Thanks for all your help guys, The dealer called me up this morning confirming he will refund 100% of my deposit!

I called them up several times but they seemed to be delaying it! but then i decided to email him to get some form of written communication before my 7 days was up! i put in it the terms of the agreement and sme of the points you guys raised, he then called me up this morning to confirm it was all ok.

I think the problem in my case was not the dealer but his manager! (whos car it was he was selling). as with the dealer he was ok with me being a serious buyer (if the insurance and testdrive were fine!) and would have refunded me earlier but getting approval from his manager seemed to be the problem, and the manager was always unavaliable on the phone!

Any way the problem has now resolved thanks to everyone, i will not be making such an error in future! and make sure i have all the angles covered before i make any form of deposit! Just got to wait for the cash to turn up in my account now :)

thanks for the explanation. i think it should be ok. I also think it was highly unlikly that he had a buyer for the next day Tbh. I have learn my lesson from this experiance, weather i get the money back or not (hopefully i will thou). The lesson is probably worth a lot more then 1k!!.

Ive had some great replies in this this thread to go by when i call him up 2moro.

Definatly going to see if he is going to be reasonable first, if not i will be tryin the distance goods act and asking him if he can put into writing that none of the BMW warrenty would be affected. I dont think he can really dispute either on tbh. But lets see how things turn out. I will post the "results" 2moro i hope.

Again thanks for all the input guys! really helped!

There was an agreement between you and the dealer whereby he would take the car off the market, you would pay £1k and then pay the balance later but whether or not the deposit was fully or partially or not at all refundable if you changed your mind wasn't discussed. It's therefor open to interpretation. The dealer has the money so he can make the interpretation and it's for you to argue with that if you wish but, because he has the money, he is in the stronger position.

If the matter of whether or not the deposit was refundable was important at the time that you made the agreement, you should have discussed the matter and kept your money until you were happy with the details of the agreement.

Incidentally, it is quite likely that there wasn't another person about to buy the car on Saturday. Next time you should not be in such a rush to part with your money until you know exactly what you are paying for.

I hope that you find the dealer to be reasonable and willing to give you most, if not all, of the money back without too much fuss though. A really unreasonable dealer would now be asking you to pay the balance as well as storage costs for looking after the car for you, although that is unlikely.

maxsteam:"he never even hinted at the deposit being non refundable" - unfortunately this doesn't mean much. .

how can this not mean much!? i dont understand how him not telling me the full implications of my deposit cannot mean much!?

yes definatly learnt something from this. but tbh its pretty unprofessional not to state terms of any arrangements made. Pretty unprofessional to tell me not to declare a vital bit of information to the insurance, and pretty damn unprofessional to make claims that are untrue about their vehicle. (warrenty is void on any damage incurred from the upgrade or as a result of the upgrade (not quite sure what this means but that is what the Bmw ppl told me).

Looking back on the whole thing i am not happy with how i have been dealt with, i made the deposit with 100% intention of following it up day after. I am going to try my hardest to get the money back, i will see what they have to say on Monday.

"he never even hinted at the deposit being non refundable" - unfortunately this doesn't mean much. No doubt he didn't hint that it was refundable either. You paid the deposit mainly to secure the car so that you could complete the purchase later without getting written details of any terms. You then changed your mind so you should lose some of the deposit. It's something to learn from.

Hi -- If it was a cash deal you are not entitled to the automatic full return of your deposit, however they are only entitled to retain a "reasonable" proportion of your deposit for out of pocket expenses that they can show they have incurred. I cannot see them being able to justify keeping the whole amount as they had already "prepped" the car before you saw it, no doubt they have not serviced it or had to tax / MOT it for you in such a short time, and perhaps it was not even required. ?

One thing you could insist on is written confirmation that the engine re-mapping and modifications have not affected the manufacturers warranty as they stated, if they are not prepared to confirm this in writing to you, then the terms of sale have changed and the car is not being sold to you, "as described" which is a legal requirement. That would entitle you to legally pull out of the deal with the return of your full deposit.

i was going to pay by cash. i think i should have taken the finance option as ive read on here that can lead you to get your deposit back if finance is declined..

The car had had some modifications and engine remapping done. I was unsure what this would do to the insurance, he suggested i not declare it as they had "hidden it". (i wasnt sure this was the best thing to do). I also asked if the BMW warrenty was void and he suggested it was not void.

