On a car test drive recently, embarrassingly, I managed to curb one of the alloys in the demo car. Nothing drastic, a couple of marks around the edge of the alloy.
Salesman made a joke about it at the time. Back at the dealership I was promptly handed an invoice for £100 to cover the alloy wheel repair by a particularly unpleasant branch manager. Apparently their insurance policy has a £500 excess.
At no point was I asked to sign anything agreeing to the terms of the insurance and I wasn’t informed verbally about it either before the test drive.
I accept that I did damage the wheel but is this normal industry practice? Anyone else had a similar issue?
On a car used as a demonstrator model, I would have thought paint chips and alloy scuffs are unavoidable. Just seems harsh to treat a potential customer like that.
Comments
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
If so, what's the difference?
If you have your own policy that, say, gives you third party cover so long as you had permission from the owner, then they should have asked to see your policy, and you would be the one making the claim. If not, then their policy covers it and likewise you should have checked their docs to assure yourself that it covered you.
Sounds like you were driving under their cover. Should they have to make you sign for liability? Tough one, it's the drivers responsibility to make sure they are covered before going on the road.
He drove it through the low car park wall on attempting to leave the lot.
I believe they gave him a choice - pay for the repairs to the car and the wall, or buy the car....so he ended up buying the car and spent the next three or four years swearing every time he had to try to fit his band gear into it.
As noted above there is an element that I am responsible whilst driving the car and that I wouldn’t have been pleased if they had done that to my car.
I just think it’s a rough way to treat people when you invite them to test drive a car. It wasn’t even the car we originally asked to look at. Very money grabbing when surely they have to expect some wear and tear on the demo cars.
My friend took a Nissan Skyline for a test drive and spun it 180, but luckily didn't hit anything.
The garage put the Saturday kid in the car with him, so my friend was a bit less intimidated about giving it some.
The lad from the garage turned white as a sheet and agreed with my mate that it was probably best if neither of them mentioned anything about it when they took the car back.
I can't help about the shape I'm in, I can't sing I ain't pretty and my legs are thin
But don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to
I can’t say I’ve ever had a car dealer do the same, but then I haven’t used a big national chain type dealer for a long time.
It’s on their insurance but I wonder if had I turned out to have no licence they would have been covered.
i.e. what would be the situation if you were borrowing someone's guitar and it got damaged whilst you had it? Horrible thought.
That's easy - any borrowed kit is always on a "you bend it you mend it" basis. Amongst mates that shouldn't even need to be said.
I'm not saying it is 100% them, as you caused the damage, but they should have explained the potential costs beforehand.
As soon as you are not interested in buying the car they show their true colours (not so much the charge but the attitude)
Personally I'd leave a review on Google or autotrader or something. Not 1 star or anything completely damaging (since you don't have the experience of buying a car from them), but something that details the risks of test driving a car with them.
People should be warned of the potential costs so you should make them aware. It may save a few bills for some people, it may hinder them selling the odd car. But ultimately they should be explaining the rules.
If they don’t have insurance, or if there’s an excess, they should make that clear to you beforehand. Of course they don’t make it clear beforehand because that would potentially put off customers.
So I think in this instance the car dealer is taking the piss and I wouldn’t have paid it. They aren’t going to pursue you for £100 and it would be down to them to prove you caused the damage.
It's a '57 Strat. You take it out of the case, strum a C chord and the headstock snaps off.
You still pay?