Buying A Car In Oz - Said it was 2003 but it's 2002

I'm in Oz & we've put 1K down on a car from a reputable Ford Dealer. It's a 1.8ltr Ford Focus Sedan with 117K Km's. Bargained him down to 6215 Euro. Seems like a good deal. Only thing I noticed when I got home is that he was saying it's a 2003 car. I noticed from the Paperwork that it's actually 2002 (Dec 02). Is it worth haggling with this guy & if so, what should I be looking to get off.

maybe it was pre-registered?

That's funny I thought the Rego here worked off date of manufacture as opposed to the Irish system which uses date of first registration.

Nope, definitely 2002. Rang the guy. I'm happy with the deal - he threw in 1 or 2 minor things after I pointed it all out. Wouldn't cut anything off the price though. Transfered over the rest of the dosh & will pick it up tomorrow.

Good lesson here in that the description can be flexed round the facts - dealer might have meant 2003 model year, which is taking a bit of a liberty but they maybe thought they were okay seeing since its only a few weeks in the difference.

Had an '84 Metro once, registered in March of 1984, and was doing some work under the dash one time when I found a paper lable hanging there listing works details for the car. I worked out from the information it contained that the car had rolled off the production line and had been parked up awaiting delivery to the dealer to be sold as a new car in November 1983 - which was up to 5months before it was sold as brand new.

Tales also came in the late 70s of Lancias and Fiats being up to a year and a half old (tho unused) before they were sold as 'brand new' cars.

Wife's imported japmobile wears the correct year-of-1st-registration number even tho it was first registered here some time after it's fourth birthday. It seems that a car doesn't start to age until it gets its numberplate, no matter how long it has waited to be sold.