Guess what: unless you buy a used car from your mum, you’ll have no idea how it has been driven before you bought it.
This apparently shocking development prompted two complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which confirmed that two cars, sold by dealership Glyn Hopkin of Essex, were not sold as advertised, using an advertisement template supplied by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
Actually, the two cars were entirely as advertised, but were also as not-advertised, having been used as fleet or company vehicles yet with neither FCA nor the dealer making it totally clear in the ads that this was the case.
But of course it was the case. The UK new car market is only 2.5 million cars a year, yet a million people in the UK drive a new company car. And because private buyers don’t want to stomach the depreciation of a new car, countless hundreds of thousands more discounted new cars filter onto various fleets throughout the land, essentially to support the used car market. So the vast majority of nearly new cars are former fleet cars. I know this. You know this. Everyone buying a nearly new car knows this.
Even our complainant (singular, weirdly, having bought two Alfa Alfa Romeo Giuliettas, of around 10,000 and 20,000 miles respectively) admitted knowing this, but then objected to the fact that the cars in question might have been used – I don’t know – as cars anyway. Perhaps, even – gasp! – by more than one person.
And that, essentially, seems to be the nub of the argument. They didn’t know that bit. You’d think the fact there was a company name on the ‘registered keeper’ section of the V5C, rather than ‘Mrs Miggins, 42 Careful Lane’, would have implied it, but it seems not. They weren’t entirely the ‘one-owner’ cars they also, incidentally, were absolutely not in any way advertised as either.
Anyway, the ASA upheld elements of what seems to me like a spurious claim and reports now suggest that this could [slaps forehead] lead to – guess what? – compensation claims! Of course it could, because 2018 is seemingly no less dismal than 2017, and because it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to discover that somebody stands to make a percentage out of any claim. I’m usually on the consumer’s side in things like this. But if somebody tries to claim compensation for buying a car that is obviously what the V5C says it was, I hope a large dealer group or car maker or industry organisation goes hell-for-leather to defend it, and I hope the action fails spectacularly.
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Whilst appreciating...
...that a 6 - 12 month old car might well have been a fleet vehicle, it's not too much to expect full disclosure from a vendor. Not all prospective buyers read auto-journals, after all.
Number of drivers
Invariably a 6-12 month old car will have been part of some sort of fleet. My Civic was an ex Honda company car, even had the driver's details on the V5. You're not going to find many year old one private owner cars. However, I would avoid any car that has had multiple different drivers as they are likely to have put more wear and tear on the car. Definitely avoid ex hire cars and dealer demonstrators are another I'll avoid as not only will many people have driven it, it's unlikely to have been run in carefully and every salesman I have ever been on a test drive with seemed determined to show me the limits of the car.
You'd have to be totally daft ...
Not to realise that cars like this have been on FCA's fleet. Actually, asking a simple question to the Sales person should be enough. We bought a 16 reg 500 from a Glyn Hopkin dealer over the summer and the guy was completely open about it (I had guessed but wanted to put him on the spot to learn more). You go into these things with your eyes open, especially when large amounts of money are involved. We are creating a zero-personal accountability culture alongside one which entitles everyone to put the responsibility onto others. It's consumer power gone nuts in my view and absolves people from developing common sense.