car dealer lies about no. of owners

razor1

Bought an 07 car from a main dealer and was told it had one previous owner but when the ownership cert arrived it showed 2 owners.After contacting the dealer and waiting 2 days he came back and said it was registered to the garage for sales quota's and then sold on.I said I wouldn't have bought it if I was told this from the start and a letter from the garage stating it was only registered to the garage and not driven is no use to me .
Any idea's what I can do.

razor1

razor1 wrote: »

I said I wouldn't have bought it if I was told this from the start and a letter from the garage stating it was only registered to the garage and not driven is no use to me .
Any idea's what I can do.

Seriously ? You wouldn't have bought it if you knew it had 2 owners as opposed to one ?

I have loads of ideas what you can do but I haven't been infracted in months now

Pkiernan

You could ask the dealer (either yourself, or through a solicitor) to rescind the contract, and return the money.

Or you could take the issue to Court.

Saab Ed

betafrog wrote: »

Why does it matter?

I'd be of the same opinion but in fairness the dealer should just have told the customer this from the start. Doesn't make much difference though.

Anan1

razor1 wrote: »

Bought an 07 car from a main dealer and was told it had one previous owner but when the ownership cert arrived it showed 2 owners.

One previous owner means two owners in total, ie the last owner and one previous owner. It's a very common euphemism in the UK.

gigabit

razor1 wrote: »

Bought an 07 car from a main dealer and was told it had one previous owner but when the ownership cert arrived it showed 2 owners.After contacting the dealer and waiting 2 days he came back and said it was registered to the garage for sales quota's and then sold on.I said I wouldn't have bought it if I was told this from the start and a letter from the garage stating it was only registered to the garage and not driven is no use to me .
Any idea's what I can do.

I cannot see this as a problem. In reality you are the 1st owner. Did you buy with 0 miles on it?

razor1

If I wanted to sell it on next year it would be showing 3 owners in 4 years doesn't look good for anyone wanting to buy a " reliable car "

gigabit

gigabit wrote: »

I cannot see this as a problem. In reality you are the 1st owner. Did you buy with 0 miles on it?

2nd owner

Anan1

RoverJames wrote: »

2nd owner

3rd, actually.;)

EPM

razor1 wrote: »

If I wanted to sell it on next year it would be showing 3 owners in 4 years doesn't look good for anyone wanting to buy a " reliable car "

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Many cars are demo's/pre-reg's.

I can understand completely you being p1ssed off about him being economical with the truth though. If he'd explained it from the start it would be a lot better

The Real B-man

My Current Car has had 3 Previous Owners 2 Of Them Been Dealers.

peasant

razor1 wrote: »

Any idea's what I can do.

Tell the dealer that you're not happy about having been (deliberately?) misinformed and try and wrangle some goodwill gesture out of him.
Things like a free service or some nice accessories spring to mind.

smash

The Real B-man wrote: »

My Current Car has had 3 Previous Owners 2 Of Them Been Dealers.

Hate to tell you, but a dealer doesn't have to register a car is his name to sell it!

BlackWizard

steve06 wrote: »

Hate to tell you, but a dealer doesn't have to register a car is his name to sell it!

That's what I was thinking too. But he probably knows that and that the car was probably used for company purposes.

irishthump

peasant wrote: »

Tell the dealer that you're not happy about having been (deliberately?) misinformed and try and wrangle some goodwill gesture out of him.
Things like a free service or some nice accessories spring to mind.

You have'nt been misinformed. As was already said, 1 previos owner means 2 owners IN TOTAL.

Typical salesman jargon.

Eoin

Anan1 wrote: »

One previous owner means two owners in total, ie the last owner and one previous owner. It's a very common euphemism in the UK.

If a private seller told me there was one previous owner, I'd take it to mean that the seller was the second owner. But if a garage told me there was one previous owner, I'd take it to mean that the person who had traded in the car was the only owner to date.

Anan1

eoin wrote: »

If a private seller told me there was one previous owner, I'd take it to mean that the seller was the second owner. But if a garage told me there was one previous owner, I'd take it to mean that the person who had traded in the car was the only owner to date.

Their get-out is that one previous owner is actually one owner previous to the current registered owner. TBH it's an expression that puts me off a seller from the beginning, it's not a lie but it is designed to decieve.

Saab Ed

OP , best case scenario it was a pre -reg car i.e it was just registered to the garage to get to a target and never set a tyre on the road till it was sold to someone.

Worst case scenario it was an ex hire car for the first 6 months of its life.

Either way I wouldn't worry too much but as some of the other guys suggested , i'd kick up a bit and see what you can get out of the dealer

colm_mcm

get something off the dealer, and the afforementioned letter explaining that it was a pre reg.

