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AIBU?

AIBU to think one former keeper means one former owner?

12 replies

Etainagain · 03/03/2016 17:33

Probably being a bit dumb here, but thought I'd ask for your opinion. I bought a 54 reg car at auction four weeks ago. The sales catalogue and the on-screen information sheet said that the car had one former keeper. I presumed this meant that the car had been owned by the same person since new. This gave me confidence in the car because I felt that it must be OK otherwise they wouldn't have held onto it for so long. When the registration document came through a few days ago, it says that the car has had two previous keepers, the last one having purchased the car in 2011. This made me feel uneasy and I sent the car to the garage to be checked over today. It has quite a few issues (absolute min £2,500 worth of work just to get through MOT in May and poss gearbox problem). I called the auction house today and said that I feel that they misrepresented the car because it has had two owners. They said that all auction houses write only one former keeper because at the time it enters the auction house it is still registered with the last owner. This car was listed as a part-exchange. Before we bought it, I googled the number plate and found it for sale with a dealer (no photo though) even though it was listed at auction. I called the dealer and pretended I was interested, but he said it had been sold. I think they probably just realised there were problems and sent it straight to auction.

I don't know what to do now. It's an absolute nightmare for us as money is tight. I'm slightly pissed off too because I let DH talk me into buying it even though I was uneasy about it! I don't even think we could auction it off again as buyers would wonder why we were selling it on again so quickly.

OP posts:

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SimpleSimonThePieMan · 03/03/2016 18:51

No, one previous owner means current owner plus one previous.

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Littleallovertheshop · 03/03/2016 19:17

Ah I see what you mean - the current owner was the garage which bought it then there were two before that, one of whom part exchanged it? I don't think you're being unreasonable, but I don't think you'll get anywhere eithee

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SimpleSimonThePieMan · 03/03/2016 19:31

the current owner was the garage which bought it then there were two before that

The garage, whilst being an owner, will not have added to the number of keepers. The OP will be the 3rd keeper according to the reg doc.

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Hereward1332 · 03/03/2016 19:33

How many former keepers are listed on the V5? If it says 2, the salesman lied.

If a motor trader buys the car to sell (i.e not as a demo or garage runaround) they won't be listed on the V5 as a registered keeper, quite correctly.

If the last owner had the car since 2011 though, I don't think you can read too much into the fact its had two owners, not one. You would be hard pushed to prove that you would not have bought the car if you knew it had an extra owner. The difference in value between an 11 year old car with two previous owners, and one with a single owner is pretty minimal.

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Hereward1332 · 03/03/2016 19:37

Sorry - that's the V5 before you bought it.

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Bearbehind · 03/03/2016 19:43

Traders don't register cars to themselves when they buy and sell so they wouldn't be one of the keepers.

Agree that one or 2 keepers isn't going to massively affect a car that's over 10 years old.

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Etainagain · 03/03/2016 20:02

The V5 says 2 former keepers. I just presumed that as the auction advertised it as having one former keeper, there had only been one owner from new. I had absolutely no idea that 'one former keeper' means the car has a current owner and one previous owner. I still find it slightly misleading!

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SimpleSimonThePieMan · 03/03/2016 21:06

So that's the current V5 in your name that says 2 former keepers?

So if you were selling the car now you'd say that it has 2 former keepers if you see what I mean?

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Etainagain · 03/03/2016 21:42

Yes, if I was selling now I would say that it has two former keepers. It was really silly of me to make this mistake. I should have thought about the fact that the auction house never registers the car in its name and that whilst the car is waiting to be sold it has one current owner and one former owner. Therefore, the description saying 'one former keeper' is accurate.

Now I have to decide what to do with the car. I'm not sure anyone will want to buy it at auction if they know that I've only owned it for four weeks (well not at a sensible price anyway!).

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Griphook · 03/03/2016 21:55

So if it had had only one owner and now the auction house had it how would they portray that

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SimpleSimonThePieMan · 04/03/2016 07:03

On another note, get a 2nd opinion on the work required. What are they saying needs to be done?

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Etainagain · 04/03/2016 07:21

The auction house said that if there had been only one owner from new they would list the car as having 0 former keepers.

We trust the garage that inspected the car as we've been going there for years and they have always been honest (we had a lot of bad experiences before finding that one!). The garage said that we shouldn't get any repairs done because there is also an oil leak and a problem with the gearbox which could cost serious money to repair (this wasn't investigated further).