Selling your car 'SOR' with a dealer - WARNING!
Discussion
I've been following the sad story of Verdi Ferrari (there is a separate thread on PistonHeads for those interested in the full details) who have finally been wound up in the high court for selling customer's cars and then keeping all the money.
Whilst the vast majority of dealers who sell customer's cars on a 'Sale or Return' basis are decent and honest, the tail is a stark warning of what can happen.
Can someone qualified advise how you should go about entrusting your car to a dealer in way that protects you from such an outcome.
Presumably you could have a contract where-by the buyer makes his/her payment to you and you then pay the dealer their commission .......... but i guess this would mean that the buyer is then buying privately so wouldn't get a warranty or access to the dealer's finance?
Yes i know you could just sell it to the dealer outright, but for a high value specialist car that may take a long time to sell, a dealer will only give you significantly less than market value to offset the length of time his capital might be tied up.
Whilst the vast majority of dealers who sell customer's cars on a 'Sale or Return' basis are decent and honest, the tail is a stark warning of what can happen.
Can someone qualified advise how you should go about entrusting your car to a dealer in way that protects you from such an outcome.
Presumably you could have a contract where-by the buyer makes his/her payment to you and you then pay the dealer their commission .......... but i guess this would mean that the buyer is then buying privately so wouldn't get a warranty or access to the dealer's finance?
Yes i know you could just sell it to the dealer outright, but for a high value specialist car that may take a long time to sell, a dealer will only give you significantly less than market value to offset the length of time his capital might be tied up.
Over on the Porsche forum, Henry from 911 virgin has always warned about this. Ok he's a dealer with maybe a vested interest, but still it does seem a little risky and this isn't the first time I've heard of this kind of thing happening to poor owners.
I did sell my Ducati SOR at a dealers in Winchester recently, but I have been personal friends with one of the owners for 20 years and they are based a 30 second walk away from my work, so I felt fairly safe, plus it was only for 6 grand, not supercar money like 60 grand.
But then selling privately has it's dangers too as we've also read on here.
I'm glad I don't have the money to be owning loadsamoney cars in a way - seems like it can bring lots of trouble!
I did sell my Ducati SOR at a dealers in Winchester recently, but I have been personal friends with one of the owners for 20 years and they are based a 30 second walk away from my work, so I felt fairly safe, plus it was only for 6 grand, not supercar money like 60 grand.
But then selling privately has it's dangers too as we've also read on here.
I'm glad I don't have the money to be owning loadsamoney cars in a way - seems like it can bring lots of trouble!
Sounds like what happened with Dream Machine. I'd try talking to some of those guys to see what happened.
How things change.
How things change.
It's one of the s
ttiest things that happen in life, I refused service to a customer who had done this on a couple of occasions. The last time it was their small travel business that left families waiting for a bus for Spain that never arrived on the morning of their holidays.
Absolute twunts.
Henry really is the guy to comment, he knows his stuff on this topic, safe to say I'd never do SOR
ttiest things that happen in life, I refused service to a customer who had done this on a couple of occasions. The last time it was their small travel business that left families waiting for a bus for Spain that never arrived on the morning of their holidays.Absolute twunts.
Henry really is the guy to comment, he knows his stuff on this topic, safe to say I'd never do SOR
I had an issue a few years ago when a "mate of a mate" agreed to sell my bike for me through his shop. We agreed how much I wanted back from the sale and that anything else he made over and above was his to keep.
As is custom and practise around here, we shook hands on it.
Two months later I received a cheque for £200 less than what we had agreed.
I called the shop several times, always to be put on hold or told he wasn't available, so eventually went round to pay a visit.
Words were exchanged and he even pulled out his old notebook where he had "written down what we agreed" on the day (despite me not seeing him do this at the time or signing it...).
Needless to say I "persuaded" him he was mistaken, but I was still left £200 out of pocket.
Obviously I can't name and shame here (though the business has a remarkably similar name to the popular tuberculosis vaccine...), but I have since told everyone I know in the motorcycling community what he did.
As is custom and practise around here, we shook hands on it.
Two months later I received a cheque for £200 less than what we had agreed.
I called the shop several times, always to be put on hold or told he wasn't available, so eventually went round to pay a visit.
Words were exchanged and he even pulled out his old notebook where he had "written down what we agreed" on the day (despite me not seeing him do this at the time or signing it...).
Needless to say I "persuaded" him he was mistaken, but I was still left £200 out of pocket.
Obviously I can't name and shame here (though the business has a remarkably similar name to the popular tuberculosis vaccine...), but I have since told everyone I know in the motorcycling community what he did.
Mentioned this before but worth repeating.....
Left my mint one year old Triumph Scrambler on SOR with a long established main Triumph dealer in the Oldham/Rochdale area a few years ago...
The deal was sell the bike for £4750, they keep £400 as their cut. they sold it the very next day for full price but never told me. I only found out two weeks later when a guy from Ireland rang me with a query (My name was on the logbook), saying he had bought it from the shop.
To cut a long story short, I managed to get my money after umpteen phone calls, excuses, excuses, excuses from them....at the time they had probably £500,000's worth of stock in the showroom.
They went into receivership shortly afterwards....
Never again...I learnt my lesson the hard way.
Left my mint one year old Triumph Scrambler on SOR with a long established main Triumph dealer in the Oldham/Rochdale area a few years ago...
The deal was sell the bike for £4750, they keep £400 as their cut. they sold it the very next day for full price but never told me. I only found out two weeks later when a guy from Ireland rang me with a query (My name was on the logbook), saying he had bought it from the shop.
To cut a long story short, I managed to get my money after umpteen phone calls, excuses, excuses, excuses from them....at the time they had probably £500,000's worth of stock in the showroom.
They went into receivership shortly afterwards....
Never again...I learnt my lesson the hard way.
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