Masking car error before trade-in
- Thread starter stoofa
- Start date
Not sure about this, he us just clearing the fault for the time being...if however he had removed the lamp or masked over to hide it that's another story as that would be misrepresentation i would imagine.
I thought that too ... and, if you then signed something during the sale to say everythings OK ....
not a golden reference but ....
Caporegime
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By clearing the fault he's removing evidence of an issue with the car.
That light is coming on to notify anyone who gets into the driver seat there is something wrong.
By clearing it he's basically stopping the person buying from being notified that something is wrong.
It would be similar to me selling you a Xbox 360 with red ring of death. But before you come round to pick it up i do the wrap in a towel hairdryer trick to stop the error code from showing up. ItsI a temp fix could last 1 hour or 1 month but it will show up but by then its too late.
He's selling a faulty product and not openly declaring he knows there is something wrong with it.
Put it this way. Answer this question. Why is he clearing the code?
Because his car would be worth a lot less. Why would it be worth less? Because it has a fault. HesH removing evidence of the fault and keeping quiet a about it.
It's fraud.
Almost all manufacturers using their own proper diagnostic machines, can go into sub levels of the system and find logs and details of past errors, or any logs/details of re-flashing that have occured, and any other "tinkering" that has been done to the ECU,.
These logs do not get shown by the primary level diagnostics, and cannot be cleared at all, unless of course you fry the whole chip
However very rarely are those machines available to dealers let alone the public.
Would only ever be discovered if the vehicle was ever checked by a manufacturers main technical center, for any reason.
It does on my ST220. Forscan will display a P1000 error code which my £12 reader can pick up.
It is quite possible I'll be given a "standard" trade-in offer for my car - car in question is a 2011 Petrol Octy vRS with nearly 103k miles on the clock. It was well kitted out - Xenons, Leather seats, Sat-Nav, etc - but fully appreciate those don't up the value on a vehicle of this age.
I'm hoping to get somewhere between £5k - £6k for it against a new to me car (top end budget of around £18k, so the actual amount I'm offered is important to me).
With error lights, once I've found the code, I tend to clear them anyway to see if they re-occur - it wouldn't be the first time I'd cleared something for it to never reappear.
It's just from reading, this fault could well require a new intake manifold - which would cost me somewhere in the region of £700 to replace, but a dealer I'm sure could get it done for half that.
It maybe a moot point, if it gets to the point where the light is constantly coming back after its cleared then I'll have no choice - hopefully they would see the amount I was wanting to spend and hope they would be sensible on the deductions.
I'm hoping to get somewhere between £5k - £6k for it against a new to me car (top end budget of around £18k, so the actual amount I'm offered is important to me).
With error lights, once I've found the code, I tend to clear them anyway to see if they re-occur - it wouldn't be the first time I'd cleared something for it to never reappear.
It's just from reading, this fault could well require a new intake manifold - which would cost me somewhere in the region of £700 to replace, but a dealer I'm sure could get it done for half that.
It maybe a moot point, if it gets to the point where the light is constantly coming back after its cleared then I'll have no choice - hopefully they would see the amount I was wanting to spend and hope they would be sensible on the deductions.
I did this when my Renault Clio's electronic steering rack developed a fault. Was going to cost half the cars value to fix and it also needed a new clutch, so traded it in for a newer car. The day before my mechanic cleared the codes and I just hoped it was fine when I handed it over. Sales man didnt drive it just turned it on and said good no issues.
That was in 2006 and the dealer just put it into auction.
That was in 2006 and the dealer just put it into auction.
Caporegime
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Second hand cars?
Well it will depend on the cars value. Probably £250 to 500 on stuff below £5k. However they could easily make £2k on cars £20k+.
The problem is people who don't run business but are employees never take into account running costs of a business. Rates, rent, utilities, advertising, staff's wages.
For them it will be he buys the car from me for £2.5k and sold it for £3.5k so that means he made £1k. No he probably only made around £250-£500 after costs.
Only people who have ran their own business can usually appreciate these things. Normal customers won't have a clue.
Soldato
Irrespective of the dealers costs/profits etc. My concern is that these 'masked' issues just get passed on to the next poor unsuspecting owner.
We've all been there, many manage to go back to the dealers and argue for a fix, but many of us take it on the chin and have to fix it ourselves.
My point, if you moralise the act of hiding a fault by thinking 'och the dealer makes money anyway, they can afford to fix it...' don't be surprised the next time your 2nd hand purchase has you sitting in a layby waiting for the AA
We've all been there, many manage to go back to the dealers and argue for a fix, but many of us take it on the chin and have to fix it ourselves.
My point, if you moralise the act of hiding a fault by thinking 'och the dealer makes money anyway, they can afford to fix it...' don't be surprised the next time your 2nd hand purchase has you sitting in a layby waiting for the AA
Man of Honour
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Webuyanycar bought my wife's car without checking it ran, just a few quid off for a few scratches. What they didn't know was that the head gasket had gone and the oil and water were mixing and it barely even got there. Meh. I can live with myself.
Man of Honour
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No one asked. They seemed happy. Win win 
We buy any car own BCA car auctions they buy from you and stick the through the auctions for dealers to buy. They really aren't that bothered. They get paid if the car makes more than they paid and they make from the auction costs AND it means a lot more cars going through their sites..Its win win for WBAC and BCA
If you're trading in a 7 year old, 100k mile car to a new car dealer it'll be across the auction pad within a couple of weeks. That makes it not your problem and no longer the dealers problem either. If it was to a used car dealer who would be looking to sell it, well that's the cost of doing business as a used car dealer.
As a private seller I'm under no obligation to inform anyone of any faults with the car I'm selling, however I cannot lie about it if I'm asked. If the garage didn't ask about any faults, he's done nothing wrong. If they asked if there was anything wrong with it, and he said no, then he has.
Ask the man in the street and they'd consider it highway robbery if a dealer made £1k on a used car, but many dealers make more than that. That's business!
Soldato
That's the reason they offer such low prices. They have to account for the fact that a certain number will be lemons.