UNDERSTANDING BUYING A CAR DURING LOCKDOWN

Recent government legislation has presented a number of challenges to buying and selling secondhand cars. The key change is that during lockdown customers are not allowed onto our premises to purchase cars and we are not permitted to accompany them on test drives - meaning they are not covered under our trade insurance.  If we break those rules we face fines of up to £10,000 per event. This is obviously far from ideal, but fortunately we can meet you at your home or at a neutral venue where you can look at the car and test drive it if you have already arranged your own insurance, provided we have 'struck a deal' verbally and agreed a price on that particular car (provided of course that you are satisfied that it is as described in the advert).

To protect your interests, with a remote purchase (which is what this kind of transaction is classed as) if you change your mind you legally have 14 days to return the car and receive a refund less our costs. That presents us with obvious problems. Essentially people can take a car for 14 days and at the end of that cancel their insurance, return the car and they’ve had two weeks of free motoring at our expense. In the meantime we can’t reinvest the money in new stock (which is how our business works!) and if they do return the car we need to wait up to 12 weeks for the new V5 to arrive so that we can resell the car. We are also left with a car with another owner on the logbook, which in many cases reduces the car’s value - a cost which we would need to deduct from any refund.

A returned car is a complete waste of time for you and for us, so we’ve introduced a series of measures to protect both parties as much as possible. We’ve tried to limit the legislation’s impact on our business, doing all we can to ensure that you only buy a car that you will enjoy while ensuring a simple, transparent process to return the car if you decide that for whatever reason it’s not quite right for you. 

How we are overcoming those issues:
  1. We offer a mechanical report on each car sold.
  2. We offer videos of the cars being driven.
  3. We offer WhatsApp ‘virtual viewings’ of cars.
  4. We can meet you at a neutral venue (there is a garden centre 30 metres from our site) or at your home, where you can view the car that interests you and on which we have a 'verbal agreement' on a potential purchase.  We are essentially meeting to conclude a deal that we have remotely agreed in principle.  You are not in any way bound by that agreement if the car does not meet your expectations.
  5. You can take the car on an unaccompanied test drive if you have arranged insurance (which you can of course cancel without charge if you decide not to take the vehicle). 
  6. Even having bought the car, if you return it within 30 minutes we will make no charge. 
  7.  After the 30 minutes have passed, we have price-matched an ‘economy car’ rental from Enterprise - our nearest car rental facility - and will charge usage for the days you’ve had the car. You can see the table of charges below.
  8. Obviously if the car is not returned in the same condition in which it was sold you will need to cover the costs of any repairs needed.
  9. At handover we will issue your contract of purchase, but we will not process DVLA registration until 14 days have passed, meaning that should you exercise your right to return the car within this period we can refund your money more quickly and will not need to deduct for any reduction in value due to an additional owner being listed on the logbook.
  10. You are legally allowed to meet offsite to collect a purchase provided we have a verbal agreement in place, but if you prefer we can arrange delivery for £1 per mile (round trip) with a minimum charge of £40.
  11. You can collect the vehicle from the car park at Peacocks Nursery which is classed as an essential service and is within 30 metres of our site.

Practicalities of Returns

We’ll aim to do get your money back to you as soon as possible. To protect ourselves and the next buyer we will need to have the car inspected by a mechanic as it’s been driven unaccompanied, but we’ll guarantee getting that done within 72 hours of return of the car and same day if we are able to. If you’ve paid by cash or bank transfer the refund will be made as soon as that inspection is completed. If you’ve paid by card it can take up to three days for funds to arrive in our account to enable a refund, but we’ll get your money back to you as soon as possible.  Please note that on return of the car you will need to provide us with your bank details to enable us to process your refund.


It is your responsibility to return the car, but we can arrange collection at £1 per mile (round trip) with a minimum charge of £40 if you’d like us to.

Remote Purchase Form

Fees Chargeable (Deducted From Refund)

Based on a 5 door economy car (Corsa or similar).

1 day: £55.28 (car returned before 5pm same day)

2 days: £77.56

3 days: £81.42

4 days: £120.64

5 days: £130.97

6 days: £147.43

7 days: £169.78

8 days: £194.07

9 days: £218.36

10 days: £242.65

11 days: £266.94

12 days: £291.23

13 days: £294.86

14 days: £315.95

Contact

Please call 01252 214021 or 07504 295488 if you have any questions or to arrange to come and see the car(s) that interest you.  VIEWINGS ARE BY APPOINTMENT ONLY, but I'm happy to accommodate viewings and test drives from 7.30 in the morning until 9.00 in the evening, Monday to Saturday.  Outside of office (9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours I usually turn my phone off, so feel free to text me or email me at info@fairpricecarsltd.co.uk at any time.  We'll be as flexible as possible to help you find the right car for you.