Secondhand purchase woes
Discussion
Evening all,
I’ve only ever bought used cars through AUC programs for the various brands I’ve owned, the last 3 cars all being supplied by OPCs around the U.K.
Given the current shortage of stock, I have just taken delivery of a car from Northern Ireland, from a fairly well known dealer who deals in plenty of high end, 6 figure price cars.
The car arrived yesterday, having been delivered on the back of a truck (third party transport business). A few issues have arisen, all of which have left me feeling pretty let down:
1) one of the valet keys is missing from one of the remote fobs. This must put me at risk of having a serious insurance problem in the event that the car gets stolen and I can’t evidence full sets of keys. I’ve bought a steering wheel lock just to give me peace of mind. The dealer has already said they can’t find this.
2) I have the V5 / new keeper supplement and the most recent service invoice (car is 2019) but NO other paperwork, no manual, no service logbook…nada. I only got to notify the dealer of this after COB today.
3) the driver’s seat has a really annoying squeak but I’m less concerned by this as I think it should be sorted under warranty (a call with my usual OPC has confirmed that point).
I still owe the dealer the cost of transport for this car and my part ex, which they haven’t particularly chased for. They have been very straight forward and friendly / helpful to deal with in every respect (sending lots of videos pre-purchase etc) but a missing valet key and no paperwork is far from ideal and absolutely not in keeping with an £85k purchase.
I’ve emailed my local OPC about all of this but my usual service advisor is away until next week. If anyone can offer any advice in the meantime, I’d be very grateful.
Has anyone here had to source a new valet key at any point? Any idea on cost (Google isn’t throwing up much) and process? Same question again for getting new docs, although a new service log doesn’t replace the PDI sticker etc from when the car was first purchased.
So, to the crux of it, if they can’t find the various docs, should I be pushing for a refund and running a mile? I’m perhaps less bothered about the key because I can solve that by offsetting the cost against what I still owe them but the whole situation doesn’t really smell right (the car was HPI checked by my finance company and me, came back clear).
Obviously I’m now kicking myself for not having arranged an inspection beforehand - definitely a cautionary tale…
I’ll be interested to see what their response is tomorrow. For work travel reasons I barely got to see the car yesterday other than having the keys handed over by the delivery driver and then notifying the dealer about the missing valet key straight away. The lack of docs only really became obvious 24 hours after delivery when I finally got to go round the car properly.
I’ve only ever bought used cars through AUC programs for the various brands I’ve owned, the last 3 cars all being supplied by OPCs around the U.K.
Given the current shortage of stock, I have just taken delivery of a car from Northern Ireland, from a fairly well known dealer who deals in plenty of high end, 6 figure price cars.
The car arrived yesterday, having been delivered on the back of a truck (third party transport business). A few issues have arisen, all of which have left me feeling pretty let down:
1) one of the valet keys is missing from one of the remote fobs. This must put me at risk of having a serious insurance problem in the event that the car gets stolen and I can’t evidence full sets of keys. I’ve bought a steering wheel lock just to give me peace of mind. The dealer has already said they can’t find this.
2) I have the V5 / new keeper supplement and the most recent service invoice (car is 2019) but NO other paperwork, no manual, no service logbook…nada. I only got to notify the dealer of this after COB today.
3) the driver’s seat has a really annoying squeak but I’m less concerned by this as I think it should be sorted under warranty (a call with my usual OPC has confirmed that point).
I still owe the dealer the cost of transport for this car and my part ex, which they haven’t particularly chased for. They have been very straight forward and friendly / helpful to deal with in every respect (sending lots of videos pre-purchase etc) but a missing valet key and no paperwork is far from ideal and absolutely not in keeping with an £85k purchase.
I’ve emailed my local OPC about all of this but my usual service advisor is away until next week. If anyone can offer any advice in the meantime, I’d be very grateful.
Has anyone here had to source a new valet key at any point? Any idea on cost (Google isn’t throwing up much) and process? Same question again for getting new docs, although a new service log doesn’t replace the PDI sticker etc from when the car was first purchased.
So, to the crux of it, if they can’t find the various docs, should I be pushing for a refund and running a mile? I’m perhaps less bothered about the key because I can solve that by offsetting the cost against what I still owe them but the whole situation doesn’t really smell right (the car was HPI checked by my finance company and me, came back clear).
