Soldato
Remember my dad buying a car without seeing it from across the country and having it delivered to him. Didn't end well. Brakes were knackered and he was lucky it didn't kill him. No way I'd ever buy a used car without a test drive.
so when it arrived, did you not look it over ?
did you sign to say "unchecked" or anything ?
if you call them, and tell them the wheel (or wheels) are kerbed they might give you some money back
I'd have said yes (I bought a 17 year old car from Japan in 2018 without any issue) however I've had a close escape today and a lesson learnt.
Went to pick up a December '19 car with 2600 miles on it this morning. A main dealer approved car with under 3k miles on the clock should be spot on, right?
WRONG
After a 100 mile drive down to the dealership I get there, look over the car, looks fine, notice some scratches on the N/S piano black trim which wasn't great. Initial alarm bell. Yeah, I can polish that out and there is not a mark otherwise from my brief walkaround. Do the documents, get the keys and sales bloke disappears for something or another. Interior spot on, no issues, but notice a bit of condensation at the top of the passenger window, and the door rubber isn't aligned. Neither is the door - its dropped by about 3mm and the bottom rubber looks to be catching on the side skirt. Big alarm bells. Salesman comes back, I say 'we've got a big problem here' point it out, so he takes it into the workshop. They say it needs a body shop to sort. On further looking, bumper to wing is fine, but wing to bonnet is slightly out compared to the O/S, so my head is now telling me O/S minor accident damage.
I walked away - annoyed at now being £50 out of pocket for fuel/M6 toll, potentially one month loss on new car tax, 6 hours of my weekend wasted and now have the messing about with not having ownership, tax or usage of my family car until sorted. At least insurance was instantly sorted online...
Very disappointed in myself naïvely expecting better from a main dealer in this day and age.
I've chickened out and ordered a pre registered car that I wanted originally but took sometime to find at a price and spec I was happy with.
You should be OK with a pre-reg but don't guarantee it means there won't be any issues with it. My pre-reg Leon (10 miles on the clock) had;
5 bird poop etchings
4 noticeable scratches
A down to the primer scuff mark on the rear tailgate (looked like something had been rubbing against it for some time)
Small dent in the rear bumper
Interior scratch on the handbrake button
Broken load cover clip (a PITA as the whole side of the boot trim has to come off)
Swirled paint all over
It was a work car and I wasn't going to get anything better with my £15k budget from my employer in the timeframe I had but I'd have been gutted getting it if it was a personal car, especially after the ridiculous number of times the salesman had to mention that it was a "new car".
^^^ didn't need a test drive to spot that though
Seriously though that's very unfortunate, you'd expect better from a main dealer.
Yeah, I'm going to collect it and finalise payment on collection so at I least get to take a look at it before I sign everything, Still has all the protective wrapping on at the moment so heres hoping.
I've had similar experience from a main dealer. It doesn't surprise me.Very disappointed in myself naïvely expecting better from a main dealer in this day and age.