car auction - one owner not true

Hi,
We bought a car at Merlin car auctions on Saturday. We realised that this was a pig in a poke way to buy a car but thought it was worth the risk when we saw a ten year old BMW advertised as having had only one owner. We set our max price and won the bid. On the journey home while looking through the service history we discovered the car had four previous owners in the U.k. and was then purchased by a dealer in Kildare. This would make us at least the fifth if not the sixth owners. We simply wouldn't have bid on a car at auction that had four previous owners. We rang Merlin straight away and they say they are entitled to advertise it as one previous owner as they don't have to count U.K. owners. Is this true? I have contacted the comsumer connect organisation and am waiting to hear back.
btw - The car overheated on the way home so god knows what's wrong with it.

Interesting. This doc covers importing a vehicle into Ireland (deals mainly with VRT)
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/c...to-live-in-ireland/importing_car_into_ireland
It does have a link to the "declaration of registration form VRT 4", for used cars.
[broken link removed]
No where on the form does it ask for the number of previous owners.

What was the exact wording of the ad ?

Thats very interesting moneygrower.
I have been looking into buying something off Merlin recently and was keeping my eye on a few cars there but in light of this I wont bother with them and will spread the word!
I understand about buying at auction i.e. you pays your money you takes your chance but as regard things like previous owners etc..well thats just underhand and devious in my opinion.
I hope you get some satisfaction....keep us informed.

jhegarty said:

What was the exact wording of the ad ?

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You wondering if it said one Irish owner? nope, just one owner.

Iggy, I feel exactly the same. If it had only one owner and broke down as soon as I sat into to it, I'd say well you takes your chances tough luck. I do feel this is at best sharp practice. My husband has been trying to reach the operations manager who has been away from his desk rather a lot.

Would you contact the National Consumer Agency? www.nca.ie

From what you've described, it does seem like sharp practice.

emailed them today and husband is meeting them tomorrow. Manager in Merlin refused all day to come to the phone.

read their terms and conditions there is something about it in there.. i can't remember now off hand.. that's the joy of anauction now..

Some legal friends say it sounds like fraud. There are laws that overrule a company's small print. I'll be writing a letter and letting you all know.

as far as I am aware when you import a car and reregister it, the vechile cert issued does not include the previous owners outside of the state, so it would be classified on the irish documents 1 owner, I could be wrong.

I am not saying that what they did is correect or not, but just saying that it would be difficult to know from the Vechile Reg cert the number of owners, and when I sold my car there, I had to fill in a report as to whether it was an import and the no of owners, but as mine was an Irish car I had to fill in the no of previous owners +1.

Regardless, you could always start by contacting Merlin by letter and pointing out that you believe that they are acting unethically and/or are being misleading (choose your words carefully).

Tell them that you will be informing everyone you know about this 'anomaly' - maybe even direct them to this thread and point out the number of views. (416 as I type)

I assume you would ideally want to return the car with perhaps a commitment to buy an alternative at a future auction?

Caveat said:

Regardless, you could always start by contacting Merlin by letter and pointing out that you believe that they are acting unethically and/or are being misleading (choose your words carefully).

This is what I intend to do, solicitor friend is giving me the wording.

Tell them that you will be informing everyone you know about this 'anomaly' - maybe even direct them to this thread and point out the number of views. (416 as I type)

I had this in mind too, seems a very short sighted strategy to me. Then the fact that they won't come to the phone doesn't suggest a very mature organisation.

I assume you would ideally want to return the car with perhaps a commitment to buy an alternative at a future auction?

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Ideally, I want to return it and take my time buying an old loved beemer from a private seller. I've discovered I really like BMW's, though I fear my arms will go flabby with the easy steering. My friend, a bmw owner, informs me this now makes me a pr*ck. Had been reluctantly considering a nissan primera as a budget/reliability option when this car caught our eye.

It's only my second car, first was 1998 Rover 200, really liked it, great at 30mph, but you work hard to drive it , nearly dislocated my shoulder on the gear stick, and feck all power out of the city.

Anyhow that's OT, I will be in touch with their response to the letter.

cloughy said:

as far as I am aware when you import a car and reregister it, the vechile cert issued does not include the previous owners outside of the state, so it would be classified on the irish documents 1 owner, I could be wrong.

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You are
The Vehicle Reg Cert has details of the previous owners from abroad.

Whatever about the technicalities of the registration of Irish/Uk owners, surely the ethical thing to do is simply state the number of Uk & Irish numbers.

Merlin are trying to market their auctions as a good place to buy cars, however this is just sharp practice and won't help them to improve the image of car auctions.

moneygrower said:

My friend, a bmw owner, informs me this now makes me a pr*ck. Had been reluctantly considering a nissan primera as a budget/reliability option when this car caught our eye.

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Keep the Bimmer.

I agree with you on the easy steering though (I don't drive one myself, but 2 of my friends have 320 coupes).

Right pricks they are too

Can you say things like that on here??

Iggy, have you still not sorted a car. Thought you were bringing one in 6 mths ago..

This is very interesting to me I must say. I've been to an auction and have been thinking about going soon to source a van for work but i don't like the sound of what's going on there. I know it might just be a case with a small few cars but the fact remains they find it so easy to do it. I'd like to see how this turns out for you.

Also I've never heard of sharp practice. Can someone fill me in please?

Ceatharlach...The more I look at changing my car the less inclined I am to do it!
I have driven lots of cars in the past few months, Toyota celicas, hyundai coupes, bmw 320`s and none of them come close to my old `97 Rover 600 (Honda accord engine)...honestly.It runs like a dream ,it`s got ABS, lekki windows, aircon, sunroof etc so the only reason to change it is because of the 97 on the regplate...sheer snobbery!!
I think I just have too much time on my hands.
I also had a family illness which curtailed my search for a while but I am still on the lookout for the right car.

Mr Bishi said:

Also I've never heard of sharp practice. Can someone fill me in please?

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Operating (usually only just) within the law - but in a way that is perceived to be to the detriment of the supplier/customer etc. General 'sneakiness'.

I was considering buying a car at Merlin Car Auctions, but after hearing this story, I will be staying well clear of them. There are enough other bargains out there from more reputable sources.