Am I being strung along by the dealer?

[mbcx4jrh]

Got deposits down on 2 new cars with a Ford dealer, both meant to be in stock.

Put the money down over Easter on a Focus ST for the missus, and Mustang v8 for me. Both cars in stock but at a different dealer. Expected to be picking them up by the next weekend.

Both models are the "old" ones, chosen because instantly available & 0% apr.

Roll on the next week - the missus hears nothing till the Friday and is told she can't have the original car as it is sold to someone else. Dealer is locating another car.

I heard nothing till the Thursday and then get told that the engine lost compression in one cylinder and needs replacing which will be months. Get offered a variety of similar cars, and choose one (different colour) that is in a holding compound somewhere.

Both get phone calls on the Saturday saying the cars are on the way.

Then chasing them up today, get told it will be a couple of weeks/end of April. The ST has just left the factory for the holding compound and my mustang is sitting in the same compound waiting to come to the UK.
Said compound is now admitted to be in Belgium.

Is this normal? I understand waiting for a factory specced car, but one that is in stock?

Don't want to give the dealer a hard time if it is, but seems to be excuse after excuse...

Edited by mbcx4jrh on Tuesday 10th April 16:37

[NickofName]

So to be clear, it sounds like the dealer either sold a car that you had a deposit on to someone else, or allowed you to put a deposit on a car that was already sold to someone else. That's a cock-up but certainly not unheard of.

However, a brand new (you did say new in your post) Mustang losing compression?

A) Can't even think how unlikely that is to happen.

B) How the bloody hell would they even have spotted that in the first place? I find it hard to believe you'd notice one of 8 cylinders being a bit meagre on power if you were just shifting it around a holding yard.

[Caddyshack]

Maybe a fault code threw up as part of the pre-delivery inspection and traced to that cycliner?

[Nickp82]

To me, this sounds like the salesman/dealer taking orders without actually having the cars secured i.e taking a 'flyer' on the basis that they 'should' find the cars within the network.