Clocked UK car - whats the comeback

B

BCPK

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Hello,
My brother just found out that the car he purchased from reputable Kildare dealer about 2/3yrs ago was clocked by 30k miles. VW UK have confirmed that the last service on the car there was at 71k miles, when he bought it here a few months later it was 51k miles. He is getting the supporting documentation from them, SIMI wouldn't take his complaint over the phone, letters only. Anyway we told him to get a solicitor, head to the garage with documentation etc. Anyone else had experience of this?
 
Clocked cars are sadly common place, particularly imported ones. I think what you are doing now is correct.

I've said this before, but why wasn't a HPI check done before purchase?
 
I might be wrong, but is a HPI check to investigate as to whether there is outstanding finance on a vehicle which is been sold. To the OP, if the car was purchased from a large reputable dealer he may have some chance of recovery, but from a smaller trader I do not think there would be much chance of an easy recourse.
 
HPI will check title, finance, w/offs, and verify mileage, with a warranty on each.

It's absolutely essential.
 
I stand corrected but at the time he was assured by the garage that everything was kosher. This was obviously enough for him at the time but hindsight and all the rest.......
 
BCPK said:
I stand corrected but at the time he was assured by the garage that everything was kosher. This was obviously enough for him at the time but hindsight and all the rest.......
Click to expand...

Proof positive that the word of a dealer is valueless.

A HPI and a check through the cars service history would have exposed it as having had a haircut. It's astounding to see and hear of th4 number of people who do not do these simple checks, before buying.

A lesson to all I hope.
 
Wait a sec RS2K, BCPK has not said who the "dealer" is! Is it a main franchise dealership? Has he spoken with the garage? etc.

I know that we, when trading in a car up to about 6 months ago did no checks on cars, we took them in on the word of the customer, straight car, no crash repair history etc. At the end of the day if it proves that the car was indeed clocked and the dealer didn't know about it, he will want what ever money or other from the person that traded in the car to give to BCPK's brother!
 
I take your point Mr2, but isn't it up to you, as a seller to know your used car stock's history?

I don't accept ignorance, albeit in good faith, as being a reasonable excuse.

No offence intended.
 
It is good faith, we can't go out to look as every trade in as a if the customer is trying to con us, but nearly each car we see is very like that these days. If we were to go through cars with a fine tooth comb while the customer is waiting on a price we would loose the sale as were almost saying in our actions we don't trust you.
 
Trust nobody :D

Would you offer less on a trade in for a car with no service history Mr2? I think you should tbh.
 
We would certainly, but most of our business for cars to be retailed second hand on our forecourt is no more than 3 year old and 60k mls on the clock ish, and most would have a full history (not all main dealer), anything other than that and not of our franchise is usually trade and appears on a fore court of some small non-franchise garage and they sell them.
 
Its not a franchise dealership but a fairly large used car dealership with a few sites, obviously i'd prefer not to say. Of course he should have got it checked but as RS2K says. lesson learnt! At the moment he's waiting for the documentation from VW UK and will walk in to the garage with that, service history and solicitors letter together. The dealer will probably claim they have been done by the UK person and its not their fault. Unfortunately the car is worth less than the finance outstanding and the amount of money he has spent on with things going wrong is also considerable. All in all an expensive lesson. Will update you if anything comes of it.
 
where can you get these examinations done and how much are they. hopefully i'll be changing soon
 
There are no large used car dealerships in Kildare with a few sites! and there were none when he bought the car 2/3 years ago either.

He bought a dodgy car from a dodgy place and wonders why he got stung. He got a cheap car with no come back and that's what he has, No come back!
 
Didn't say all the sites were in kildare, and its borderline dublin anyway.
Yes, turned out to be a dodgy car, alot to be said for peace of mind by going franchise route. Wouldn't fancy being in his shoes given he probably has no come back as you point out.
 
Just to provide an update and closure on this. My brother made an appointment with the manager, didn't tell him why, brought in all the documentation from the UK. The manager held his hands up and said he accepted responsibility for not checking the car out properly. He paid off the full loan outstanding on the car, has allowed the brother to use it for another week and has offerd him a deal on a newer car. My brother declined the deal on the car, took the chequeand is leaving it at that!!
 
Thanks for the update. So they turned out to be reputable dealers at the end of the day. Its good to hear of a positive outcome.

BTW if you brother bought a VW diesel, he needs to check that the cam-belt was done to the original VW service schedule and if it was he is now 40k miles into the next scheduled change.
 
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