number of previous owners

ToyotaCorolla

Right ill try keep it short and simple, bought an 04 Renault Megane 35k on the clock from a car dealer in Aug 2007 . The price was €13,950 , i gave 9000 in cash and the balance came from a trade in.

The car came with a 1 year warranty. Unfortunately i had nothing but trouble with it. First issue was a sensor problem car was undriveable, the second was the car just died for no reason and after 3 hours started up ,then the handbrake mechanism went. After much arguing with the salesman, they agreed to swap the car as i had no fate in it what so ever. I ended up taking an 04 Toyota Corolla , same price 26K on the clock. This was in October 2007 car runs well apart from having to get the battery changed in November. I thought all was finally sorted until i got my log book.

Straight away i noticed that there was 3 previous owners not 1 as i had been told. After all the messing about i couldnt believe it. I was concerned how it would affect the sell on value of the car. So got back on and said how come you lied about the previous owners, salesman said i had never asked me and tried as usual to shift the blame.

So before Xmas i e-mailed SIMI to see could they help.
The other day i got a reply from them which included was a reply from the dealer, saying that they understood my concerns and said that they would offer me a full trade in again or alternatively i could keep the car and down the line when i went to trade in they would give me a price as if it had 1 previous owner not 3

Im thinking about trading in now so at least down the line i can go somewhere else and not be tied to them. Just looked at there cars though and they have nothing that appeals to me

Any thoughts anyone have a similiar experience

Henry Ford III

You did well to get rid of the Megane.

jayok

Sorry to hear your woes.

I haven't had a similar experience, but on first reading of the dealers response that when you trade-in they would consider only 1 rather than 3 owners, I wouldn't believe them. What's the difference really worth, you are going to be hit financially and the dealer will win when you trade regardless.

If you are going to keep the car a few years (say 2+), then the 3 owners won't be a problem, but if you trade in the next few months it might.

Personally, if the car is doing you well (it should) and your going to keep it a few years, I'd tried to get something else out of the dealer (like a free service, or parts, or something).

Just my 2c.

Anan1

jayok wrote: »

Personally, if the car is doing you well (it should) and your going to keep it a few years, I'd tried to get something else out of the dealer (like a free service, or parts, or something).

Just my 2c.

I think this is good advice.

unkel

Yeah, I would go by jayok's suggestion

It's good to see a positive outcome after SIMI intervention for a change. After all from what I gather, OP only had a verbal statement from the garage that the Corolla had 1 owner. That would have gone nowhere in the courts...

ToyotaCorolla

Im dropping in to the dealer on saturday ideally they would have a similarly priced corolla with just one owner so i could do a swap . Just checked there list of cars they have a good few KIA Rio's priced at around the same value 06/07 models low miles.

Anyone have any thoughts on KIA , i know they come with a long warranty they seem a bit too cheap to be good though

Anan1

To be honest, as long as the car is in good condition and has a FSH , I wouldn't be that worried about how many owners it's had. I certainly wouldn't be thinking of it as a reason to change my car.

itarumaa

And I would definitely NOT change the Corolla to Rio,

I bet if you sell your Corolla in three years time you will get much better price from that than Rio.

Just keep the car and be happy you got rid of Megane:)

ToyotaCorolla

Yeah the car runs great(touchwood) i have no plans to change it for a few years, thanks for the replies regards the RIO's it confirms what i already thought , sure ill pop up on saturday they may have a few more corollas in stock.