Just bought a focus from a main ford dealer. Registered May 06, so near enough 1 year old. Was assured it was a company demonstrator.
When I checked the paperwork the service book showed it was serviced Nov 06 with 12K on clock by Ford Direct. It now has 15K.
I was assured it had one previous owner and the use the garage had would not show on the V5 - they aquired it Mar 07 apparantly and it was a Ford direct car.
When I went to pick it up I was given the slip from the bottom of the V5. When I asked to see the whole V5 document to check previous owners etc they said it had already gone back to Swansea via their central admin dept and seemed very suprised I wanted to see it. Their attitude was that they were a ford dealer so they didn't have to worry about showing paperwork i.e. perople just trusted them. He showed me on their computer that it had one previous owner. I made it clear that I wasn't happy and if they hadn't been a ford dealer I'd have been out of the door there and then, and also said if it turned out to have more than one previous owner there would be hell on.
Sure enough the V5 has turned up with 2 previous owners on a car that is a year old - not a great future sellng point.
As well as this I'm now wondering what they were hiding. Is it normal for a main dealer to not show the V5 document in full? I've only ever bought from smaller dealers? Could I be correct in thinking the last owner change in March 07 was to someone who subsequently rejected the car for some reason, and they are hiding his details?
In real terms what is the extra owner worth in terms of losing value on the car if I was to sell it?
Have I been stiched up - anyone in the trade who could help on this?
When I checked the paperwork the service book showed it was serviced Nov 06 with 12K on clock by Ford Direct. It now has 15K.
I was assured it had one previous owner and the use the garage had would not show on the V5 - they aquired it Mar 07 apparantly and it was a Ford direct car.
When I went to pick it up I was given the slip from the bottom of the V5. When I asked to see the whole V5 document to check previous owners etc they said it had already gone back to Swansea via their central admin dept and seemed very suprised I wanted to see it. Their attitude was that they were a ford dealer so they didn't have to worry about showing paperwork i.e. perople just trusted them. He showed me on their computer that it had one previous owner. I made it clear that I wasn't happy and if they hadn't been a ford dealer I'd have been out of the door there and then, and also said if it turned out to have more than one previous owner there would be hell on.
Sure enough the V5 has turned up with 2 previous owners on a car that is a year old - not a great future sellng point.
As well as this I'm now wondering what they were hiding. Is it normal for a main dealer to not show the V5 document in full? I've only ever bought from smaller dealers? Could I be correct in thinking the last owner change in March 07 was to someone who subsequently rejected the car for some reason, and they are hiding his details?
In real terms what is the extra owner worth in terms of losing value on the car if I was to sell it?
Have I been stiched up - anyone in the trade who could help on this?
