Mercedes dealer doing a U-turn on approved car sale
Discussion
Last week I agreed to buy a car from a Mercedes dealer. It was going to be supplied as an approved used car, with 12mth tier 1 warranty etc. The deal was struck over the telephone. I paid my £500 deposit and the car was going to be delivered next week. Today I received a call from the dealer saying that the deal was off and they needed to return my deposit. The car had been through the work shops and they'd decided it was uneconomic to sell (apparently 4-5k of work required to bring it up to AUC standards). They're going to send it straight to auction, instead of retailing themselves. Just wondering where consensus is on this. Should I have any comeback? Has this happened to other people before?
It was a very desirable/rare car, and very competitively priced (esp given the AUC perks) ... there's a bit of me wondering whether it's now being sold to a friend/similar of someone that works at the dealership.
It was a very desirable/rare car, and very competitively priced (esp given the AUC perks) ... there's a bit of me wondering whether it's now being sold to a friend/similar of someone that works at the dealership.
Negative Creep said:
Bloody car dealers, interested in nothing but flogging their tarted up deathraps on to unsuspecting members of the public. Not a single honest one amongst them.
Interesting that they can just pull out when it suits them, but if the customer does that and asks on here if they should get their deposit back, certain sections of PH say no, a deals a deal.
You could find out where they auction their discards and bag yourself a bargain. 
As a general rule of thumb, most Dealers will not put cars on their forecourt if they've not had an inspection done first, to avoid exactly this situation. It does happen though; I recently had an 07 reg Mitsubishi Shogun in recently, in fine mechanical fettle. It did, however, suffer from an issue with the radio/satnav unit turning itself off and back on every thirty or forty seconds.
A new unit was five grand.
Suffice to say the car, even in excellent mechanical condition, was put into auction.
A new unit was five grand.
Suffice to say the car, even in excellent mechanical condition, was put into auction.
mdowning said:
It was going to be supplied as an approved used car
By 'going to be', I guess you mean you were aware it hadn't actually gone through the 'approval' process at the time you put the deposit down? Part-ex just in the door or something like that? Surely it would have been obvious to you that this was then dependant on the car being up to scratch/the dealer having actual standards? If so then surely the dealer has done the right & honest thing - I agree they might have been a bit quick to try and close the deal, but it's less of an inconvenience than selling you a dog of an 'approved' used car then having you complain a few months down the line that the approval isn't worth jack s
t! On the other hand if they've misrepresented the deal just to get your deposit down then that's a bit of a dick move (especially when a customer deposit is usually non-refundable) and should give you good leverage on another deal.
NPI said:
Negative Creep said:
Bloody car dealers, interested in nothing but flogging their tarted up deathraps on to unsuspecting members of the public. Not a single honest one amongst them.
Interesting that they can just pull out when it suits them, but if the customer does that and asks on here if they should get their deposit back, certain sections of PH say no, a deals a deal.NPI said:
Negative Creep said:
They're giving him his deposit back
So should the deposit be repaid if the customer changes their mind?Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff