Long time lurker who has decided to ask for some advice.
Just bought a new BMW 530E and have to say it is a very nice car. Good deal too. However, when I decided to check, I found out it was built in July 2020. It is the facelifted model but I was a bit taken aback to find out it was nearly a year old!
I think I should have been told when the car was built but it is my fault for not asking. I assumed stock cars would be a few months old but not 2020 build. If I had known, I probably would have placed an order instead.
Am I making a fuss about nothing and is this situation quite common in the covid era. On the other hand should I be making a fuss and possibly rejecting the car.
What is the view here?
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It depends on a few things... is it the current Model year, if it isnt what are the changes from yours to now?
I dont think you would have much comeback to be honest, they could argue the price you paid was because it was last years MY.. if thats the case.
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I don't think that sort of thing is uncommon. Cars are often stockpiled if the manufacturers have overproduced due to misjudging future sales for whatever reason.
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>>Am I making a fuss about nothing
No, I don't think so.
How long did you intend to keep the car? Let's say 3 years. At the end of those 3 years, you'll be selling a 4 year old car. That will probably make a difference to both it's saleablity and it's value, surely? I bet the dealer you've bought it from would take it into account on a part exchange.
You say it was a good deal. Was it a *very* good deal? Sufficient to compensate for it having been sat around for a year?
I think at the very least I would go to the dealer and have a foot-stamp. Where I went from there would probably depend on how that meeting went.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Wed 16 Jun 21 at 15:39
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Key questions are - when was it registered and does it have a current number plate.
When you trade it a few years hence, most purchasers will be concerned about the answers to the above. It may just be that switched on trade dealers will be concerned about the manufacturing date if this is available.
Personally I would be a little annoyed with myself for not asking the question, but there is probably little or no comeback. I assume you have current model spec, the car was unused and unmarked - a garage would simply argue that you got precisely what you ordered.
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>> Personally I would be a little annoyed with myself for not asking the question, but
>> there is probably little or no comeback. I assume you have current model spec, the
>> car was unused and unmarked - a garage would simply argue that you got precisely
>> what you ordered.
I'd be annoyed too for not asking or not checking the date stamps on parts like carpets etc. OTOH if its spec matches the date of first registration I doubt it'll be a problem at trade in c2026.
Lots of goods sit around in warehouses 'cos pandemic. Not sure why cars are different.
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It depends. What you have is a 2021 MODEL YEAR, which may or may not be built in 2021, but should have all the features of a 2021 model year car. If it does you are fine, and it's resale value will be unaffected, when selling it's a 2021 model first registered in 2021
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Thanks all for your advice.
The car was first registered in May and has a 21 plate. The deal was good but only as much as another dealer quoted on Carwow. I would have been looking for that reduction on a factory order. The trade in was marginally better than I had expected. Definitely not a cut price deal.
Dealer found a car that matched my wishes at another BMW dealer and I signed up rather than place a factory order. I never saw the car until I picked it up. It is a 21 model year lci and seems to have all the knob and whistles I expected.
I think I will have to accept the position since the car is fine really but I have now found out the service schedule is all wrong since it started from date of manufacture. The car will be demanding a service in a years time rather than two. I will ask them to pay for that.
I wonder what sitting around for a year did to the battery. I will ask about that since I am only getting 21 miles range out of what is supposed be an improved battery.
As you say, everything will probably be ok but I know I will certainly be asking for the build date if buying a car from stock in future
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It won't be demanding a service in a year, all BMW servicing is mileage/condition based.
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Sorry to disagree Zero but I think there is an overall time limit of two years. The car says next service due after 19000 miles or by July 2022. In any case and to avoid doubt I shall consult the dealer.
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My BMW was built 2 months before I bought it (again, from "compound" stock).
The service dates on mine have always been aligned with build date, but AFAIK, this should have been reset at PDI/final delivery time (opinion varied when I checked, but the final conclusion I cam to was so).
Hasn't made any difference to me, having purchased a very cheap (and shortly afterwards withdrawn) 5-year BMW service plan, that would (have) covered all the requirements before disposal, whatever the date.
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There is a 2 year limit as well, but the counter for that is supposed o be re-set at the PDI by the dealer. If yours wasn’t a pre-registered car, which as it’s on a ‘21 plate I assume it’s not, then I’d expect the PDI to have been done in April or May.
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>> Sorry to disagree Zero but I think there is an overall time limit of two
>> years. The car says next service due after 19000 miles or by July 2022. In
>> any case and to avoid doubt I shall consult the dealer.
I think I would be demanding that they reset the service indicator.
My Outlander has a backdated start date but that was actually pre-registered - different thing.
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Reminds me....back in the Middle Ages I bought a VW Transporter Syncro ( H273 XCX) which had been sat on the docks at Harwich for 2.5 years +.
Huge discount as the new front engined VW Transporters were introduced by then. It was a 1.6 TD.
A fantastic working vehicle which was used and abused for many years, never missed a beat.
The first Mrs LL used it as a taxi to collect friends, and my drinking buddies, in adverse conditions. We’d sit three abreast at the back over the engine to warm our derrières on a winters night.
H & S was never in the equation. Sold it far too cheaply.
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>> Reminds me....back in the Middle Ages I bought a VW Transporter Syncro ( H273 XCX)
>> H & S was never in the equation.
>>
I once had a rear engine water-cooled Transporter and H&S was certainly never in the equation when it came to designing the front crumple-zone. I'm just glad I never tested it!
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>> It won't be demanding a service in a year, all BMW servicing is mileage/condition based.
>>
Unfortunately for the OP, this is not the case as there's a 2 year 'hard stop' on the servicing, regardless of mileage covered, condition monitoring or anything else.
We got caught out like this on a MINI and it wound me up because we'd opted not to take the service plan based on the fact the car would only need one minor service in the 3 years we planned on keeping it. What we ended up with was the car asking for a minor service on time grounds when the car was just coming up to a year from registration (actually 2 years old), then two years later we got stiffed for the major service, a brake fluid change, and the 3 year 'Vehicle Inspection'. The dealer paid for the minor service at the time, but we were hundreds of pounds out of pocket by the end of the period. The big service, 'inspection' and fluid change came to about £600.
The car was on a PCP, so they had us by the short and curlies, as you have to have main dealer servicing, or else it impacts the resale value (and therefore the GFV) of the car.
We were told it was not possible to simply reset the indicator and carry on by two separate MINI Dealers.
Of course if we'd planned to keep the car indefinitely, it would have been much less of a big deal
Last edited by: DP on Mon 28 Jun 21 at 09:44
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>> I wonder what sitting around for a year did to the battery. I will ask
>> about that since I am only getting 21 miles range out of what is supposed
>> be an improved battery.
Aren't new batteries supposed to improve once they've had a few charge / discharge cycles put through them?
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>> I am only getting 21 miles range out of what is supposed be an improved battery.
From what date was the battery improved?
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>> What is the view here?
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With all the shortages of cars being spoken about, I'm somewhat surprised that in May 21 there were still cars sitting around unsold from mid 2020.
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Me too, the trade in value of mine has gone up 3k since Jan, despite being 6 months older and having more miles, there was an item on South Today where car dealers were talking about punters trying to gazump one another
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Seems there's money burning a hole in some people's pockets.
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If the car is the model year you ordered then there is no comeback on the dealer.
Cars sit in stock. Just look at the pictures of docks and airfields full of them.
I understand the build date on my March 21 registered car was September 20. The service clock is running from the registration date.
You'd be surprised at goods in stock sold as new. I visit companies for work and am given tours of operations, warehouses etc.
Things can be in stock for years and are still legally sold as new. One warehouse I looked at, the goods had lots of different coloured circle stickers on them (about half a dozen). On asking, I was told each sticker represents it's been counted in the annual stock take!
As an aside, I am sure there was a court case a few years ago when someone purchased a new car and was delivered a pre-registered car and sued and lost the case.
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>>Things can be in stock for years and are still legally sold as new. One warehouse I looked at,
>>the goods had lots of different coloured circle stickers on them (about half a dozen). On asking,
>>I was told each sticker represents it's been counted in the annual stock take!
That absolutely happens with low value components. They can sit on the shelves for years.
>> I am sure there was a court case a few years ago when someone purchased a new car and was delivered a pre-registered car and sued and lost the case.
That's surprising. I can see how that could happen with a car sat in storage unregistered and I do remember years ago people trying to sue over 'new' cars which it turned out had been stored in fields and I seem to recall that they lost, but you'd have thought that the pre-registering would have an impact.
I don't suppose you can remember any more details to give me a chance of finding it with Google?