Obviously I’m now kicking myself for not having arranged an inspection beforehand - definitely a cautionary tale…
I’ll be interested to see what their response is tomorrow. For work travel reasons I barely got to see the car yesterday other than having the keys handed over by the delivery driver and then notifying the dealer about the missing valet key straight away. The lack of docs only really became obvious 24 hours after delivery when I finally got to go round the car properly.
Edited by Mosdef on Thursday 8th July 22:33
Porsche host digital versions of their manuals online. A physical copy is proably easily replaced with little to no cost.
Logbook would be ideal, however, worst case if all work has been done within the dealer network then the OPC can probably reissue one with the necessary stamps & job numbers if they can find it in their system. Job paperwork they may not reissue do to GDPR or privacy.
Logbook would be ideal, however, worst case if all work has been done within the dealer network then the OPC can probably reissue one with the necessary stamps & job numbers if they can find it in their system. Job paperwork they may not reissue do to GDPR or privacy.
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate everyone’s input. Sounds like I’ve lived a charmed life on the car front - albeit paying through the nose for the privilege!
Just to add:
- They definitely aren’t worried about GDPR; the only piece of documentation that has arrived with the car (other than the V5/C) is the last service invoice with the last owner’s details.
- the car is only just over 2 years old so hasn’t had an MOT yet but should have had 2 services in its 40k mile history. The service I have the invoice for is the 40k one, suspect the first service was carried out by a previous owner. But still, the car was marketed with FPSH (I’ve photos of the advert to prove that) but I have no first hand evidence of that. This point sounds like it’s easily resolved…provided it actually was serviced by an OPC of course - I’m sure it has been but will check.
- the valet key is the small key blade that sits inside the normal key. It’s ideal if there’s a battery issue and the car can’t be locked remotely but I guess the name indicates it could be used by a valet parking operator, just in case the owner doesn’t want to have over the fob. I think that’s probably relatively easy to solve, it will just have a cost.
Overall, the car is absolutely stunning and has all the spec I’d want e.g GT silver, rear axle steer, psd, innodrive etc etc It’s in great nick (squeaky / creaky drivers seat bolster aside - another easy fix I think), and was delivered with a brand new set of Michelins, even though the pressures were all over the place!
Dealer has been highly apologetic and says he’ll jump straight on it. As stated, they have been excellent to deal with so far, just seems a bit of an oversight.
Just to add:
- They definitely aren’t worried about GDPR; the only piece of documentation that has arrived with the car (other than the V5/C) is the last service invoice with the last owner’s details.
- the car is only just over 2 years old so hasn’t had an MOT yet but should have had 2 services in its 40k mile history. The service I have the invoice for is the 40k one, suspect the first service was carried out by a previous owner. But still, the car was marketed with FPSH (I’ve photos of the advert to prove that) but I have no first hand evidence of that. This point sounds like it’s easily resolved…provided it actually was serviced by an OPC of course - I’m sure it has been but will check.
- the valet key is the small key blade that sits inside the normal key. It’s ideal if there’s a battery issue and the car can’t be locked remotely but I guess the name indicates it could be used by a valet parking operator, just in case the owner doesn’t want to have over the fob. I think that’s probably relatively easy to solve, it will just have a cost.
Overall, the car is absolutely stunning and has all the spec I’d want e.g GT silver, rear axle steer, psd, innodrive etc etc It’s in great nick (squeaky / creaky drivers seat bolster aside - another easy fix I think), and was delivered with a brand new set of Michelins, even though the pressures were all over the place!
Dealer has been highly apologetic and says he’ll jump straight on it. As stated, they have been excellent to deal with so far, just seems a bit of an oversight.
Edited by Mosdef on Friday 9th July 10:35
I think you are jumping the gun a bit......give them chance to sort it out. You have said a few times that the dealer is doing everything they can. just relax and enjoy the new car.
You are very brave I must say, there is no way I could have parted with £80k on a car I hadn't seen. Couldn't you have gone to collect it, reached agreement on these little issues and had a mini road trip on the way home, done the whole PX thing and sorted the paperwork etc at the same time? May even have been cheaper than paying the transport (but doesn't sound like that's something that would overly concern you
)
You are very brave I must say, there is no way I could have parted with £80k on a car I hadn't seen. Couldn't you have gone to collect it, reached agreement on these little issues and had a mini road trip on the way home, done the whole PX thing and sorted the paperwork etc at the same time? May even have been cheaper than paying the transport (but doesn't sound like that's something that would overly concern you
)PurpleFox said:
I think you are jumping the gun a bit......give them chance to sort it out. You have said a few times that the dealer is doing everything they can. just relax and enjoy the new car.
