Dealers cancelling car tax on a £30K+ car

[Mars]

It's bloody inconvenient. There was probably a few days/weeks left on the car tax for the ML my wife is going to view (and hopefully drive away) tomorrow. But because the tight fisted dealer has cancelled the tax, we'll have the faff of arranging that before we can come home with the car, all from a post office in an area we won't be familiar with.

At least the insurance is easy to arrange... SwiftCover on line means we can do it before we go to collect.

[T_Pot]

dont buy it.

[tegwin]

Was it part of the deal?..... I wouldnt buy.... make him renew it

[Scott330ci]

I wouldn't buy it

in fact wouldn't buy a car untaxed anymore out of principle.

[Stu_00]

Car Supermarkets do that - complete con - as you start off with a good price then have to add everything under the Sun to pick up the car.

Walk away in Principle

[TonyHetherington]

Mars said:

It's bloody inconvenient. There was probably a few days/weeks left on the car tax for the ML

The tax doesn't work like that does it? I.e. if they cancel now, they don't get april's refund, only May and onwards?

nevertheless I agree it's a pain!

[bazking69]

I'd expect any dealer, independant or main, to either offer a car with current tax or be prepared to tax it as part of the deal.

They cash it in because it is an asset basically smoking away, bearing in mind cars can sit on the forecourt for months on end.

I'm sure if it comes to a dealbreaker, they'll be willing to tax it sharpish for you...

[Blown2CV]

all dealers reclaim tax on used cars in stock, why would they leave it taxed sat in the forecourt waiting for someone to buy it?

[edo]

I thought dealers couldn't cash in the tax any more - so it would have been the trade-in/seller who did it?

[750turbo]

edo said:

I thought dealers couldn't cash in the tax any more - so it would have been the trade-in/seller who did it?

Correct!

Although it used to be that the dealers could cash in the tax, used to be a nice little earner. Not sure when it changed though....

[Chris_w666]

I bought a car from a main dealer once that still had 5 months tax to run, when I went to collect the invoice included the price of the tax at a pro rata price. After being asked how much they paid out for the tax the invoice was quickly altered back to the agreed price.

[scirocco265]

750turbo said:

edo said:

I thought dealers couldn't cash in the tax any more - so it would have been the trade-in/seller who did it?

Correct!

Although it used to be that the dealers could cash in the tax, used to be a nice little earner. Not sure when it changed though....

This changed I think April last year (maybe April before?). We used to get about £100k p.a. for cashing in tax discs, believe it or not - so definitely a nice little earner!

[paoloh]

Blown2CV said:

all dealers reclaim tax on used cars in stock, why would they leave it taxed sat in the forecourt waiting for someone to buy it?

No they don't

[BPD]

scirocco265 said:

750turbo said:

edo said:

I thought dealers couldn't cash in the tax any more - so it would have been the trade-in/seller who did it?

Correct!

Although it used to be that the dealers could cash in the tax, used to be a nice little earner. Not sure when it changed though....

This changed I think April last year (maybe April before?). We used to get about £100k p.a. for cashing in tax discs, believe it or not - so definitely a nice little earner!

I can't remember when it was either now but it would of been the owner that did it not the dealer. Some dealers have told me to cash the the tax in before giving them the car in px.

[Mars]

Ah, thanks for the correction. I feel less aggrieved by it now.

And to answer a few... we have found a really good one. It's worth the inconvenience of having to drive 2.5 hours to collect it, and worth the inconvenience of the tax disc issue. I just felt it was petty of the dealer to have cashed in the tax disc. However, as he can't have... and if that practice was worth £100K annually, then not so petty.

Cheers.

[confused_buyer]

Dealers cannot, and do not, cash in tax anymore. In most cases the previous owner keeps hold of the disc - with tax going up, people px'ing cars are more and more aware of the value of the tax and more and more keep hold of it.

No dealer would tax a car on sale unless it was a demo or staff car otherwise it just sits there losing month after month of tax.

Demanding that all cars on sale are taxed has got to be one of the more silly things I've read on this forum.

[MondeoMan1981]

I wouldnt buy a car thats either untaxed or the dealer is willing to tax, always a final bartering point to seal a deal.

[Mars]

confused_buyer said:

Demanding that all cars on sale are taxed has got to be one of the more silly things I've read on this forum.

Neither I nor any single reply to this thread demanded that.

MondeoMan1981 said:

I wouldnt buy a car thats either untaxed or the dealer is willing to tax, always a final bartering point to seal a deal.

I'm not sure a dealer could tax it. You need insurance to get car tax. Given the info I've learned from the replies here, it seems less irksome that cars are sold without tax now.

That said, the mechanics of buying a car are a little more complex because of this. The car we want is 2.5 hours away. We're pretty sure it's the right one, and it is being held at an Aston Martin dearship so it's not likely to be anyting other than spot-on, but until you actually view the car in the metal, you won't know.

So, you turn up to inspect, but you have no insurance. You like it, pay a deposit and have to go home to arrange insurance and tax before you collect it.

PITA.

Or, you take a chance it'll be the right one, buy your insurance and send the dealer your certificate for them to tax it prior to your collecting it.

Leaves you with less of an opportunity to reject and walk away. Yes, you still can but having insured it you're less likely to want to.


Fortunately, Swiftcover.com allows you to get insurance instantly (we did today), and you get a PDF certificate which we sent to the dealer so he can tax it for us for our collection tomorrow.

On one hand I like the good old days but on the other, we're buying decent motors now, and we haven't had to walk away from any, so maybe I've simply moved out of the market where the lack of tax is a risk to me.

Dunno, but I'm grateful for the replies here. Thanks.

[paoloh]

The dealer can tax on green slip with his insurance if he believes that you have insurance.

So, you go and look, you like it, you pay, call insurance company and get cover, he then taxes for you.

[GravelBen]

Do insurance companies over there not do it over the phone? Its easy as anything to arrange a policy with a phone call here, even easier if you already have a quote on the vehicle and just call to action it.