Abarth 500 Dealer - Midlands - Advice needed re mis selling

[GT3 APE]

OK without naming and shaming dealer to abide by PH rules, yesterday I went in to a Fiat Abarth dealer & agreed a deal on a new Abarth 500 for my wife. This included a trade in against my wifes car, plus free upgrade to 17" alloys on car.

So I had a verbal agreement from the salesman that I would get £5,500 trade in for car & I would go away & choose model of cars they had on forecourt, on understanding I pay £14,300 for car + additional cost for any options on car. Deal had to be complete this month. I paid £500 deposit, but didn't get anything in writing on deal , as took the dealer at their word.

So today I come back with the car we want, priced as above only for the dealer to now back out on deal saying they made a mistake & they can't do it at price agreed They will only do price if I buy car without trade in

Now I know I could take them to court as we had an agreed verbal commitment, but to be honest I don't want the hassle & also do not want to deal with a dishonest dealership. I now have my deposit back.

I have found name of directors & will be writing formal complaint letter to them, but I also want to know if there is any other official body I can complain to about this type of sales fiasco ? Can anyone advise.

Cheers

Dave

Edited by GT3 APE on Tuesday 23 August 17:20

Edited by GT3 APE on Tuesday 23 August 17:33

[Soovy]

Buy one somewhere else and get your depsoit back

[richyb]

No advice but I would imagine a verbal contract would be very hard to prove and scarcely worth the time and hassle it will cause you. If i were you I'd go elsewhere and forget them.

[edo]

Deposit back. Go elsewhere.

[justayellowbadge]

You've got your deposit back.

You aren't materially affected in any way.

Go and buy a car somewhere else.

[GT3 APE]

Have the deposit back & will look elsewhere, but I do think it's important to flag up poor service from dealers. It's one thing I will admit the yanks do better than us

[GT3 APE]

justayellowbadge said:

You aren't materially affected in any way.

Let's wait till I tell the missus hey LOL. "Sorry love, that car you've been excitedly telling all your friends about , well......"

Edited by GT3 APE on Tuesday 23 August 17:36

[Unlight]

Did they offer you any other deal, how much difference is there between the trade in price then and now?

[GT3 APE]

They stated they were giving me £700 over book price for trade in yesterday (who knows what reality is). Today they have removed that from table wanting no trade in , with £400 discount on car instead for cash. This was on £15K car.

Part ex was the clincher to keep things simple.

Not going to lose sleep over it, but annoying to have upset missus & was 100 mile round trip in 1st place. Not best impression to leave on 1st time customer to fiat / abarth.

Ho hum, on to look at next deal with hopefully more reliable dealer

[richtea78]

It could have just been a genuine mistake? Hardly seems like mis selling to me. If they had refused to give your deposit back that would be different.

[GT3 APE]

I got some more feedback which was around them only being to offer original deal as they had target to hit & had to do a deal on a couple of cars. Seems they may have sold those cars & even though they had deal agreed with me, they have backed out, all between 5:30pm deal last night to this morning.

Maybe they are able to do this, I'm not sure, but ethically I would expect a dealer to stand by a verbal contract. Live & learn I suppose.

[edo]

Car Salesman in unethical behaviour shock. Nothing to see here!

[Frog Dog]

edo said:

Car Salesman in unethical behaviour shock. Nothing to see here!

Hardly.

I'm sure this would have been an honest mistake. Probably priced the trade in completely wrong, o know my boss would be telling me the deal was off if I did the same. 'Better to lose one customer than £700' was probably their thinking, however wrong that is.

Sad to hear the story, hopefully you'll get a good deal elsewhere OP

[Jem0911]

Always get your deal written up.
Will serve you well in the future.
Shame though Im sure but at least you got your dipper back.

[GT3 APE]

edo said:

Car Salesman in unethical behaviour shock. Nothing to see here!

LOL. For once I did give this guy the benefit of doubt & thought it might be an enjoyable process buying a car ..... how naive

[AndyBrew]

Well just to show there are dealers out there worth their salt, when looking for the good ladies Porsche boxster Leicester opc cocked up by giving us a figure on a brand new car, when we got there the car in question transpired to list at £2.5k over the price we were verbally told on the phone, we were already getting a VERY good discount, but they then honoured the price they stated over the phone the only condition was not to tell anyone what we paid lol!

[sone]

Dave,
Bugger all you can do!. Man up and tell the Mrs.
So much for being the perfect hubbie.;)

[Turtle head]

I went to the dealership in question got the impression that they weren't interested in trying to sell me a car just slag my current one off.