A Cartell check would confirm how long each owner has had it.

Prereg sometimes really means ex hire car. If it was in the first owners name for around 9 months or longer I'd be suspicious.

Drummerboy08

I've never understood this attitude of "how many owners has she had".

At the end of the day, the car is the car.

If I was buying a car and I had a clean car with 4 owners as one option, and a rough car with 1 owner, which would I take? Judge the car on its own merits.

If it is mint, drives well, no body repairs, then whats the big problem?

If its none of the above, then why did you settle for it in the first place?

Big J

If it bothers you ask the dealer if they will give you a letter stating that the car was registered to them as a demo.

I found such a letter in the paperwork for the last car I bought in the UK - not that it made any difference to me.

Vanjohn

You could give your hard earned money to a solicitor if you feel like SVDP. It is they will have the best of it anyway if you go that route.
The result will be a waste of YOUR money.

I dislike the economy of truth practiced by the Rent-A-Suit sales people who cannot even complete sales documentation correctly, it is beyond their level of intellegence :rolleyes:. I often wonder what profile of shark employs them in the first instance. Dealership standards where would they get you? Importers glass palaces!

If you liked the car in the first place and it has no genuine problems, not the imaginary ones people discover when they wish to send something back, just live with it and wait your time to settle the score for the " ecomomy of truth" "all good things comes to thse who lie in wait"

Dazzy

I bought a car from a main dealer a couple of years back and was told there was only 1 previous owner. When the registration data arrived it showed there were 2 owners on the car. I was was fairly pissed off about this and contacted the dealer and they offered me a free service which I refused. We went back and forth for a while and in the end they gave me my money back for the car. Lucky escape for me in the end as it was a RRS just before things went south in the car market.

I think to someone in the trade the numbers of owners isn't an issue and they go through multiple cars everyday but for a private individual who is making one of thier more significant purchases they (well me anyway) want everything to be right. The last thing you want is to shell out lots of money for something only to find it isn't exactly what you thought it was.

When it comes to resale if you are competing with someones elses car the higher number of owners will go against you. There is also a site (cant remeber the name) when you can do a car check for free and if your car has 3 owners in a short space of time it flags this which could potentially put someone off your car. Higher number of owners could also be an indication that there is something wrong with the car as owners want rid of a problem car.

opinion guy

To be honest I see where the OP is coming from on this. I've been looking at cars lately and its headwrecking the number of small fibs the dealers say thinking us punters are so gullible as to buy it all. Honestly first time i see a car i'm sussing out the dealer as much as the car. If I pick up too many lies I don't tell them or act any different, I just decide I'd prefer to buy elsewhere.

Why does it matter ? Simple. Honesty. If they are lying to you about the number of owners, what else are they lying to you about ? Its no way to do business. So of the cars I've seen which one am I tihnking of buying ??? The one where I feel like the dealer knows his stuff and isn't bull****ting me.

Eoin

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I've never understood this attitude of "how many owners has she had".

At the end of the day, the car is the car.

For the sake of argument, if I was buying a car that's 2/3 years with three owners, I'd have to wonder if there was a good reason why it was being sold on relatively frequently.

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

If I was buying a car and I had a clean car with 4 owners as one option, and a rough car with 1 owner, which would I take? Judge the car on its own merits.

If it is mint, drives well, no body repairs, then whats the big problem?

How many consumers would be confident to do anything other than a pretty basic inspection?

It would be stupid to solely base your decision on that, but that's not to say it shouldn't be a factor.

JHMEG

Drummerboy08 wrote:

If I was buying a car and I had a clean car with 4 owners as one option, and a rough car with 1 owner, which would I take?

Number of owners affects resale. Does no-one know this?

If you were looking at two cars in the same condition, one had 4 owners, the other had 1. If you'd buy the one with 1 owner please explain why.

opinion guy

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I've never understood this attitude of "how many owners has she had".

At the end of the day, the car is the car.

If I was buying a car and I had a clean car with 4 owners as one option, and a rough car with 1 owner, which would I take? Judge the car on its own merits.

If it is mint, drives well, no body repairs, then whats the big problem?

If its none of the above, then why did you settle for it in the first place?

But the point is. If the dealer is lying about the number of owners. How do you know he is not lying about other stuff like whether it has had body repairs or not ?

Cyrus

opinion guy wrote: »

But the point is. If the dealer is lying about the number of owners. How do you know he is not lying about other stuff like whether it has had body repairs or not ?

unless the dealer has done them himself, and sometimes even that wont be disclosed, ive never known to disclose repairs

either they dont check or they just say no :mad:

John Lynch Ph.D

Wait there, I read that as though there was one previous owner, who sold it to the garage. So wheres the problem that the garage registered it when they bought it off the previous owner?

