Dealership removed tow bar without telling me and now say they are not liable

[daciaowner]

Bought a used car (from 2020 so fairly new) from a main dealership in the north of England (part of the pentagon group who have a lot of named vehicle dealerships as this was) spotted the vehicle online first, placed a refundable deposit to hold it for 3 days and went to view it the following morning. When I viewing the initial listing on the dealers website the vehicle had a tow bar which was part of its appeal, I have the images of this with it in front of the dealerships sign proving they are the images they took, tow bar clearly visible. Went to view the vehicle, test drove it, agreed to purchase and left a partial deposit. I agreed to collect the vehicle a week later to give time for final valet and me to swap insurance over etc. Go to collect the car today, paid the balance in the full so its an outright purchase. Drive the car 4 miles home, take a photo of it on my drive to show a friend and notice theres no tow bar on the rear anymore. I ring the dealership and I'm given some flannel about it was damaged so they removed it as the couldn't offer a warranty on it. I've asked for proof it was damaged, nothing has been sent. Underneath the car the electrical hook up is still there but cable tied away. There are marks on the chassis where the tow bar had been located which proves it had been there. At no point during my leaving an initial deposit or completing the transaction today was I told the tow bar would/had been removed. I would have asked to inspect it/keep it if this was the case but as it stands its mysteriously disappeared. Pentagon say they are not liable for providing one. I asked if they would replace it (around £200) and Ive been told there is no money in the "pot" as I had paid such a good price for the vehicle, for the record I paid full advertised price with no discount whatsoever. Im very disappointed at their behaviour, if it had been damaged and needed to be removed why not explain that to me before I had to notice it and raise it myself. I'm stumped as to where to where to turn with this situation and any advice would be gratefully received.

[R0b]

Do you have a copy of the advertisement with the photos? Without evidence, you might struggle unless they have admitting already in writing that it was there but they did remove it. If not, check back online and see if they have the advert listed, or try third party websites such as autotrader in case they also advertised there as well.

Assuming you are correct, you may have a claim for breach of contract/misrepresentation on the basis that the advert was not accurately described or that it was represented by the photos there would be a tow included but no mention in the description the tow bar would not be part of the sale. There is also a requirement under the consumer rights act for the model/sample seen or examined to match what you ere getting.

What are you wanting to do, are you prepared to take it to court are you only willing to go as far as playing ping-pong correspondence and then give up if nothing happens?

[daciaowner]

Thanks for your advice Rob. I do have copies of all the original advertising images (still available on the internet) but the original advert is not sat there anymore, but it said nothing about the removal of tow bar being a possibility however, but may come down to my word against theirs. Ideally I just want them to provide a replacement tow bar or an equivalent refund for me to go and source one myself but their stance on this is that they have no money to do this. Small claims court could be costly and considering the sum involved is probably not a great option given that it could easily go either way, but maybe I'm being too cautious?

[R0b]

Ideally I just want them to provide a replacement tow bar or an equivalent refund for me to go and source one myself but their stance on this is that they have no money to do this.

If it was Pentagon Group that sold you the car, then they are just fobbing you off, of course they have the money to replace it unless they know something we don't and the company is about to go under any second now (which I doubt). What about all those vehicles on the forecourt?

Small claims court could be costly and considering the sum involved is probably not a great option given that it could easily go either way, but maybe I'm being too cautious?

If you have evidence of the photographs used, then personally I think it would be worth a punt. You can either seek out some quotes from reputable garages who will do it for you (minimum of 3 quotes) and then start the legal process using one of those quotes. Alternatively you pay for it to be done and then claim back the cost.

Claims under £10k means that if you lose you won't be subject to legal costs although there are some minimal costs that can be recovered if you lose but no more than a £100-£200 usually. Low value claims are unlikely to be commercially viable for most large companies to defend knowing they are not able to recover their costs of paying lawyers to defend it. That's not to say Pentagon wouldn't defend this all the way out of principle, but it's likely to cost them much more than it is to settle up and pay if they did.

Ultimately the decision rests with you, either keep on pestering them until they eventually stop responding and getting nowhere, or take it further and see what happens.

[daciaowner]

Thanks very much, thats given me some clarity on the best way to proceed with them and I feel much more confident about actually having an angle to go back to them with next week. Thanks again

[islandgirl]

Dont forget if you do wish to proceed to court you have to send them a formal Letter before Action - sometimes just this threat is enough

[echat11]

This might help or may not - Internet Archive - https://archive.org/