Mistake on mileage with a part-exchange

[craig_rich]

Hi all,

 

New to the forum, and I was looking for some opinions.

 

I recently purchased a car from a specialist dealer, and part-exchanged my previous car. When I first contacted him, I was on business in America and we discussed the part-exchange over email. The only information he asked for was the registration number and mileage. I asked my wife to email me the mileage, and I passed it across to him.

 

He gave me a part-ex value, and told me that he would be passing it on to another dealer.

 

Upon my return, I drove up to complete the transaction, paid him the balance, got an invoice, and took the new car on.

 

He didn't check the car, or the mileage upon handover, just got me to sign the V5 document, and an invoice including the part-exchange details and new car details.

 

He phoned me 4 days later saying that the mileage was wrong. Evidently my wife had read the number from the trip meter, not the main mileage, and instead of 4700, it was nearer 8500. He told me that the dealer he was passing it onto was now offering £1000 less on the value, and that he would be out of pocket.

 

He asked me "out of good will" to pay him £500 towards that value.

 

I have told him that it was a genuine mistake, and that it was his responsibility to check the part-exchange vehicle at the point of purchase. He is now chasing me (in a friendly manner) to see if I will pay the additional money.

 

I do maintain it's ultimately his mistake, as if he had told me at the point of purchase that I needed to pay £1000 more on the balance, I would have had the opportunity to decide not to purchase the car, and walk away.

 

It's not escalated - but I have a feeling it might. I was looking to check my sanity here and see if others feel that it is right/appropriate to tell him that it's his problem, and I am not willing to pay anything more.

 

Many thanks in advance for the advice.

 

Craig

[Conniff]

I think you have been made a very reasonable offer. It might not remain friendly if you continue to refuse and private consumers

are liable for misleading statements as well as dealers.

 

He also has the mileage in hard copy (email) to show that what you said and what you supplied are very different.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Conniff

[raydetinu]

The dealer could of checked the mileage when they took possession; this is the same as if something is wrong with the car and it broke down; you would not expect him to come back and ask you to pay for that.

Its up to dealer to check it over if he does not then that's up to them.

Having said that, would a difference of 3.8k miles make a £1k difference for that make and model of car, purely subjective in my opinion. A more substantial difference maybe.

I suspect that the dealer just has not got as much as he thought when he tried to pass it on.

I think dealer would have a job to prove any loss.

You could go on autotrader and see what difference that mileage would make in general terms.

[oddjobbob]

Presumably your part exchange was a nearly new car hence the very low mileage.

 

Let's say it's a year old, I don't think the difference would be £1000 to be quite honest if you're talking about a general family run of the mill type of car.

 

I think you should pay them something as stated it is in writing that you declared the mileage to be lower than it is.

 

I daresay also that on the purchase form for the car you bought it shows the part exchange on there somewhere too, and you've quite probably signed this to say that the mileage on your px was XXX miles and CORRECT.

 

The problem you've got as well is that if anything goes wrong with the car you've bought then the dealer will make things very awkward if you want some help.

 

the decent thing to do is sort it amicably.

[raydetinu]

good point about new vehicle and dealer being helpful if something goes wrong!

[Prolix]

I wouldn't give him anything. It's his mistake. He's the professional and should be more circumspect

[ericsbrother]

dealer can only blame himself. As a professional they are deemed to have knowledge and cant complain if they havent done their homework. Even if it was a private buyer, he had the opportunity to check simple things like that before signing on the dotted line. I dont believe a word about the third party offering £1k less, he is not obliged to sell it via the trade so I dont buy that excuse.

No comeback on you at all, if he threatens any retribution a complaint to the distributors/manufacturers will put an end to that.