the car does he stand any chance of getting any of his money back from the dealer he bought the car from? Or even being able to hand back the car to the dealer for a full refund?
Im also led to beleive that car dealers have to carry put HPI checks by law (was told that when i bought my car last year from a dealer and shown the HPI paperwork) is this correct?
I would hope the dealer he bought the car from will refund him a substantial ammount of the price he paid for it and a little bit more; as i cant see them coming all the way up to the top of scotland to take it back nor him taking it to them.
Had anyone else had a similar experience? What was the outcome?
All advice much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Yarders.
I had a car that the previous owner bought through Virgin Cars. It was a grey (parallel?) import and the UK registration number didn't show up on searches. It was a UK spec and perfectly UK legal, however, and gave no problems with insurance or parts supply. I fail to see the problem frankly; it's not like it's a Japanese spec with no underseal etc. It is exactly like it was bought from a main dealer.
WBAC HPI checked it and it read back as an import. I cant verify that as i wasnt actually there when it was done. Im just trying to help him with any viable options.
As for the insurance side hes not that daft to drive it without the proper cover.
As for when he bought the car im lead to beleive that he didnt ask or mention to see any HPI checks. Yes its daft i know but i think hes learnt the hard way now. Nobodys perfect either
As for the insurance side hes not that daft to drive it without the proper cover.
As for when he bought the car im lead to beleive that he didnt ask or mention to see any HPI checks. Yes its daft i know but i think hes learnt the hard way now. Nobodys perfect either
The thing with we buy any car they give you an offer that is very low and if you are stupid enough to accept they probably make a couple of grand.My wifes car looking at the car adverts on Pistopheads and Autotrader it looks like I would get about £8250 selling the car privately.For a but of fun fillrd out the car details on we buy any cars website the first offer was £6000,if you dont do anything for 7 days they send you a text and e-mail saying due to demand your car has increased in value.Over the next few weeks the valur increased to £7150 and stoped entering the car details as we did not want to sell it.So never take their first offer.
In the year 2000 due to the exchage rate I ordered a UK spec BMW from The German dealers in Hamburg,picket it up and came back to the UK.Done all the paperwork myself,paid the VAT etc and saved £8000.I did the same a year later with a Toyota Avensis Verso for my wife from a dealer in Belgium and saved £5000.
Because they were Uk spec cars and picked them both up from the foreign dealers on transit plates,drove back to the Uk,my insurance was arranged with the chassis number,was legally allowed to drive on the Uk roads until the start of next month before taxing and putting UK plates on them and the DVLA said that on the V5 it would not say anything about the car being imported and the registration date stated the date that I actually registered it in the UK.
When we sold both cars I did not mention I imported the cars,the people that bought the cars did a HPI check and there was no mention of the cars being imported.
If the car was second hand and imported to the UK I guess it would show as an import.
In the year 2000 due to the exchage rate I ordered a UK spec BMW from The German dealers in Hamburg,picket it up and came back to the UK.Done all the paperwork myself,paid the VAT etc and saved £8000.I did the same a year later with a Toyota Avensis Verso for my wife from a dealer in Belgium and saved £5000.
Because they were Uk spec cars and picked them both up from the foreign dealers on transit plates,drove back to the Uk,my insurance was arranged with the chassis number,was legally allowed to drive on the Uk roads until the start of next month before taxing and putting UK plates on them and the DVLA said that on the V5 it would not say anything about the car being imported and the registration date stated the date that I actually registered it in the UK.
When we sold both cars I did not mention I imported the cars,the people that bought the cars did a HPI check and there was no mention of the cars being imported.
If the car was second hand and imported to the UK I guess it would show as an import.
Roo said:
There's no legal requirement for a dealer to HPI a car, although it is best practice.
Did he ask to see the HPI report when he bought it? Did he carry out his own HPI report when he bought It?
Email me the reg number, and mileage, and I'll have a look at work tomorrow.
That's a kind offer. Top man Did he ask to see the HPI report when he bought it? Did he carry out his own HPI report when he bought It?
Email me the reg number, and mileage, and I'll have a look at work tomorrow.
