Cheaper – just – and available now rather than in 12 months’ time: it’s no wonder that more people are buying used cars rather than new ones.
However, concerns are growing over just how carefully used cars are inspected and presented by dealers.
The Motor Ombudsman, a dispute-resolution body that mediates between motor-trade businesses and their customers, has said that in 2021, 9% of the used cars that it ruled on breached its sales code regarding vehicle presentation. This compares with 6% the year before.
Breaches that it noted included accredited businesses failing to record or rectify a vehicle’s faults discovered during its pre-sales inspection.
Its report follows an item broadcast in April by Watchdog, the BBC consumer affairs show, concerning three people who had bought used cars from Cazoo, a major online retailer. These had suffered a variety of faults, including a broken gearbox mounting, a serious handling issue and water leaks. The problems had occurred even though Cazoo claims to check up to 300 items on every car before offering it for sale.
Although the customers who featured in the Watchdog item were happy with how Cazoo resolved their complaints, they were concerned that the company was unable to show them their vehicles’ prepurchase inspection reports, leading the programme to question the value of Cazoo’s inspections.
Autocar asked Cazoo why it doesn’t make its pre-purchase inspection reports available to its customers. A spokesman replied: “While these results are recorded, they aren’t currently collated into a consumer-facing document, as they’re being produced using several different reporting systems. Cazoo is considering what further steps it may take to provide assurances that the 300-point inspection has been completed.”
Ian Ferguson, a consumer advocate and managing director of independent consumer redress service Reject My Car, claims the experience of Cazoo’s customers is typical of many people buying used cars that have, their sellers claim, been the subject of exhaustive, multi-point checks.
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The brakes are making a horrid noise and are dangerously worn.
The brakes were flagged up in the previous MOT, but conveniently the Suzuki garage seemed to miss this problem with it's pre delivery MOT and multi point checks.
I have contacted the garage, but they keep ignoring my emails.
I tried to find a contact for the Suzuki approved uses scheme, but there seems to be no official contact.
Where do I go from here, the Motoring Ombudsman?
Do not believe the marketing with these schemes, you would probably get better service and honesty from a back street Arthur Daley dealer!
Two things, why or why would anyone spend 10k plus on a secondhand car they've never seen in the flesh, it's like driving past a used car forecourt and saying that 15k BMW looked good I'll transfer the money when I get home. Secondly, does this article imply the ombudsman rule in favour of the dealer 91 percent of the time.
At the end of the day anyone buying a secondhand car over the internet gets what they deserve.
I have bought two cars from Garage Web sites , first car I never saw till I went to look at it, for the time I had it the car never let me down, the second car I had a video walk round, showing the bodywork and wheel condition an interior look , engine switched on and verified mileage on dashboard,I liked it so, I took the hours drive to view in person to confirm what I seen, took it for a test drive where I wanted to drive it, it was ok, everything worked, so, I did the deal and this car was fine too, s, I guess it's just your luck really, if you don't know what to check when you view a car, then, you might have an issue, and, if a garage signs up to this scheme, what pressures are put on them regards extra costs to provide cars that are sold like this?
If what you say is true and the ombudsman rules in favour of the dealer 91% of the time, then buying an unseen car over the internet is much safer as you're covered by the distance selling act.
And having read many a tale on forums, I'm surprised the ruling is not in favour of the garage more as the majority of stories I read is where the car buyer has unrealistic expectations. By the way, an ombudsman's only role is to arbitrate between both parties in the hope of reaching an amicable solution, they're not the law. It's your legal rights which matter and the fact is you have extra rights buying over the phone than buying in person.