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Missold car - Incorrect VED band


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Dear All,

 

I bought a new Skoda Superb Elegance Estate 2.0TDi 140bhp facelift in January 2014 after waiting for the new facelift cars to become available with the lower VED rating from the 119g/m rating.

At the time I was considering buying the car the dealership told me the car was VED band C, and would cost me £30 a year to tax in road fund license - which was a decisive factor in my purchase.

 

So after spending a year telling everyone I knew how pleased I was that the road tax renewal would only be £30 a year, I was a little surprised to find my DVLA renewal showed the car to be in the next band as they claimed it was 121g/m and a bill for £110.

 

I contacted my dealership who were confident that the DVLA had made a mistake and left it with them to sort out.

 

After three weeks they have now contacted me to tell me the bad news that the car is indeed 121g/m and not as it was described when I bought it.

 

 

I am quite annoyed that I was sold a car told it was VED band C, and given a sales brochure that gives the same information only to be told that the car is not as stated.

Currently the road fund license increases from £30 to £110 from band C to D, so a hike of 366% or £80 a year.

 

My dealership has offered to pay £200 as an offer of goodwill, but I have currently declined this as clearly this mistake is going to be an ongoing additional cost across the life of the car. I also think that this adversely affects the value of my car if I was to sell it anytime in the future.

 

I thought I would check if anyone else has had the same problem and how it was fairly resolved.

 

Any advice as to how I escalate this to include Skoda UK would be helpful, as I can't believe they can mislead customers like this and take no action.

 

Thanks

Andrew

 

 

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Did you ever check the paperwork with the car? It would have said this on the log book.

 

If my decision on whether to buy a car or not hung so heavily on the emissions/tax cost I would have asked to see proof of the emissions and gone away and checked myself how much it would cost.

 

I think they are being pretty generous with their offer.

 

Phil

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Each individual car has its own emissions rating. The figures in the brochure are for the base car, so if you then add spare wheel and other extras then the extra weight can push the car into the next tax bracket.

 

You could have checked the tax bracket yourself in less than 5 mins on the DVLA website

 

https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax

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"...the dealership told me the car was VED band C..."

 

I agree with Phil and Mannyo. To be frank, a conversation is not worth the paper its written on and if you purchased the car on the strength of this, then If I were you, I'd take their £200 and run.....

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So we're talking about you buying a £20k+ car brand new, and now taking issue with paying an extra £80 per year (£1.54 per week) car tax, and the dealer has offered you £200 as a gesture of good will

Just trying to get that straight in my head

If it's as big an issue as you make out, and you made it clear to the dealer that that was the main reason for buying it, and you were looking at a current model brochure, then go for the jugular and write to Skoda for selling under false pretences....

....IF it really is that big an issue

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Not sure how long you plan to keep it, but 3-5 years is normal. Ask them to cover the difference of the VED costs over this period.

I doubt you'll get 5 years, but maybe an extra year or 2.

If they won't give you the extra in hard cash, ask for a free service. It doesn't cost them as much, but has the full value to you :)

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I know someone else who had this problem. The dealer (Renault) is refunding them the difference each year for as long as they have the car.

Wonder how long they would actually honour that!

Can imagine going in after 20-30 years asking for the cheque for this years VED, especially if CO2 emissions are continually reduced and todays VED bands are priced like 1985 cars are now. The difference would be quite significant.

Edited by 999pooch
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Just to clarify - the Skoda dealership advertised the car in writing as being £30 tax band - and acknowledge they were mislead by Skoda.

Apparently Skoda have confirmed that the first few facelift cars were not as per the brochure - but slightly later VINS are indeed 119g/m as advertised

 

I don't think it is being unreasonable that I don't expect to pay extra each year for a mistake I did not make.

I expressly waited for the facelift version to become available for the lower VED rating.

 

I was posting this in case anyone else had had the same problem, not to gauge how happy others would be to accept the mistake. 

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Might be an interesting contractual issue

The dealer has sold you the car, not Skoda

The dealer has not, on the face of it, knowingly misled you

Edited by Brimma
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Just to clarify - the Skoda dealership advertised the car in writing as being £30 tax band - and acknowledge they were mislead by Skoda.

Apparently Skoda have confirmed that the first few facelift cars were not as per the brochure - but slightly later VINS are indeed 119g/m as advertised

 

I don't think it is being unreasonable that I don't expect to pay extra each year for a mistake I did not make.

I expressly waited for the facelift version to become available for the lower VED rating.

 

I was posting this in case anyone else had had the same problem, not to gauge how happy others would be to accept the mistake. 

 

E&OE.... We reserve the right to change specification without notice, etc. etc. blah, blah, blah...

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Andrew, I agree with you! On the face of it, you were clearly mis-sold the car (albeit unintentionally). But, as for next steps, you really need to speak to your local CAB and / or Trading Standards to see what your options are / whether they would take a case on your behalf. I'd imagine that, as there was no deliberate attempt to mislead you, the outcome will only ever be financial recompense of some description. I doubt they're going to give you a new car, though they might be open to a favourable (discounted) trade-in against a new model that is in the correct VED.

 

As an opening offer, the dealership's £200 isn't that bad. However, you need to calculate what the mistake means to you in monetary terms (ongoing extra road tax, resale value etc.). It's only when you work out  how long you intend keeping the car and what you intend doing with it when you no longer need it yourself that you can figure out what you need to demand from the dealership.