If I sold a car to a garage I'd insist that, why would you want a car registered in your name that you didn't own.

And if your selling it on you will have proof that it was once registered to a garage.

Eoin

No - apparently a garage saying "one previous owner" really means that the person who traded it in had bought it off a previous owner. So the garage is, in fact, the 3rd "owner".

John Lynch Ph.D

razor1 wrote: »

Bought an 07 car from a main dealer and was told it had one previous owner but when the ownership cert arrived it showed 2 owners.After contacting the dealer and waiting 2 days he came back and said it was registered to the garage for sales quota's and then sold on.I said I wouldn't have bought it if I was told this from the start and a letter from the garage stating it was only registered to the garage and not driven is no use to me .
Any idea's what I can do.

No, when the ownership cert arrived at the OP's, which would mean car is now registered in OP's name, the cert specified 2 previous owners. Which means 2 not 3 previous owners before OP,

Garage says car was registered to garage after it was purchased off the very first owner.

So ownership is -

Original Buyer, Garage, and OP.

His post is pretty clear if you read it.

colm_mcm

TO put some perspective on it, what sort of car is it OP?

-Chris-

John Lynch Ph.D wrote: »

So ownership is -

Original Buyer, Garage, and OP.

His post is pretty clear if you read it.

Changing a car into a garage's name doesn't add an owner, so there were two owners before the garage took posession of it.

Or it may have even been Owner > Garage > Owner > Garage > OP

Owen

I never got this either. A car could have one owner who drives it like he stole it for 3 years, or 3 careful owners in 3 years who all decided one after another the car didn't suit their purpose.

John Lynch Ph.D

-Chris- wrote: »

Changing a car into a garage's name doesn't add an owner, so there were two owners before the garage took posession of it.

Or it may have even been Owner > Garage > Owner > Garage > OP

Why would the garage be offering a letter to say it was only registered to the garage and not driven if it didn't show up on the cert, or the excuse about the sales quota.

opinion guy

John Lynch Ph.D wrote: »

So ownership is -

Original Buyer, Garage, and OP.

His post is pretty clear if you read it.

Honestly it wasn't that clear to me. I thought he meant it had an owner before the person who sold it to the garage. THats how it reads to me

colm_mcm

If a car is traded into a garage second hand it doesn't add an owner, however of the car is registered new to the garage or the distributor then that's the first owner. If the car is sold a week later then that's 2 owners. Owner trades it in next week, still 2 owners. Garage sells car, that's 3 owners

Eoin

PaintDoctor wrote: »

I never got this either. A car could have one owner who drives it like he stole it for 3 years, or 3 careful owners in 3 years who all decided one after another the car didn't suit their purpose.

Again, it shouldn't be the sole reason, but it's certainly one of many factors to consider.

Vertakill

PaintDoctor wrote: »

I never got this either. A car could have one owner who drives it like he stole it for 3 years, or 3 careful owners in 3 years who all decided one after another the car didn't suit their purpose.

-Chris- wrote: »

Changing a car into a garage's name doesn't add an owner, so there were two owners before the garage took posession of it.

Or it may have even been Owner > Garage > Owner > Garage > OP

Chris' version is exactly how I'd imagine it if I saw 1 or more owner per year on a logbook.

Could mean each owner could've uncovered some costly damage and flogged it to the first person that'd buy it... then the next person eventually realises the same issues and flogs it off as well... and so on.

Although, this instance sounds like the OP may have been done by garage lingo.

JHMEG

John Lynch Ph.D wrote: »

Why would the garage be offering a letter to say it was only registered to the garage and not driven if it didn't show up on the cert, or the excuse about the sales quota.

John, are you doing a Ph.D or have you done it? What was it in?

-Chris-

John Lynch Ph.D wrote: »

Why would the garage be offering a letter to say it was only registered to the garage and not driven if it didn't show up on the cert, or the excuse about the sales quota.

Salespeople will say any amount of things to close a sale, it's up to the buyer to test the veracity of those claims.


With regard to the dealer showing up as an owner, Colm has it bang on - if it's first registered to the dealer, they show up as the first owner. If it's transferred into a dealer's name (i.e. they're not the first owner), it won't show up.

JHMEG wrote: »

John, are you doing a Ph.D or have you done it? What was it in?

I don't see how that matters, maybe my name's not really Chris.... :P:D

Back on-topic!

JHMEG

-Chris- wrote: »

I don't see how that matters,

Just cos you don't understand....