You are very brave I must say, there is no way I could have parted with £80k on a car I hadn't seen. Couldn't you have gone to collect it, reached agreement on these little issues and had a mini road trip on the way home, done the whole PX thing and sorted the paperwork etc at the same time? May even have been cheaper than paying the transport (but doesn't sound like that's something that would overly concern you )
The dealer has continued to be excellent, so I agree, best to let them work on it. Having slept on it, I was definitely jumping the gun but a hangover and some sleep deprivation can bring a feeling of doom!!You are very brave I must say, there is no way I could have parted with £80k on a car I hadn't seen. Couldn't you have gone to collect it, reached agreement on these little issues and had a mini road trip on the way home, done the whole PX thing and sorted the paperwork etc at the same time? May even have been cheaper than paying the transport (but doesn't sound like that's something that would overly concern you
)Brave is one word, naive is possibly more accurate. Ordinarily, I would have been delighted to do the road trip but for various work related reasons, I couldn't get away. Lesson learned.
Hopefully I will be able to report a happy outcome very soon.
I think it's disproportionately souring your experience of what otherwise sounds like a helpful dealer, and an exciting new car for you! 
Look at it pragmatically issue by issue:
1) The key blade is NOT a valet key. It cannot be used for anything other than physically getting into the car in an emergency (at which point the alarms will go off) in case you've got a flat battery. Assuming you've got the keyfob and it works, I wouldn't worry about it. The blade is easily re-cut and doesn't need any recoding to the car - ask the dealer to arrange for a replacement blade or reimburse you for one from your nearest OPC.
2) Re: missing service history for the first service - ask your OPC to check it on the system. If they show it's been serviced and can print you out a record the next time it's in for a service, then you're all good, sometimes paperwork/logbooks get lost and frankly how often will you refer to it? You can access the owners manuals digitally anyway. Obviously if it's genuinely not got any record of a service then that's a bigger issue if the dealer advertised it as FPSH.
Look at it pragmatically issue by issue:
1) The key blade is NOT a valet key. It cannot be used for anything other than physically getting into the car in an emergency (at which point the alarms will go off) in case you've got a flat battery. Assuming you've got the keyfob and it works, I wouldn't worry about it. The blade is easily re-cut and doesn't need any recoding to the car - ask the dealer to arrange for a replacement blade or reimburse you for one from your nearest OPC.
2) Re: missing service history for the first service - ask your OPC to check it on the system. If they show it's been serviced and can print you out a record the next time it's in for a service, then you're all good, sometimes paperwork/logbooks get lost and frankly how often will you refer to it? You can access the owners manuals digitally anyway. Obviously if it's genuinely not got any record of a service then that's a bigger issue if the dealer advertised it as FPSH.
So, after having spent a bit of time getting to know the PCM system last night, the car actually shows the service history and both services were carried out at the local OPC to the dealer - that’s great news and confirms my suspicions.
Thanks to you guys (and the dealer’s attitude), I’m no longer worried about the missing embedded key or docs, all of those can be replaced and the dealer is insisting they will do that, so I really can’t fault them for helpfulness. I’m slightly surprised they didn’t realize all this was missing when they took the car in but regardless, they are putting it right without any fuss at all.
Thanks for the advice, it’s put my mind at rest and means I can just get on with enjoying the new purchase.
Thanks to you guys (and the dealer’s attitude), I’m no longer worried about the missing embedded key or docs, all of those can be replaced and the dealer is insisting they will do that, so I really can’t fault them for helpfulness. I’m slightly surprised they didn’t realize all this was missing when they took the car in but regardless, they are putting it right without any fuss at all.
Thanks for the advice, it’s put my mind at rest and means I can just get on with enjoying the new purchase.
I bought my first Porsche from Charles Hurst Bentley dealership in Belfast in 2010. It was a 3 month old 987.2 Cayman.I live in Yorkshire . The dealership were superb. I got a £10 flight from Leeds/Bradford airport on a Saturday morning and a £100 ferry back to Stranraer - was home by 6pm. I am surprised the valet key was missing from the fob. Was it both valet keys ? You should have 2 remote “keys” . The book pack can easily be replaced. A bit like you I only paid the balance to pay on collection and the dealership did not pick up my part ex until a week later from my home address- very trusting.
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