Car dealership gone back on offer

[Mol1628]

So we ordered a brand new car at the weekend under a PCP deal. Went through the credit check, agreed on a part exchange price for our car and on a monthly cost for us.
We agreed to go for the base colour which comes at no extra cost. When he went to get us the deal printed out his boss told him that they are no longer doing the base colour and we would have to pay for one of the metallic colours (£600 extra) we said no. We don’t want to pay extra for a colour. He went to his boss and came back with a lower offer and they would find us the base colour model in stock somewhere and transport it.

We put down a deposit and signed the paperwork.

He phoned today saying they can’t get hold of any of the base colours and we can pay £15 a month extra for a red one that they have in stock. Or we can wait till March and choose another metallic colour, which will also be the same £15 a month extra.

I’ve told them no. If they can’t do it at the price we agreed and put our deposit down at then I’m not interested. I don’t care about the colour of the car, we just need one within the next couple of weeks, which he initially said he could do

I feel they lied to us just to get us to sign up. On the phone he put me on hold to talk to his boss who reiterated they couldn’t do anything for us. I said ok. We will have to cancel the sale then , can I come in and get the deposit back. He said he would phone me back later today. That was two hours ago! Haven’t heard anything yet.

It’s so frustrating as I can’t find a car I want at a price as good as this. Yet I feel they’ve lied and are taking me for a ride. Also wasted 3 hours of our time at the weekend and put a credit check on our account for nothing now.

AIBU? I don’t think for them losing that £600 is really going to be worth losing a sale but it’s not looking likely they’re going to honour the original deal.

Absolutely. There shouldn’t be such a rush to get a deposit. Salespeople know the minute you leave without committing you are less likely to do so, and less likely to cancel once a deposit is paid. But really they should be holding off until they know they can deliver.

You’re in a very strong position, car sales last month fell and this week’s announcement will have affected confidence too. The dealership is utterly stupid if it doesn’t cave.

I feel I’m not being unreasonable expecting them to honour the price we agreed upon

I thoroughly agree with you, but would suggest you keep the deal you want at the front of your mind, rather than the "principle" of it all

Too many dealers don't care about principles - they care about sales, and are very experienced at soothing away objections which concern anything but the bottom line. Stress the morals of it all too strongly and the gambit will probably change to "the salesperson's risking their job to get you this (insert latest offer)"

Your choice of course, but IME avoiding getting sidetracked into chit-chat and being prepared to walk really is the only way to go

It’s so difficult. He said he would phone me back first thing in the morning and it’s 10:30 now and I’m still waiting. I’m going to go down there after work in person and get my money back if they haven’t phoned by then it’s getting ridiculous now.

Just ring them.

Classic sales tactic to try and offload overordered stock.

I had the same stunt pulled on me. Quick scan of the showroom and the car they swore didn't exist was sitting there. But apparently it wasn't part of the deal because of some technicality.

They will have preregistered a bunch of cars and are looking to shift those to meet quotas rather than letting you buy what you actually want.

Get your money back and walk away.

I’m going to go down there after work in person and get my money back if they haven’t phoned by then it’s getting ridiculous now

Very wise of you - the missing call back thing is called "who blinks first" and it's really not a game worth playing

just go in and ask for your deposit back. The. You can go elsewhere and do a deal. It will force their hand if they are playing you too.

I really hope you went in this afternoon to get your deposit back!!??

I hope you managed to get your deposit back and that you find your ideal car soon from somewhere other than you were dealing with

How did it go?

They are honouring the price they originally gave me after a lot of persuasion and they’ve said we can have the in stock red one.
I hope it all runs smoothly now as we really need a new car ASAP.

Not that I entirely trust them I’ll be honest I’m waiting for the next problem to pop up now! We shall see.

Curious - what car is it?

If you dont mind disclosing?

Glad to hear it, OP - though do check all the paperwork very carefully before you collect it, to make sure there've been no more financial "mistakes"

Make sure you take it elsewhere for servicing too

By the way, you can get PCPs and other finance for used/nearly new cars, they don't have to be brand new.

Why haven’t they checked the stock?
When I was purchasing my car they looked to see if they had that spec I wanted. I wasn’t budging on the colour or spec. It took months, which unfortunately you don’t have the time.
The dealership ordered my car in its model especially, well, I think they wanted me to believe that.
I found VW service to be lax. I was looking to buy a new car, and dealers weren’t really interested in helping me. Weird, you’d think they’d want a sale?!

Hi
I decided to lease in the end over pcp because I couldn’t stand the BS from the sales teams at car showrooms.Twice I went through the whole thing of ordering to be told right at very end that they couldn’t provide this /that.After good couple of hours spent at each.
Look up leasing, you pay deposit, pay monthly payments and at end give back car, or offer to buy it, but with no balloon payment at end etc.I got worried that if the garages are like this at start, what were they going to be like financially when returning?!

I think leasing is becoming more common, but I couldn't find any information on it until very recently.

Not sure if I’m allowed to say a good website here?
Lings.com
Wild and wacky website- but Been reviewed by lots of financial ppl etc and safe.
You can look up all models/monthly prices/mileage etc.i have used them after the above experience of car showrooms!

The car industry is struggling because the car finance balloon is straining & they are terrified it will pop. The financing model is like a pyramid scheme, it only works if you can convince people to keep purchasing new cars at higher and higher cost every 3 years. Affordability & oversupply become a problem, it becomes impossible to upsell beyond basic models etc.

Meanwhile there are so many excellent condition 2 & 3 year old cars available that you can get a bargain second hand.

We’ve just bought a used car on PCP. Our plan at the end of the period is to give the car back and not have a car any more so it suited us to pay less to borrow.

The salesman at one place was trying to convince me to buy a brand new car with a rebate on our old one which would take 3k off the price. From the salesroom window I could see the same model car a year old with 5k miles on for £8k less. Both available on PCP terms.

Meanwhile there are so many excellent condition 2 & 3 year old cars available that you can get a bargain second hand

And on PCP, it isn't just for new cars.