Trading in my car – Should I tell the Main Dealer all its problems ?

I hope to do a deal in December with a main dealer, trading in my 15 year old car for a new 2016 car.

My car although old appears to be in very good condition and has an NCT until June 2016, but has some problems that would not be readily apparent;

It burns oil, I put a litre in every 2 weeks.

I have been told because of the oil burning there is a build up of carbon on the pistons which will eventually burn through, the engine is then shot and would be €1200 minimum to repair, so not worth doing on an old car.

Again because of the oil burning I have been advised to use dipotain in the petrol, indeed the car does run much better with this additive, a bottle costing €15 lasts maybe 6 weeks, but this is just buying time before the inevitable.

On occasions but particularly when the engine is cold, there is a wrattle in the engine, which I am told is the timing chain, in time it will worsen and because of the cost would not be worth replacing on an old car.

Once warmed up none of the above would be apparent if the salesman took it for a quick spin around the block.

What would you do ?

Its a 15 year old car. The dealer should know that there are potential problems with it because of it's age alone. Cars are their business.

I wouldn't tell them anything.

The "trade in" he'll give you will be the discount for cash.He doesn't want your old junker.

vandriver said:

The "trade in" he'll give you will be the discount for cash.He doesn't want your old junker.

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I understand that.

The main dealer will sell it on to a small dealer, who in turn will probably sell it on Done Deal or similar.

Whoever buys it off the small dealer though is going to be screwed, as the car is not as good as it appears.

Hence the Question.

Realistically it will be scrapped or sold for a token sum. There is no advantage for you in exaggerating its condition or worth to the main dealer.

Why not do a cash deal and scrap the car: are there no euro 4,000 off scrappage schemes around.
It has value as a scrappage deal car, no more.
As a matter of interest, what mileage is on it and what are you driving a week, 1 litre every two weeks is meaningless on its own.

Toyota have a €3,000 offer until the end of August, I understand this offer will be reintroduced in December, and I expect many others will be on offer at that time, they don't scrap the car though, they sell them to small dealers.



This week, two Toyota Main Dealers have told me on the phone that they will definitely give me the €3,000 off list price for my car as long as my car is anyway reasonable, my car is more than reasonable on initial inspection anyway.

My car is a standard Toyota Corolla 1.4 VVTi petrol, year 2000, 150,000 miles on it, and I currently do 12,000 miles annually.

I can’t see me getting anything near €3,000 off the list on the road price for cash.

Fiction, you're not getting 3000 for your trade in. All or most of that is the discount you would get if you did a straight cash deal for a new car without a trade in.

What's the price of the new car without trade in, best deal after cash discount. Get prices from two garages.

What's the cash for the new car you pay if you trade in.

Difference is what you are getting for you trade in, which for a 15 year old car is virtually nothing.

You will get close to 3000 for cash discount if you bargain hard enough. Then sell your own car.

Gerard123 said:

You will get close to 3000 for cash discount if you bargain hard enough. Then sell your own car.

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€3,000 discount for cash without a trade in sounds a lot, but maybe I’m out of touch, anyone else any recent experience of this.

On the road price which includes metallic and delivery is €21,700.

Toyota has already pulled a fast one with that car, as all VVTi engines have a design fault up to mid 2005 causing them to burn oil, you should get more than 150,000 mile on it. They already know the problem

roker said:

Toyota has already pulled a fast one with that car, as all VVTi engines have a design fault up to mid 2005 causing them to burn oil, you should get more than 150,000 mile on it. They already know the problem

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That’s all true.

But I have the car from new, other than burning oil I have had 150,000 virtually trouble free miles over 15 years, I’m happy to retire it now and buy the same again.

Now that the oil burning design fault has been rectified, I might get 20 years from my new car.

You already said it burnt a lot of oil, that is because of the design fault. I have a Toyota VVTi 110,000 mile and does not use a drop of oil

roker said:

You already said it burnt a lot of oil, that is because of the design fault. I have a Toyota VVTi 110,000 mile and does not use a drop of oil

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What, I'm confused, where have I now said it doesn't burn oil ?

Like you said the oil burning design fault was only an issue on older models like mine.