 

And if you find more people on here in the same boat as you, the stronger any case you subsequently take against Skoda / the dealership will be. Don't get annoyed with all the people telling you that you're wrong or delusional!

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People really seem to worry about the tax bracket of cars, and in fact many scrap cars and spend thousands on new ones that will cost a whole £80 a year less to tax. £30 a year tax = £2.50 a month, £110 a year is £10 a month, so for £7.50 saving you will send a new car back. Crazy, especially now you can pay monthly, its hardly significant.

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At the risk of repeating myself, SUK will argue E&OE.... We reserve the right to change specification without notice, etc. etc. blah, blah, blah.

 

There was a typo, change of spec, upgrade of this, downgrade of that, or a typo. It was a mistake and if it really was so important, you should've double-checked via the SUK website or DVLA before you purchased a £20k car.  Its £80 a year.... a year!!! An indian or chinese takeaway for four is circa £60 so I'd take the 30 months compensation they've offered and buy a few takeaways.

 

Build a bridge and get over it... life is too short!

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Id take the £200 , I reckon road tax on diesel cars is going to soar in the next few years anyhow

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I have to agree with those who suggest you take the £200.

As suggested the "Errors & Omissions Excepted" is a let out for the dealer.

I'm sorry it's not what you really want to hear but at least the dealer has offered something as a gesture. (No doubt "without prejudice").

It obviously has left a sour taste so why not buy a nice bottle of malt!.......

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Dear All,

 

I bought a new Skoda Superb Elegance Estate 2.0TDi 140bhp facelift in January 2014 after waiting for the new facelift cars to become available with the lower VED rating from the 119g/m rating.

At the time I was considering buying the car the dealership told me the car was VED band C, and would cost me £30 a year to tax in road fund license - which was a decisive factor in my purchase.

 

So after spending a year telling everyone I knew how pleased I was that the road tax renewal would only be £30 a year, I was a little surprised to find my DVLA renewal showed the car to be in the next band as they claimed it was 121g/m and a bill for £110.

 

I contacted my dealership who were confident that the DVLA had made a mistake and left it with them to sort out.

 

After three weeks they have now contacted me to tell me the bad news that the car is indeed 121g/m and not as it was described when I bought it.

 

I would be really peeved if this happened to me. Nevertheless, I really think the best you can hope for is to maximise the goodwill gestures from the dealer and not let it spoil your enjoyment of the car. As a buyer some responsibility lay with you to check out the emissions/VED band although I know it is becoming increasingly complicated.

Good luck anyway.

 

I am quite annoyed that I was sold a car told it was VED band C, and given a sales brochure that gives the same information only to be told that the car is not as stated.

Currently the road fund license increases from £30 to £110 from band C to D, so a hike of 366% or £80 a year.

 

My dealership has offered to pay £200 as an offer of goodwill, but I have currently declined this as clearly this mistake is going to be an ongoing additional cost across the life of the car. I also think that this adversely affects the value of my car if I was to sell it anytime in the future.

 

I thought I would check if anyone else has had the same problem and how it was fairly resolved.

 

Any advice as to how I escalate this to include Skoda UK would be helpful, as I can't believe they can mislead customers like this and take no action.

 

Thanks

Andrew

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I'm pretty sure the only £30 tax is on the 140bhp 2wd hatch. The estate and 170bhp ones all move up at least one band.

Not so - both the Skoda 1/14 brochure and the current Skoda website show the 140bhp Manual Estate as 119g/km.

As here http://www.skoda.co.uk/models/new-superb-estate/performance

Also a number of dealers ( mine included ) are advertising identical specification used cars with £30 / year road tax.

 

I have taken note of the registration a number of similar cars advertised and if you put them into the DVLA website they are all shown as 119g/km. It appears mine is one of a small number that is not as advertised.

 

So to keep this thread sensible, I would be interested to hear from anyone else who may have the same problem on an early facelift car, and if so what their story is.

 

Please don't post responses telling me that I can afford to pay for the mistake or that you would be happy to accept the mistake - in my mind there is a principle at stake here and it may be about to affect other owners who are unaware of the issue and in a similar position to me.

 

Thanks to everyone who have posted helpful comments to date. In the case of the Renault dealership it sounds like they have done the only fair thing as only time will tell what the additional cost incurred will be.

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I think it is a massive deal. Not the value but that you cant even trust what the dealer tells you on such a basic level.

I wouldn't have thought of checking this if it were me. You might as well say you should check its still am if they say good morning.

 

Shocking how many are able to accept this so calmly.

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I think it is a massive deal. Not the value but that you cant even trust what the dealer tells you on such a basic level.

I wouldn't have thought of checking this if it were me. You might as well say you should check its still am if they say good morning.

Shocking how many are able to accept this so calmly.

It's often not a question of trusting the 'dealer', but trusting the salesman

If anyone these days trusts the salesman they're either very brave or very stupid

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In the case of the Renault it was the tax band they bought it as at the time, no deception or errors on the salesman's part. It was then revised (due to an invalidated test of that model, I believe) and the dealer sent them the letter with an apology and their proposed compensation. My friend didn't even know about the change until that point, as it was within the first year.

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