Dealer cancelling used car sale - is that legal?

[ChicagoSlim]

My partner is looking for a newer used car as her's has circa £138k on it. She wanted a Nissan xtrail as she does horses, etc.. We called the local Nissan main dealer to check what they had in their used car stock. They stated they had a 2006 being traded in last Friday and they wanted circa £6500 for it. As it was low mileage we said okay and made an appt with the dealer last Saturday morning to view and test drive. So went down Saturday morning and test drove it. Agreed a £500 trade in on her car and signed the deal at £6500 less the £500 trade-in. We did this with their salesman. We signed the paperwork and left a £500 deposit with them and they were going to prep and service the car so we could pick it up later this week. This morning we got a phone call to say the Sales director wanted more money for the car and were stopping the sale. They would be refunding our deposit. No explanation, no offer of compensation, no offer of finding us another car. Nothing. Their sales order contract states in the small print that this is a legally binding contract. I am agast a main dealer would even consider doing this to a customer. They are really blaise about the whole thing and could care less. Anybody have any advice?

[sailor sam]

If you have a signed purchase/vehicle order and money has changed hands then a contract of sale has been agreed which is legally binding. They cannot now legally withdraw from the sale due to the sale price being wrong.

 

You should write formally requesting that they supply the car as agreed otherwise you will consider legal proceedings. To rubber stamp this, I would speak to CAB/trading standards for further advice.

 

 

Please Note

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

Edited December 3, 2012 by sailor sam

[roythegrass]

Whilst I agree with what sailor sam said this could be a glaring example of the difference between what is legally possible and what is realistic.

Once your deposit has been refunded your only provable loss will be a minimal amount of interest and wasted time. You could be entitled to expectation loss for their breach of contract this being the difference between the agreed price and the market price for an identical vehicle being sold elsewhere. Establishing this would be very difficult, time consuming and easily challenged by the dealer.

[Crazy Diamond]

Completely disagree with Sailor Sam, sorry. It's not different from being gazumped in a house sale, until sale is actually completed there is not a lot the buyer can do, they have suffered no actual loss, just a disappointment.

[sailor sam]

Completely disagree with Sailor Sam, sorry. It's not different from being gazumped in a house sale, until sale is actually completed there is not a lot the buyer can do, they have suffered no actual loss, just a disappointment.

 

Of course you are completely entitled to disagree with me. But I speak from experience as the same thing happened to me once so I looked into it. I got my solicitor to write to the dealer threatening legal action and within a week of the letter being sent, my shiny new car was delivered to my front door.

 

But even so, as I said in my previous post, I suggest the OP speaks to CAB.

 

Please Note

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[ericsbrother]

You can sue for loss of bargain or opportunity. This would be the differenec between the offer you accepted and paid a deposit for and what you had to pay to buy elsewhere. This means you must buy the same thing at a higher price but the problem there being the dealers will argue that it isnt the same and a judge wouldnt like to be an arbiter on car values so would expect you to pay for an expert to prove your position beforehand. It also assumes you have bought the same vehicle elsewhere. Another helper is the price difference between the agreed price and the new price. If they still have the vehicle that is worth a try but court cases take months.

[raydetinu]

yep strongly worded letter to dealer might do the trick on the contract side.

have you checked around, and is this cheap, maybe salesman did make a mistake and it is worth a lot more. if you still want maybe there is room for a bit of negotiating ( but would leave a sour taste though ).