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 17 Jun 21 at 15:19
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>> I don't suppose you can remember any more details to give me a chance of
>> finding it with Google?
>>
I had a rummage myself and couldn't find anything. The only other detail I seem to recall was that the complainant was female.
I also recall that the court was "high" enough that it became case law.
(In anticipation that some details of the above may be incorrect due to passage of time and my thinking at the time was, this is interesting but I have many other more important things to be doing like earning money to pay for kids schooling etc.)
Last edited by: zippy on Thu 17 Jun 21 at 15:28
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I couldn't find the particular case but it seems likely that your memory is correct.
If it was pre-registered and you weren't told then you haven't necessarily got a case. The expectation is that car is "new and unused" and pre-registering does not affect that. if it had been used for *anything*, even a single demo, then it is not "new and unused".
There is a possibility for an offence if the car is not swiftly registered in your name. And apparently it is sometimes to the advantage of a car dealership to wait until it has been registered in their name for n months, since they are pretending to the manufacturer that it is a demo car.
There is clearly a grey area over whether or not you were told that it was pre-registered, essentially whether or not you were misled, but goodness knows how you would prove that.
Apparently one should watch out for warranty duration, since that will start at the point of registration. As will servicing and everything else.
Reading through the stuff on that it would also seem that "sat in a warehouse for a year" does not stop a car being "new and unused".
www.businesscompanion.info/sites/default/files/Car-Traders-and-Consumer-Law-Guidance-for-Dealerships-draft.pdf
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 17 Jun 21 at 15:47
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Pre-registrations can cause problems where dealers don't change the registration docs which you mentioned. This is because the manufacturers usually require the dealer to hold on to the car for a number of months before selling it on as they were supposed to be demonstrators etc.
We had deals at work where we could buy certain manufacturers cars with a staff discount but were not allowed to re-sell them for 6 months - I guess to stop profiteering?
When we purchased SWMBO's PRE-REG Nissan Note there were half a dozen un-registered cars on the forecourt.
We chose the one we wanted. Were given a choice of registration numbers. They registered it to themselves that day and then to us the day after!
The dealer explained (I already knew anyway) that they got a significant rebate from Nissan for selling X cars in the period and those half dozen took them to X with the discounts being less than the rebate.
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Audi apparently gave an extra fat bonus to dealerships that sold enough units of each model of car.
My friend's B-i-L said this was why they had 4 brand new A8s for sale at £29,995 (list close to £60k at the time) as the bonus was far more than the loss on each of the cars.
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The date of first registration starts the guarantee clock ticking which is generally the biggest downside to buying them unless the dealer gives their own warranty.
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>> The date of first registration starts the guarantee clock ticking which is generally the biggest
>> downside to buying them unless the dealer gives their own warranty.
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That's certainly an issue with some pre-reg deals but the one we purchased was 1 day so worth the risk for the discount.
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>> With all the shortages of cars being spoken about, I'm somewhat surprised that in May
>> 21 there were still cars sitting around unsold from mid 2020.
>>
Me too. Especially for an on-trend PHEV.
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I have had a chat with the service manager, who told me they were under no duty to tell me the date of manufacture of the car unless I asked. In fact, he said they even had stock cars going back to 2019! To them this is a new car since it hadn't been registered and the warranty runs from date of registration and similarly trade in values are always based on year of registration.
The car is this years model and the software is also up to date. It has the larger 12 kwh battery and just the same as new car ordered now.
They will reset the service indicator and will pay for an extra year for BMW connected services since they start from date of manufacture.
I don't think I can really complain about anything else and the car seems fine to me. Apparently, the battery performance improves with use. I have noticed the miles per charge are creeping up.
Anyway, thanks for all your comments and suggestions. Keep safe.
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>>who told me they were under no duty to tell me the date of manufacture of the car unless I asked.
As others have said, good to know.
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Not sure if other manufactures do this on on newer VW's there is a black sticker on the door B pillar, once you know what to look for and to decipher the numbers it tells you the year, year-week and week-day number of production.
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>> Not sure if other manufactures do this on on newer VW's there is a black
>> sticker on the door B pillar, once you know what to look for and to
>> decipher the numbers it tells you the year, year-week and week-day number of production.
>>
There was a slip of paper stapled to the PDI checklist on mine that included the date of manufacture. Obvs this will get lost for many cars but mine is safely stored in a plastic wallet.
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BMW - Old Stock - PR
