Urgent Help

[TimCullen7]

 

Hi all, i'm after a bit of advice....

I ordered a new Kodiaq Sportline in June, with a view to a November Delivery. Great.

November rolls around and still no sign of the car... still being built. 

However, a car with the exact same spec appears at the dealer, still with protective wraps as it would if it had just come off the trailer. Great, this must be mine. I pop in and ask and i'm told, no that's not yours, it's a demonstrator. Fair enough. 

A few more weeks roll on after weekly calls to check status, I'm now told January. I tell them that if the car isn't here in Jan, i'll have to cancel the order as I need it. Yesterday, as if by magic, i get a phone call saying the car has just landed at the dealers and to come in to sign the paper work. 

So, i went in this morning, to find my 'NEW' car, fully stickered up with Skoda's marketing/sales stuff, dirt on the wheels, no protective wraps and in a prime spot on the forecourt next to a main road. Hmmmm. alarm bells. 

Now i'm an easy going guy, but i can't hep think they've had my car for weeks using it for marketing purposes rather than handing it over. 

Any thoughts on this. Why is my new car covered in stickers and on a sales forecourt?

Any advice on how to go forward would be greatly appreciated. Luckily, the computer systems were down, so nothing has been signed yet, 
Thanks

[DaveLees]

Have you got photos of it in its stickered up condition, and what mileage is on it now? 

Edited 5 January, 2019 by DaveLees

[TimCullen7]

No, not yet... should i? I'm going down again later to have it out with them. I do have a photo of the original car, which i think was mine back in November with the protective wraps on.

[TimCullen7]

I didn't check the mileage as the sales guy knew i was onto him and rushed me back inside. 

[DaveLees]

Has it been registered yet? And yes I would get photos asap before they remove them. If your car has just landed at the dealership I would ask to see some evidence of this, if everything is legit the dealer should have no problems doing this.

[TimCullen7]

I'm not sure if it's been registered, it would be registered to them anyway as it's Contract Hire. 

[DaveLees]

In that case ask them when it was first registered. I appreciate that they will not hold the V5, but they should still be able to tell you when it was registered. Or, if you get the VRM I'm sure that it can be entered into some search engine on the internet to see when it was registered.

Which dealer is it, has it appeared on any of their adverts?

[TimCullen7]

Bristol Street Motors in Derby. I had quick search and i can't find it listed anywhere.

[edbostan]

The mileage would be the giveaway. My new Roomster  had 7 miles on the clock

[xman]

Check the reg no on https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk

 

It will show when it was first registered.

[FluffyEyeball]

They shouldn't be putting their advertising stickers on your new car at all, except maybe a reg tag with the company on and possibly a small sticker or two on the rear windscreen. If they've stickered the paintwork then it's almost certainly their demo that they're trying to pass as yours. As people have said check the mileage and when it was registered. If it is their demo and is exactly the same spec you could consider taking it anyway but for a significant discount?

Edited 6 January, 2019 by FluffyEyeball

[xman]

22 hours ago, edbostan said:

The mileage would be the giveaway. My new Roomster  had 7 miles on the clock

Except on a new car, they can reset mileage, iirc it is possible to reset the odometer a maximum of 2 times provided it hasn't exceeded something like 100km/62 miles.

[Db87]

Having previously spent 2 years with a sales team at a Skoda main dealer i can tell you that the dealership will have known within a 2 weekish window of when your new car would have arriaved from the docks at grimsby. But they dont know foreshore until it turns up on the forecourt. Their has been alot of problems with time delays on all Skodas recently down to the new testing regulations. They are not allowed to use a car that has been ordered and taged to a customer as a demo car to any one. The mileage should be under 10 miles, so if its over it could be a tell tale of usage. But it could have been taken to the petrol station for fuel as they are delivered in fumes. It wont need to be registered to be driven on the road they could have thrown on trade plates. Look at the mileage if its over 10 be suspicious 

[DaveLees]

TimCullen7 - any update?

[TimCullen7]

Hi chaps, so a bit of an update. 

I went into the dealership again on Saturday afternoon, luckily my useless salesman was out on a test drive, so I asked to speak to the manager. 

I calmly laid everything out to him and asked him to prove otherwise. 

Firstly he apologised and said he understood it doesn’t look great and he’ll get to the bottom of what’s happened. He said the company that come and sticker the cars turned up on Friday and did a load, including mine in genuine error. Again, he apologised and agreed it wasn’t nice to see a load of stickers on my brand new car. He said he would give it the full works and add a complimentary paint protection/diamondbrite treatment as way of apology (£200, worth he reckons). 

Secondly, he dug out the import paperwork and went through it all. The car actually arrived with them on the 28th Dec and has been sitting around until now due to new year and staff holidays. It only has 9 miles on it from them bringing it from the depot (a field, hence the mud) up the road where the cars get dropped off. 

So, I think fair enough. He proved where it had been and what had happened, with the stickers, annoyingly just a f*ck up on their part. The sales guy I had been dealing with was just useless. Once they have your order, they don’t really care! 

So I think i’m happy now. I agreed to take it on the condition that the paintwork is top notch after the stickers have been removed.

I'm expected to go and sign today, but i'm inclined, when they do actually phone, to tell them i'll only come in and sign once it's looking as it should. 

Thanks for all your replies and comments, really appreciate it. Will post more when I pick it up next week! 

 

Edited 7 January, 2019 by TimCullen7

[DaveLees]

That's good news in the end. I agree that you should not sign until the work has been done to your satisfaction. I would ask for something in writing from the company outlining what was discussed/agreed in your meeting with the manager.

[banda]

Also consider that since this is a contract hire, the car is not actually yours and you'll be giving it back after your lease term -  so from my point of view I think I'm a bit more inclined to believe the dealer in this instance.

 

Good idea to ensure the handover condition is correct though since you'll be responsible for handing it back in good condition...