Hi

Is anyone willing to advise, please?

I paid a £750 deposit to Mervyn Stewart in Belfast in September for a new Skoda Octavia, priced under the VAT-FREE deal. Delivery was to be about 6 weeks, but no car.

They have now contacted me and told me that the car won't be available until Feb/March.

Furthermore, the only way they will honour the price is if I pay the remaining £14,000 by 31 December.

In these days of dodgy finance and companies going bust, is seems REALLY dodgy to me to pay almost £15K over to a company MONTHS before I actually get the car.

I have emailed Skoda to clarify whether my contract is with them or the company, but no reply yet.

What do you think guys - is this a dodgy franchised dealer?

I was advised on the MoneySavingsExpert to come here and ask those in the know, but that poster also said the VAT free deal was extending into the new year - if so the dealer has definitely been telling porkies!

Has anyone any advice? My inclination at the minute is to call the whole thing off and demand a refund of my deposit since they have broken the contract (the deposit receipt says "to be registered by 31st December" which is not happening).

All advice welcome - thanks!

That's not on. When I placed my order with Bickertons in Sheffield a couple of weeks ago, I only paid a £200 deposit. They're honouring the price for 1st of March. I'm using the VAT free and 2 years 0% offers together.

Something not right, I wouldn't part with that amount of cash for a Feb delivery date.

I'd be inclined to get my deposit back on the grounds you stated and go elsewhere.

Hi Niki, glad to see you made it over! I've posted a few more follows up on MSE, but it's easier on here to help with the specific Skoda situation without others interrupting/muddying the water on there

As I said over there, I paid a deposit in November, for March delivery and will not incur any increase in price from the VAT increase.

My understanding was that Skoda themselves protect the price from the VAT increase by covering the difference in discount, not the dealer themselves (the VAT deal is part funded by the dealer/part funded by Skoda from what I've been told). You can after all still haggle the price down after the VAT deal as the dealer still has room for negotiation.

I personally wouldn't pay the extra, and would make a strong but politely worded visit to the dealer principle - be reasonable, but firm. I double, and triple checked when I placed my order that I wouldn't be hit by the VAT increase as I couldn't afford to pay any more. Each time I was reassured, it's protected.

Unless of course the dealer Screwed up & forgot to place the order & is trying to hide the fact

Even a factory build car ordered in September would have been a late Dec/early Jan delivery.

Sounds like they have cocked up somewhere. No way would I be stumping up. They are changing the terms of the deal, tell em you will pay the balance on collection as agreed, or you will cancel the order.

Have a look through this thread, post 10 includes the official Skoda UK stance on the VAT deal: http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/147294-merry-xmas-to-menew-vrs-today/page__view__findpost__p__1840620