Buying used car - options to cancel?

[zico]

I've paid a £300 deposit to Car Shop for a car I've seen, but I'm getting cold feet having seen negative reviews of Car Shop.

Can I back out at this stage, and just lose the £300 deposit, or could I be sued if I don't go ahead with the purchase?

I test-drove the car, so "cooling-off" period doesn't apply, but given it's an expensive car (£18k for a BMZ Z4), if I could simply cancel the sale and just lose £300, that would be my preferred option.

I'm due to pick the car up in 2 days time, so just checking if I have any better options.

Just for background, I've got cold feet partly because of the bad reviews, but also because it seems Car Shop only get cars from auction, and I have a suspicion that cars bought/sold at auction are more likely to have some kind of defects. Also, Car Shop have had this car on their books for about 2 months - which is probably because most Car Shop customers are going for cheaper family-type cars, but even so, 2 months is a long time for a high-turnover organisation like Car Shop.

To pre-empt any comments, I do realise I should have taken more time and care before paying the deposit, but my second car has given up the ghost, and my internet searches within a 40-mile radius showed there were very few BMW Z4 hard-tops available. However, casting the net wider gives quite a lot of options.

(Also cross-posting this on Legal board, as it may be more appropriate for there).

[zico]

I now have a new question, because I've checked after checking Car Shop T&C. It seems from reading this below that I'd lose a maximum of my deposit (£300).

My new question is whether it's reasonable to be getting cold feet on this one, or whether I should go ahead anyway.
The deposit fee I'll lose is only around 2% of the purchase price, so it seems worth it to me for peace of mind, but would appreciate any views.

Transfer of Deposit

10. If You do not pay for and take delivery of the Goods within 7 days of notification that the vehicle is
available for delivery, We shall be at liberty to treat the contract as cancelled. If this happens, or if
You cancel the contract for any other reason not permitted by this contract, We will sell the Goods
to another person. We will refund Your deposit but before we do so, We are entitled to recover
from the deposit the additional costs We incur in re selling the vehicle plus any reduction in the sales
price achieved. We will keep the deposit whilst we display and advertise the vehicle as being for sale.

(a) Once We have sold the Goods, We will notify You within 7 days as to how much We have lost
as a result of having to re sell. If this amount is less than Your deposit, then We will refund the
balance of Your deposit with the notification. We will only ever claim an amount up to the total
of the deposit. We will include a statement showing Our calculation of our costs.

(b) We reserve the right to make a reasonable daily charge for the storage of the Goods.

(c) The deposit can however be transferred by You in full to another vehicle on Your request at any
time within 90 calendar days from the point at which this contract is repudiated.

[monabri]

Do you have the car registration number? I don't know the age of the car but run the reg through this government web site.


https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

[monabri]

Try this site too

https://www.checkcardetails.co.uk


See video at 2:50 to check for free if a car is not Cat C..

https://youtu.be/7hbQ2sPT6xU



If a car is 'Cat C', it means that the vehicle has been involved in a collision, and the damage sustained in the incident would cost more to repair than the current market value of the vehicle, meaning the owner's insurance company would not have paid for the damage to be repaired.

[Lanark]

Two months is not that long, some of the time could have been getting repairs or improvements done to the car.

I would not put too much trust in review sites, used car dealers will always have some level of people with problems. A company with nothing but good reviews is often a sign they paid to have all the bad reviews taken down.

That said you should trust your gut instinct if something feels wrong about the place.

[monabri]

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/tips-advi ... cat-s-cars

Worth a quick read.

[DrFfybes]

AFAIK car Shop are one of the Sytner sub brands, often selling part exes that wouldn't make the cut for their premium dealers. They also sell high end stuff like McLaren and Rolls Royce through their Sytner shops sometimes, despite there being Main Dealer branches for both in the same unbrella.

The reviews will be for the individual dealer, not the car. A dealer that size is bound to have the odd 'dud' through their system, doesn't mean they all are.

Surprised you had a problem finding a Z4 though - very good owners' forum with plenty coming and going through there.

Paul

[zico]

Thanks for replies. I've decided to cancel my purchase from Car Shop.

I've been looking at What Car used car page, and have about 5 prospects within 90 minutes drive from my house.

Paul - following your suggestion I had a quick look at the BMW owners forum, but couldn't see anything about a marketplace, except for 3rd party adverts on the side. Presumably I'm not looking in the right place?

I want a hard-top BMW Z4 convertible, not the more recent soft-tops, so this means cars registered between 2010-2017.
I looked at the BMW approved site, but they only have older diesel Z4s, and no petrol versions at all before 2017.

