Question - Reg. Plate on car I'm buying

mewso

I'm not the most savvy when it comes to cars but I have put down a deposit on a focus. The ad showed a specific KE reg. but the dealer told me he had to register it for me and has sent me a new D reg. number since I live in dublin. I put the reg. number from the ad into motorcheck (I should have done this from the start but forgot) and it says it's a number from a Citroen C4. Again foolishly I didn't pay close attention when giving it a test drive but I'm fairly sure it had no plates then. This all feels a bit dodgy to me. Plenty of noob mistakes on my part here I know but the car seemed fine and I was looking forward to buying it. Should I walk away?

Corkbah

I would say walk away.

Did you put a deposit down BEFORE actually looking at the car ?

check the mileage(odometer), and service history - chances are the seller has more than one of the same vehicle and is trying to give you one while keeping onto another (not saying he/she is trying to give you one in a better or worse condition - but gives you something to think about)

be careful that the seller doesn't say deposit is non-refundable (they might and you could be faced with a battle to get some money back from him/her)

do screenshots of the advert and print them out (as proof that the advert doesn't say deposit is non-refundable)

maximoose

Is this a 13 we're talking about?

Tzardine

If its a brand new car then this could be fine. Car in the ad might not be the one you are buying. If its brand new then it will be registered to your county. So even if you buy a car in Kerry it will have D reg if you live in Dublin.

If its a used car , run a mile.

bazz26

Is the photos of the car in the advert the actual car you are buying or is it just used for illustration purposes? i.e. similar car to the one being sold and the dealer was too lazy to upload new photos.

mewso

It's an 09 Focus. 1 owner, full ford service history, 77000 miles. I looked at the car and took it out for a drive. All seemed fine but as mentioned I'm no expert and probably didn't ask enough of the right questions. I have emailed him for an explanation and will probably walk away. It mystifies me why a dealer (who is fairly reputable from what I can tell) would do this. Are they just hoping a mug like me will come along and not check it out?

mewso

bazz26 wrote: »

Is the photos of the car in the advert the actual car you are buying or is it just used for illustration purposes? i.e. similar car to the one being sold and the dealer was too lazy to upload new photos.

That would have been my first thought but the reg. matches a citroen not the focus pictured which looks identical to the one I drove.

aaakev

Not enoughh info to say ether way... When i had alot of UK imports on the forecourt i would put generic reg plates on them ie 05-KE-0000

Id guess the car is a uk car

Edit; just noticed you said the reg matches a different car, be interesting to hear his explaination...

Anan1

mewso wrote: »

It's an 09 Focus. 1 owner, full ford service history, 77000 miles. I looked at the car and took it out for a drive. All seemed fine but as mentioned I'm no expert and probably didn't ask enough of the right questions. I have emailed him for an explanation and will probably walk away. It mystifies me why a dealer (who is fairly reputable from what I can tell) would do this. Are they just hoping a mug like me will come along and not check it out?

Is it a UK import? If so, then it may not have been registered yet, which ties in with what he told you. Might the pic in the ad you saw have been generic, rather than of the actual car you bought?

maximoose

No plates when you test drove it, and the line about registering it for you from the dealer do not sound good - unless it's a UK import?

bazz26

Sometimes dealers put made up display number plates on UK imports too until they are sold, like 09 KE 000 for example.

However if a used car is already registered here then it cannot have that registration changed to another county.

mewso

I can't figure what the angle would be. He has sent me the new reg. number which implies it must be an import.

Anan1

mewso wrote: »

I can't figure what the angle would be.

There mightn't be one, although I'm still not clear on whether you actually saw the KE reg on this particular car.

mewso wrote: »

He has sent me the new reg. number which implies it must be an import.

You need to run a full background check on the car and verify the service history before paying for it. Have a read through this thread, it'll tell you most of what you need to know: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056198864

mewso

The only problem being my background check will give me details on the Citroen C4 presumably.

Anan1

mewso wrote: »

The only problem being my background check will give me details on the Citroen C4 presumably.

I thought the reg number from the ad, rather than the one you got in the post, was from the C4? Either way, you need the reg of the car you are buying. Along with its original UK reg, and the serial # and issue date of the V5 registration document.

Kenny Logins

Was the reg something like 08 KE FOCUS?

bazz26

You should have gotten the UK reg from the car's UK reg document that the dealer still has and done a full background check on it before agreeing to buy it. You shouldn't be finding things out like it's a UK import after you agreed to buy it.

Does it have a service history?

mewso

Spoke to him just there. He was very apologetic about not being clearer about it being an import. They stick fake reg numbers on them until they are sold apparently. They might want to make them more fake though. Sent through the uk reg. so I am going to check that for my own piece of mind but to be fair to them my feeling is they are not trying anything dodgy here. Panic over hopefully pending a car check.

colm_mcm

Right muppet if he's putting false plates on and doing test drives. Its a bit alarming that you didn't know it was a UK import

Anan1

colm_mcm wrote: »

Right muppet if he's putting false plates on and doing test drives.

OP doesn't think it had any plates during the test drive. Apart, hopefully, from dealer plates!

Yakuza

You might have taken it out for a test drive on trade plates? (White letters on a green background?)

neddynasty

OP said it had a full service history, if that's the case then the history would be for garages in the UK if it's an import. That's one way of telling. Ringing the garage is another as he already has done.

mewso

Yes I'm almost certain they were trade plates. Name of dealer. It's partly my own fault for not realising it was an import. I mean he was upfront telling me he was registering it for my address and it would be a D. I just didn't twig straight away because the reg. in the ad had me confused so only after hanging up the phone did I wonder why. If I was more savvy I would have said it to him there and then. Live and learn. At the end of the day they are an established dealer and I think I can trust them what with warranty etc. Thanks for the help guys.

Anan1

mewso wrote: »

Yes I'm almost certain they were trade plates. Name of dealer. It's partly my own fault for not realising it was an import. I mean he was upfront telling me he was registering it for my address and it would be a D. I just didn't twig straight away because the reg. in the ad had me confused so only after hanging up the phone did I wonder why. If I was more savvy I would have said it to him there and then. Live and learn. At the end of the day they are an established dealer and I think I can trust them what with warranty etc. Thanks for the help guys.

Grand, but you still need to do the history check and verify the service history - a significant number of UK imports are clocked and/or insurance write offs.

mewso

Anan1 wrote: »

Grand, but you still need to do the history check and verify the service history - a significant number of UK imports are clocked and/or insurance write offs.

Yeah I've run it through carcheck.co.uk and all seems good. Did the milage check too for the extra 3 quid and that is correct.

Anan1

mewso wrote: »

Yeah I've run it through carcheck.co.uk and all seems good. Did the milage check too for the extra 3 quid and that is correct.

Good. All you need to do now is go through the service history and call the garages who stamped the book to verify that they actually did the work on the given dates and you're all set!