Advice needed

[75Black]

Apologies if in the wrong section, but the situation is as follows: following a non-fault accident which resulted in me and my brothers car being written off I had to buy a new car. The car in question that I was supposed to be purchasing was a MK4 Polo, 2005 reg. That morning (Sat 9th) we phoned the seller and arranged a viewing and test drive, I liked it instantly and decided to put down a deposit and pay the remaining balance when the money for the written off vehicle comes through. Eventually a few days later (Thur 14th) the money comes through and it gets paid into my brothers account, we phoned up the dealer that we were ready to proceed and if we can get it all sorted, dealer turns around and says "oh a fault has occurred in the vehicle in the last two days and it needs to be checked out. Phone me later when the garage knows what it is" The car was mechanically sound a week before on the test drive.

We wait all day and contact the dealer again. "Oh sorry, can't sell you the car, the work is too expensive to do, will send deposit back." That was three days ago and still no deposit back despite repeated texts and calls. The car is also still listed up for sale despite him telling us it'd be taken down as soon as he had the deposit, as well as having valid tax and MOT. Am I worrying over nothing, or should I be concerned?

[75Black]

codenamecueball said:

If it's taxed surely it's no longer "in the trade" and has been sold?

If it had been, it wouldn't still be up on AT and according to him the work needed doing on the car would take a while and too expensive and he can't sell it. Despite having nothing wrong with it when viewing and test drive.

InitialDave said:

Sounds like they sold it to someone else and are looking for an excuse to renege on your agreement.

For something relatively common like that, as annoying as it is, it may be less hassle to just let it slide and buy something else.

We ended up doing just that, bought a 2006 Peugeot 206, for the same price as the Polo. I would still like my £100 back though.

[75Black]

Sensible enough, I was just worried about the possibility of dodgy dealings as suddenly car was fine one day, then not when it came to wanting to finish the deal. Probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but better to be safe than sorry.

[75Black]

Paid by cash, he was less of a dealer more of a one man band operating from his house claiming that he buys and sells etc. Now refuses to take my calls...

[75Black]

Panic over, guy drove over and paid deposit back in full and in cash. Apologised, was in Birmingham over the weeked.