Toyota £1000 Towards Finance Deposit Offer

[Bearcat]

I went a long to buy a 2nd hand car from my local dealership and was talked into buying a new Corolla (Colour Collection) 1.6ltr 5 door automatic . I was told that I could get £1,000 towards the finance deposit, which sounded great . Anyway, I went back a few days later and placed my order, but was informed that I would have up to an 8 week wait for the car, as there were none available at any of the dealerships in the country and Toyota were only supplying them as and when an order was placed :( . Then came the kick in the teeth, as I was told that the small print for the £1,000 towards the finance deposit stated that it was only available on "vehicles ordered, registered and financed through Toyota Financial Services, between 1st February and 31st March 2004". Now although, I had ordered the car and had the Toyota finance, the car would not be registered until after the 31st March 2004 and so I was unlikely to get the £1,000 . I argued the point that it was not my fault that Toyota did not have any available and were only supplying them as an when an order was placed, and so I was being penalised for this. The Sales Executive said that he would take this up with Toyota, but he did not think that he would be successful :( .

So it would appear that if on average it does take 8 weeks to supply a car then there are very few people who could get the £1,000. What a con, I am that angry that I could :censor: .

Any comments on the above and pointers as to who I could take this matter further with would most gratefully received.

[SMW]

Sounds very unfair to me - you are keeping your 'side' of the deal.

I think you may be protected under the 1994 supply of goods act as long as you can successfully argue the case that the car has been bought based on a car in the showroom being a 'sample' - if this is agreed then the car that you are buying must be the same as that of the sample. The sample is available at the reduced rate and therefore the actual item should match.

http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1994/Ukpga...5_en_1.htm#tcon

[Bearcat]

Yes, I am keeping my side of the deal. An order for the car has been placed (papers signed etc), finance arranged through 'Toyota Finance' (papers signed). But where it falls down is on the registering of the car. As it is not in this country yet, it cannot be registered with the DVLA and as it will take up to 8 weeks to get one in to the UK, it will fall outside the offer period.

[Surinder]

Toyota dealers are lying bast**** when it comes to finance and cars. I had similar problems as yourself but didn’t realise that they had told "white" lies until 6 months after I owned the car. Then it took me 6 weeks to get £2000 back of them.

1) What ever the sales man promises/advices the dealer has to honour it, doesn’t matter what Toyota get up to.

2) Contact/seek advice from local trading standards, Toyota Gb, BBC Watchdog, local rag. (and make sure you tell the dealer managers thats what you are doing)

3) Make sure Toyota GB knows what’s happened, the dealer may put you off from contacting them.

4) Have a verbal slagging match in the dealership when it's busy !!!

The last one did the trick for me, bit embarrassing, but hey I got my £2k back

[kimi]

hi surinder,

what dealer was it u had the problem with round here?

as i live round corner from u its nice to know what dealers

to be aware of, PM me if u dont want to say who they are on

here.

kimi

[Surinder]

Hartwell, off course they have their own version as too what happened so in the end it was my word against theirs. But common sense was on my side.

They never actually settled the complaint, just gave me things out off good will ;)

But when I went in last year to price up a new corrolla, the salesman accidently let it slip that the person involved was transffered to another dealer, not out off choice. This was about 6 weeks before i officially lodged an complaint.

Having said that, their service department has been A1

[kimi]

thanx surinder, you must have gid them a kick up the rear end

cos they were ok when i got mine!

its nice to know bout the service dept cos it will prob be where

mine goes 4 1st service

kimi

[Surinder]

sadly not, i know of two other people who have had similar problems with them in the last 8 months.

[Bearcat]

Well, I contacted the dealership today to enquire as to whether I would be getting the £1,000 to be told that there was a problem with my order. It now appears that the Toyota Corolla Colour Collection (the car I ordered) was a limited offer and now they can't supply it and so I will have to think about having a T3 in it's place :( . Looks like i'm going to have one problem after another .

[kimi]

sounds like they have broken there side of the deal,

why dont you have your deposit back and visit another

dealer? that will teach em its their loss.

kimi