John R Smith said:

Beast

it needs looking into for two reasons -

• You, as the trader, have my money sitting in your account for the six to twelve weeks (or longer) it takes to get the car. You are earning interest on it, while I am not.
• If your company becomes insolvent within this period, I lose all of my money and have no redress.

In other fields, this does not apply - house purchase deposits, for example, are refundable up to the point where contracts are exchanged. Once contracts are exchanged, the vendor must complete the sale and hand me my property. With cars, at the top end of the market, we are dealing with items which are as expensive as houses. It amazes me that there are not more robust procedures in place to protect both buyer and the dealership.

By the way, I used to be in the motor trade myself, so I have seen this from both sides of the fence.

John

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Thats all well and good. But still doesn't answer why they should order thousands of pounds worth of car without any sign of commitment from a customer. Especially with a car like the 500 where specced options specific to the person placing the order can mean a car is much harder to sell to someone else.

The company I work for in general asks for a deposit before ordering any car but it is not a requirement. However I will always refuse to take an order without a commitment to buying the car in the form of a deposit, because there is no way in hell I'm ordering a car worth worth say £11,000 for when it is delivered to the garage for the customer to then say they will just cancel. Which for some reason seems to happen much less when a customer has already put money down on the car.

totally agree with you beast, if a customer wants the dealer to order a car he should show the same commitment by putting down a deposit.

The buyer's security is best provided by paying the deposit by credit card, with the guarantee this implies. Many of us know that, but not all.

However, business transactions depend on good faith, without which commerce ceases, and XIIX paid in good faith and has been let down badly. £500 is a lot of money for many people, me included, and I would be raging too.

I can only recommend a good lawyer to get the best advice; but there are crap lawyers too.
Life!

The simple truth is that (a) a dealer who is stuck with a vehicle ordered by a customer who has refused to complete the purchase will in all probability be able to find another purchaser for the vehicle with little (if any) net loss on the deal; (b) the dealer is more likely to be in a financial position to absorb any loss incurred as a result of a customer defaulting on a purchase; (c) in any event the dealer will be able to sue the defaulting purchaser for any loss in an action for breach of contract (having first done its best to reduce its losses by looking for an alternative buyer for the vehicle).

In contrast, a buyer who has paid a substantial deposit to a dealer that goes bust will have to take his/her place in the (probably very lengthy) queue of creditors, and as an unsecured creditor will find him/herself well down that queue.

John's advice to buyers is spot on. Pay the deposit by credit card if you have to - or better still take your business to another dealer who doesn't insist on a large deposit up front. There's a market out there - someone will want your business!

Unless and until the manufacturers are prepared to guarantee the deposits of buyers in the event of bankruptcy on the part of their dealers (which will happen when hell freezes over), buyers will always be at risk in the event of a business failure.

And to those sellers who moan about how hard-done-by they are - get over it! Too many of us have been turned over too many times by dealers to have any sympathy.

That absolutely guttering I would be devastated.

Ive noted whilst being on the official fiat website (www.fiat.co.uk) that they have a big forum on there that a lot of people use. Ive noticed that alot of people have said they have had personal emails from fiat.co.uk in response to the threads they have posted regarding order times, moans etc.

I suggest putting a post on their forum regarding your experience of ordering a 500. I dont think your scenario is really fiat's fault, but if you share your experience on there with potential buyers, they may start to help you out as im sure they wont like you sharing your bad expirience with others.

It may help, it may not but it might be worth a shot.

Keep us all posted with how you get on and hope you get it sorted.

Quite!

Something similar happened to me, the fiat I payed my deposit on, was sold... TWICE, on two separate occasions !!! By the same dealership... it resolved itself in the end, in fact I got a new 5dr Grande Punto for the price of a 3dr I just badgered the dealership... also take legal advice (like that offered on page 1, from the amazingly kind Barrister...)

hey guys, thanks for all your support..
as you can guess, i am totally bummed, i dnt mind the £500 loss anymore, just the fact i wasted three exciting months of waiting for a car that may never show up.
i will of course update you all with any progress i make.
also yes, the really kind barrister is awesome i know

anyway i wrote a poem;

Soon its my birthday,
I don't have my car.

ok, so it doesn't have to rhyme

X11X I really do feel for you it's an awful situation and £500 is a lot of money to lose, but it's the time you have waited with excitement about the car and now it's taken away I really sympathise with you I hope you can get something sorted out keep smiling

Socrates said:

Nebrog is right about going ahead and paying the other £500 to get your car and about solicitors' costs but I offer my services for free if you need help. I am a qualified Barrister and despite the many, often justified, stereotypes about lawyers we're not all money grabbing leeches and I'd work on a free (or pro bono) basis to help out a fellow 500 buyer.

As I indicated earlier, as long as the credit card payment applies then I think you have a decent chance of getting your money, if not it obviously depends on the circumstances but I think it's worth a try considering the amount involved.

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I salute you for your most gracious offer to XIIX

gar074 said:

The simple truth is that (a) a dealer who is stuck with a vehicle ordered by a customer who has refused to complete the purchase will in all probability be able to find another purchaser for the vehicle with little (if any) net loss on the deal;

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But why should any business expose itself to a vulnerability like this when it has an obvious option to help protect itself from it?

gar074 said:

(b) the dealer is more likely to be in a financial position to absorb any loss incurred as a result of a customer defaulting on a purchase;

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Not in this instance obviously.
However in the majority of dealerships the loss will be absorb with little issue. But then its hardly good business to accept losses so lightly without trying to stop it happening so often, or even all together.

gar074 said:

(c) in any event the dealer will be able to sue the defaulting purchaser for any loss in an action for breach of contract (having first done its best to reduce its losses by looking for an alternative buyer for the vehicle).

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And then await the bad press from "trying to force a car on someone who didn't want it.".

gar074 said:

In contrast, a buyer who has paid a substantial deposit to a dealer that goes bust will have to take his/her place in the (probably very lengthy) queue of creditors, and as an unsecured creditor will find him/herself well down that queue.

John's advice to buyers is spot on. Pay the deposit by credit card if you have to - or better still take your business to another dealer who doesn't insist on a large deposit up front. There's a market out there - someone will want your business!

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There are dealer groups surviving purely on turnover in their bank accounts these are the ones that if go bust will cause the most hassle getting anything back from. This is more likely if a big dealer group goes under.

gar074 said:

Unless and until the manufacturers are prepared to guarantee the deposits of buyers in the event of bankruptcy on the part of their dealers (which will happen when hell freezes over), buyers will always be at risk in the event of a business failure.

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My sister lost money when Tiny went bust. Risk is a factor in life we all have to try work around. There is nothing which is not risk free.

gar074 said:

And to those sellers who moan about how hard-done-by they are - get over it! Too many of us have been turned over too many times by dealers to have any sympathy.

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I'll just go cry in the corner then?

XIIX said:

Soon its my birthday,
I don't have my car.

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for what its worth.......happy birthday