What does page 2 (the left hand inside page) of the V5C say? Adjacent to the DOCREF DATE at the bottom left there will be a "date of first registration" - with a comment along the lines of "previously registered elsewhere" if the vehicle has been imported to the UK on (from memory) the line below... 
The info is on that page, but the locations are hazy (I have an imported car, but can't recall what the V5C says after 7 years and it will need some digging out from my archive
).
The info is on that page, but the locations are hazy (I have an imported car, but can't recall what the V5C says after 7 years and it will need some digging out from my archive
).
t price, then when you take it down they give you another sUpdate:
Brother in law paid for a comprehensive HPI check on it last night. It is showing up as a grey import, although he doesnt know which country its from. Being a RH drive i cant think of many other countries cars that are RH drive (japan and cyprus being the only two i know of)
WBAC have had his car in for evaluation a few times before according to their system, so im guessing hes not the first bloke to have had the same shock. Two other dealers he went to for a quote came back with the same thing after HPI'ing it.
Also the mileage readings are all over the shop and suggest it may have been fiddled with. But im not sure if hes considered the fact that it may well be in kilometers and have had a converter fitted to change the readings to miles?
Brother in law paid for a comprehensive HPI check on it last night. It is showing up as a grey import, although he doesnt know which country its from. Being a RH drive i cant think of many other countries cars that are RH drive (japan and cyprus being the only two i know of)
WBAC have had his car in for evaluation a few times before according to their system, so im guessing hes not the first bloke to have had the same shock. Two other dealers he went to for a quote came back with the same thing after HPI'ing it.
Also the mileage readings are all over the shop and suggest it may have been fiddled with. But im not sure if hes considered the fact that it may well be in kilometers and have had a converter fitted to change the readings to miles?
Leaving aside the valuation for a minute is it illegal for a dealer to sell an imported car without telling you?
One of the posters on our local town forum went off on one because he'd found out that he had bought a grey import. I didn't feel qualified to reply but I'd like to know the legal position out of interest.
kapiteinlangzaam said:
Dealers on the continent will sell you a RHD car with a Miles ODO no problem at all, you just need to pay a higher deposit for the factory order. The same is true if ordering from the UK but want it Euro registered. The car could have easily (in fact probably) come from Germany, or The Netherlands.
WBAC are pulling your leg by the way, its part of the standard business model for them.
This.WBAC are pulling your leg by the way, its part of the standard business model for them.
I've deliberately bought grey imports from Cyprus with problems whatsoever & doesn't create any problems selling on. Its a full UK spec car & warranty has to be honoured within the EU zone. Some dealers were trying it on a few years ago (VW & Ducati to name a well known cpl of cases) but were slapped by the courts & honoured all agreements. Nothing I've owned has ever had any issues on the insurance side - a PDI is a PDI & thats the end of it. WBAC are well known for their antics, not illegal & like most car dealers. Hey ho.
Go somewhere else & get a better deal. Plenty around.
Yarders91 said:
Being a RH drive i cant think of many other countries cars that are RH drive (japan and cyprus being the only two i know of)
Malta, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, etchttp://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/list-of-left-dri...
http://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/driving-on-the-l...
About 35% of countries.
edit: Republic of Ireland, of course. Doh.
Edited by Vaud on Thursday 5th March 09:08
I bought a Mazda B2500 several years ago from a used car dealer. Wasn't until the car was home and needed some parts when I found out from the chassis number that it was a parallel import - one that was imported by a dealer and sold on. Was quite popular for a while, especially with motorcycles where the importing dealer subsequently supply (their) warranty.
Still got it insured fine, but the specifications can differ massively between countries and parts can be a pain to get since many dealers wont entertain ordering parts that may end up returned.
IIRC, when I worked at Mazda, the whole Miata/Eunos thing was going on. Japanese cars didn't have to go through the same crash test as the UK, so didn't have door impact beams.
Still got it insured fine, but the specifications can differ massively between countries and parts can be a pain to get since many dealers wont entertain ordering parts that may end up returned.
IIRC, when I worked at Mazda, the whole Miata/Eunos thing was going on. Japanese cars didn't have to go through the same crash test as the UK, so didn't have door impact beams.
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