The above is not totally true......unless the engine mapping was carried out by the factory, or authorised BMW agents, that could and probably would invalidate the warranty. It was also very irresponsible of him to advise you not to inform your insurers, had you pranged it and checks were undertaken on the motor, your insurers would most likely have refused to settle a claim !

Could you say how you intended to pay for the car, was it to be on finance that the garage was aware of when you agreed to the deal. ? .......Not being nosey, but your answer is a relevant factor as to whether you are entitled to have your full deposit refunded.

ok thanks for the information.

I understand the point of the deposit now, but shouldnt the dealer have made this issue clear to me? i most certainly wouldnt have put down a deposit if i had known it was non refundable (at the time i actually didnt think about it, i assumed i would get insured and that would be the end of the matter).I mean i dont buy cars everyday and how am i supposed to know its non refundable if not told to me?

To note it was maybe 3 working hours in which i realised i wouldnt be able to complete the purchase on the vehicle. (i called him around 5ish when he was closing to put down deposit and called him back 11.30ish the next day explaining the situation, so its not like he had it off market for a very long time..

I hope the dealership is ok with it, but im surprised that i may not get the money back. are there any steps i can take now (he says he is going to call me back on monday when his boss is there) like write a letter or email to some giverning body?

I may even commute to see him in person as he never even hinted at the deposit being non refundable..

You certainly shouldn't expect the full deposit back. You paid the money in order to stop the car being sold before you made the final arrangements. It's possible that the dealer lost a sale because you changed your mind and this could have cost him £1k.

It's common knowledge that insurance for cars like this is expensive for young drivers. Many people your age spend more each year on insurance than they did buying their car in the first place. Next time you should get some insurance quotes before committing yourself to the sale as it is always going to be a significant cost. You should also not consider even talking about money, let alone paying a deposit, before test driving a car. If the dealer wont let you test drive, you should walk away from the deal. Cars should not need to be "preped" for each test drive although it is not unreasonable to expect you to make an appointment just to be sure that you are serious.

My suggestion is to contact the dealer and explain that, under the distance selling regulations (applicable because you "bought" over the phone) you are entitled to change your mind about the purchase and to get a full refund within 7 days. If the dealer disputed this and offered half the deposit back, in your shoes I would accept.

What would be the point of a refundable deposit? Ninety percent of the cars in the showroom would be unavailable for sale as buyers 'thought about it' if deposits were refunded.

Here is the story,

been looking for a Used Bmw 335d for a while. father decided to go look at some on the weekend. I decided to go and do a "scouting" trip to short list for it

I saw the perfect car in an autovouge showroom. however he wanted too much for it 34k, saying he had customers showing interest the day after (sat). which is fair enough.

The car had had some modifications and engine remapping done. I was unsure what this would do to the insurance, he suggested i not declare it as they had "hidden it". (i wasnt sure this was the best thing to do). I also asked if the BMW warrenty was void and he suggested it was not void.

Initially he was under the impression i wasnt really interested in the car so he didnt want to let me test drive it as he had just preped it for the people viewing it on sat (fair enough...).

However long story short he made me an offer of 32.5k and said he would take it off the market if i left a deposit of £1k.

I had to confirm with my father first weather he would be interested in the car so i declined the offer and told him i would be in touch later on (he said he accepted deposits over the phone).

Father seemed interested and was also ok with the price so i decided to take the initiative and phone up to put the deposit down as i thought i would be purchasing this car the day after.

The dealer took £1k deposit (without ever telling me it was non refunable). i explained to him i still had no insurance quotes or had test driven the car but he was "sure i would like it". again he never told me it was a non refunable deposit at any time (he admitted to this when i talked to him about the refund issue).

However upon arriving home i have found that no insurance company wants to insure anyone under 25 for a that car (i am 23) with its modifications. (there are one or 2 that want 9k ... but thats too expensive imho). so after a long time searching i ring the dealer up and explain i cant find suitable insurance and hence wont be comming down to buy the car. He now tells me the deposit is non refundable?

I had a friend go with me and he also said it was weird he didnt say this at the time.. is there anything i can do or get my bank to do?

Srry for the long post hope u guys can help