Buying a car - but Cartell.ie shows finance outstanding

DublinWriter

I'm in the early stages of negotiating a deal on a car with a main dealer in Cork.

I checked the car out on cartell.ie and it came up clean except for the fact it stated that there was outstanding finance on the car.

When I brought this up with the salesman, he told me the reason for this was because the car was traded in at their garage and the new car that they sold the ex-owner was through finance arranged by themselves, that the traded-in car (the one I'm looking to buy) would be flagged as such because it was part of a trade in deal.

Does this sound dodgy to you, or is this the way it normally happens?

Jaysoose

Sounds hella-dodgy.

Henry Ford III

Tell him you'd only be interested if the title is perfected.

kkelly77

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Tell him you'd only be interested if the title is perfected.

+1

Could be a risk of repossession if you do buy it. If not that, then what about when you want to sell it on? Potential new owner will be put off.

R.O.R

If it's a main dealer, I wouldn't be too worried.

Agree a deal, only on the condition that you have it in writing from the finance company involved, that all outstanding finance has been cleared.

Cars can also show up as being on finance if they are part of the dealers unit stocking account.

L-M

R.O.R wrote: »

If it's a main dealer, I wouldn't be too worried.

Agree a deal, only on the condition that you have it in writing from the finance company involved, that all outstanding finance has been cleared.

Cars can also show up as being on finance if they are part of the dealers unit stocking account.

Simples

-Chris-

R.O.R wrote: »

Agree a deal, only on the condition that you have it in writing from the finance company involved, that all outstanding finance has been cleared.

This ^^^^^^

coylemj

DublinWriter wrote: »

When I brought this up with the salesman, he told me the reason for this was because the car was traded in at their garage and the new car that they sold the ex-owner was through finance arranged by themselves, that the traded-in car (the one I'm looking to buy) would be flagged as such because it was part of a trade in deal.

Does this sound dodgy to you, or is this the way it normally happens?

That is complete BS. If the previous owner bought a car under finance, the new car would be flagged as having finance outstanding, the finance company doesn't give a XXXX for the car that was traded in. If what he says is true, the trade-in will have the 'outstanding finance' flag against it until the new car is paid for which means the garage will be stuck with the trade-in sitting on the forecourt for 3 or 4 years, clearly not how the system works.

But he may just be playing for time, chances are that if he is a main dealer the old car's finance will be sorted out but it will take a week or so for the finance company to remove the flag from the database.

If you paid Cartell for a check I think it allows you to check again within a set period so keep your eye on it but what the dealer sales guy told you is nonsense.

Motorcheck

Unfortunately the majority of finance houses don't update their records as quickly as you would like and the official database can continue to show finance as outstanding for months after the account has been settled.

At Motorcheck we will make as many phone calls to the bank as required by our customer to confirm when a finance agreement has been settled. The other company you've used will probably do the same for you as it's a common problem.

From reading your first post it appears that the salesman was simply mis-informed. As others have said it's much more likely that the car is registered against the dealers stocking loan and automatically goes on the HPI register. Your car history provider should be able to confirm this for you.