Buying from a main dealer - how to check car history?

In Ireland every thing gets a "Solictor letter". You sign an SIMI order form your bound to arbitration with a SIMI, Main dealer but you can sue the ass of Joe Bloggs Motors. So why interfer when if it keeps going the way were sending away clocked cars they will all end up closing or playing by the rules. Either way we will be happy.
 
Mr2 said:
As I've said before we have only got access to this information recently and are still building an even bigger data base. Going forward we will probally do something like this but we will not want to make a huge issue of clocked cars we will just blanket ban them.
Click to expand...

The sooner this happens, the better.

Mr2 said:
The cost to a dealer for this would increase the price of the cars, while we may have access to previous owners etc we could not give it out otherwise you would have people ringing previous customers and like I said above most people don't want to know any more about the car they traded in.

Where would we draw the line at the amount of info we coud give to a private person. It would almost be completly based on trust with your dealer then put in very awkard sisuations if something did go wrong and a customer demanding to talk to a previous owner to make sure he/she didn't get a dud and an ex-owner who doesn't want to know. Where would the dealer be left? Prob with a solictor letter on our desk. It wouldn't make sence.
Click to expand...

You don't have to give the info about previous owners out: just stand over the car as described, i.e. if you're selling an 04 VW Golf GTI with 32k kms with no finance outstanding on it, then if any part of that turns out to be incorrect (e.g. it's not an 04 car, or it's a regular Golf with a GTI badge stuck on the back, or it's done 90k kms), then you'll take it back for the full price paid. To do this, clearly you'd need access to an acurate database, but once you have this it'd be easy to provide. It would do wonders for legitimate dealer's business, and their reputation wouldn't be brought down by the rest of the trade who didn't offer such a warrenty.

Similarly, if a HPI-like service were available to the public, all people are interested in are the details: is it what it's claimed to be? what's its mileage? is it stolen? finance owed? etc. Where or how this is collected doesn't matter, so long as people have confidence in the information available.
 
Above post is spot on.

My feeling is that despite Mr2's assurances, the motoring public feel very negatively towards car dealers (whether or not SIMI members).

They basically do not trust them, feel they offer poor value on straight deals and trade ins, are poor and often horrendously expensive as regards sorting out issues (the was a thread on another board which was truly shocking).

Standing over all vehicles sold, and giving a money back warranty covering correct mileage & undisclosed accident damage would be a very positive step that perhaps SIMI members should consider?
 
It's true that we could do as above but our warranty at the moment would have all rules and regulations in it already, if we were just to add this bit on there would be to many question, if say an engine packed in we say "okay, grand, we'll replace it". Bar stool mechanic friend (as usual) takes a look and reckons there's no way that car should do that at that milage it must be clocked etc etc etc. Or two shocks are gone in the rear at again low milage, we say we will fit them but customers mech friend says dodge car.

Where would we be left?

We would be left wide open, and we would end up buying a lot of cars back because we have to leave the previous owner out of things. Other problems, what if a person bought a car and sold it on to someone else with the same warranty that is still on the car but the person we sold it to clocks it again we would be wraped up in a court case. It's our name that's dragged through court.
 
There is poor value on trade in's, I'll agree on that. But's that competition, we need to be competive. Economics "Supply and Demand", if people keep buying and importing UK cars and Jap cars etc you flood the market and create the market we have to trade in. Your local dealer (belive it or not) what's to give you as much as we can for your car so you stay a customer of ours and get value for money but you the consumer created a market that's biting you on the ass.

Why would we give huge money off on straight deal's, if we make very little on normal trade in deal and given a straight deal why should we not be allowed to make a profit. Is this not a business were trying to run?

As far as I know business is about making money, I'm sure you have a job and know how things work, it's not out of the goodness of our hearts we go to work. We have wives and children, like you.
 
Agree with the most recent posts by Ang & RS2K

In relation to all aspects of the 'service' provided in this country, well, there must be at least some reliable and trustworthy garages out there - personally, I've yet to come across one.

I always buy used & every garage (Inc main dealers) I've dealt with has I feel ripped me off to some extent. This ranges from general incompetence to lying about damage - e.g. a quick google has previously provided me (a complete mechanical novice) with details of well known faults of particular models that the garage had advised were 'highly unusual'. Another dealer only admitted to damage/paint job when put under duress by an independent inspection.

These are only a couple of examples. As a consequence I will never again buy off any dealer (regardless of warranty supplied) without an independent inspection.

As I said, they can't all be like this, but my experiences have left a very bitter taste.
 
Caveat, I'm sorry that you feel this way, we would have no problem with any independant inspection you want to come to us with.

Some cars are dependant on climate etc, I've a customer that recently ate me over a "common problem" on an Audi TT, said how could it not be covered etc. It's covered in this other country, how do we not know about it etc etc.

Turned out the problem he was on about was specific to the American TT and only very few cases were ever found in Europe. As far as we are concerned there is no problem but in America it's a recall.

As regards damage/pait job, we would often service, valet and touch up a side of a bumper or sometimes replace a wing but that doesn't count as structure damage so there is no need to say it unless you want to. Sometimes a salesman might miss it when it comes in, sells the car to you and may only discover the paint later when he/she sees the car later.

Check with your insurance company, even when they payout after a claim, unless it's structure damage you won't get deprecation money.
 
Your points sound fair enough Mr2

But, regarding the examples I mentioned this was a European problem affecting UK/Irish cars - it seemed to be very well known - garage didn't have a clue about it (or at least claimed to not know about it)

Regarding the paint/damage - dealer was specifically asked if there had been any damage/sections painted and I was advised 'No'.

Ignorance doesn't come into it as he later admitted that the car had in fact been 'damaged and painted' - played it all down of course - but the fact is he lied in response to a specific question.
 
I can't comment really any more about the problem as I don't know what it is, bar it was head gasket blowing on a punto !!!!!

If he denied a specifically asked question like that, then you would be right to hold all his/her coments with a grain of salt.
 
To be completely honest, it does happen from time to time. The importers that I've delt with would not repair them. They replace maybe a front bumper or rear bumper (easy to match as the car and colour is so fresh) any more than that they would sell them to the trade or register them as company cars and sell them on to traders in 6 months or a year as damaged/repaired.

Most importers work the same sort of rule. Cars that are damaged by the transport company all have to be bought by the transport company or there insurance company and again they would work the same rule, hold for a while and then sell.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top