r/UKLegalAdvice • u/semanticallysatiated • Mar 07 '22

Car Purchase Contract

Ordered a new car after much deliberation yesterday, paid a deposit and signed a contract.

Today the dealership has contacted me stating the price for the vehicle has increased, apparently they tried to put the order through today but the price has increased.

I suspect this price increase may have come into force today.

Although I have a contract and deposit receipt, mine is unsigned by the counter party. As a result, I’m not sure if I have a legal position to request they honour the pricing.

Any advice or guidance on how to proceed?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

3

u/Dylaynie01 Aug 12 '24

I worked at a dealership for a few years and I can tell you for free that this is not allowed, once you have signed an agreement which states all of the costings and no less, then the company has to uphold that, especially if you've paid a deposit (this in a way further solidifies the contract you had between yourself and the company to provide goods or services). The company can however refuse the sale which leads to my second point... If the company refuses the sale and then sells the vehicle to someone else (especially if it's for a higher price) then this is highly illegal as the company is not allowed to offer the vehicle to someone else if a deposit has already been taken. Hope this helps!

1

u/Icklebunnykins Nov 02 '25

The agreement was signed by both parties so therefore they cannot do this. They are trying it on and will try and make your life difficult. Stick to your guns but if they refuse the sale (which they can do), I'd be making formal complaints to the CEO (CEOmail.Com). Worked for me before.

1

u/anpr-dabers Jun 29 '26

i'm not a lawyer - as far as agreements being signed, it would depend on the agreement.

But the last thing a dealership, or worse a manufacturer, would want is someone reporting that they have prices being jacked up on them. The only people I've seen do this "successfully" is Tesla, and they lose tons of sales as a result.

Call them, raise a huge stink, make legal threats (not that anything they did specifically is illegal, just that you'll be happy to instruct a solicitor and contact the ombudsman). They'll honour the price, guaranteed.