[DrFfybes]

Paul - following your suggestion I had a quick look at the BMW owners forum, but couldn't see anything about a marketplace, except for 3rd party adverts on the side. Presumably I'm not looking in the right place?

I want a hard-top BMW Z4 convertible, not the more recent soft-tops, so this means cars registered between 2010-2017.
I looked at the BMW approved site, but they only have older diesel Z4s, and no petrol versions at all before 2017.

Diesel Z4???? They never made them

2008-2016 (E89 models) had foldable hardtops , 2004-2008 there was a soft top or a 3L coupe (E86). MrsF has a 2006 3.2 M Coupe, which I keep trying to get her to sell. Check the VED rates os the cars you're looking at, hers is nearly £700 now, which works out about a quid per mile

The newer one (G29) is I think only a softop, something that seems to be overlooked when people say it is identical to the new Supra, which is a hardtop, and available as a manual gearbox. But not at our budget

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=41 is the 'sales' board. There was a 3.5i E89 listed this morning, but you can also ask about cars coming up on there and opinions on ads you've seen. When we were looking I asked about local cars and a couple or owners came forwards offering drives to see how we got on with the car.

The forum also has "price watch" threads with discussions about cars coming on to the market and their history (if any), although tends to be limited to the rarer 'M' models.

Paul

[bungeejumper]

2008-2016 (E89 models) had foldable hardtops , 2004-2008 there was a soft top or a 3L coupe (E86). MrsF has a 2006 3.2 M Coupe, which I keep trying to get her to sell.

Indeed. my daughter had a 2008 soft top Z4, just the two litre version I think. It was fun until the twin motors that operate the ragtop decided to stop, leaving the car in the rain with the top down. Nothing that two thousand quid couldn't fix, though.

Closer inspection revealed that it was a known issue, because BMW had put the electric motors inside a rain channel, where surprise surprise, they got wet. Bit of an oversight really, although there's a fix that moves the motors to somewhere more sensible.

Back to the OP's dilemma. I feel your pain. There's nothing much worse than being uncertain about something you've just agreed to buy. But for what it's worth, my wife's Golf from Car Shop was a straight-down-the-line transaction with no nasty surprises.

But apparently it was Car Shop's usual practice not to service the car until it was ready for collection, so it might not have been done yet. I presume the reason for that must be that the car remains available for other branches of the company to sell right up to the point where the customer signs on the line?

Too late to say this now, but Car Shop and similar superstores don't/didn't haggle on the sticker price. You get the softer price by pushing them really hard on the trade-in value of your existing car. I almost doubled their offer on my wife's elderly Polo. Blimey, said the wife, you're a harder bargainer than I thought.

BJ

[zico]

Thanks for all the general advice. Here's where I'm at now.

Cancelled with Car Shop yesterday, citing unfortunate (and private) reasons for being unable to go ahead. Their response was pretty professional, but I will reserve judgement until I see my refund of £300 deposit (paid by credit card). They said it would be up to 5 working days to go through.

Today the contenders were
1) BMW £13.6k. 10 year old 2.8i M Sport Auto (46,000 miles) Lots of extras (electric adjustable seats, reversing cameras, satnav)
2) BMW £15.5k. 10-year old 2.0 S Drive 20i M Sport Auto (34,000 miles).
3) Mercedes £17.2k. 7-year old SLC (66,000 miles)
(3 more BMW 20 M Sport waiting in the wings if these top 3 didn't suit)

Number 1 looked stylish in grey & red, had plenty of zip, and electric seats, so didn't bother trying contender #2 with extra zip and far fewer extras.
Then off to see the Mercedes which was a bit chromy inside, and just a bit too big.
But hello, that's a very nice looking Porsche Boxster in the showroom with lots of add-ons, and not one, but two boots, for virtually unlimited storage! 7 years old, OK mileage and for a mere £31k which was a lot more reasonable than I expected.

Any potential temptation was averted when Mrs. Zico commented on how she hated rag-tops, how the top would get messy and dirty, and was I really going to clean it every week? Fair enough. Back to reality and common-sense. I can always do a track day in a Porsche sometime.

So back to option 1. Bought it for £5k less than the Car Shop Z4, and with extra useful features like electric adjustable seats, parking sensors, and probably other useful things.
It's 3 years older than the Car Shop Z4, but same mileage, and I reckon mileage is a lot more important than age for cars.

So, my first ever BMW.
Ironically, the main reason we're selling the Merc is because the indicators aren't working reliably, yet we're replacing it with a BMW!