Always Read The Small Print...

    • Rallying across country in the comfort of my car is a given. The effortless motion of pressing a button, waiting for the beep and jumping on in is second nature to me; as it is to most Brits.

      And we all get to that stage when we start to get bored of our shiny four wheeled toy and decide it’s about time for an upgrade.

      The biggest decision to be made though, is how much are we willing to spend. Whether we want to splash out on the latest, most popular vehicle or settle for a used one instead.

      A massive percentage of people will choose the latter option for the simple reason that: a) it’s cheaper, and b) cars depreciate in value very quickly making them a poor investment buy.

      Yet buying a car is not too dissimilar to playing Russian Roulette. But instead of laying your life on the line, you’re laying the contents of your back-pocket.

      The element of chance is always present as you can never be sure that ‘what you see is what you get’.

      And this is exactly what a good friend of mine, *Mr Smith, faced.

      Mr Smith is one of the most business minded, savvy people I know. But he became the epicenter of a situation involving stolen goods much to his surprise.

      So imagine this: You’re cruising along the motorway in your shiny (as good as new), black BMW expressing your love for your new ‘toy’ to your partner in the passenger seat, when suddenly you’re forced off the road by a hoard of unmarked police cars much to your dismay.

      I think ‘what the hell!’ must have sprung to Mr Smith's mind as he was forcefully removed from his car.

      Still none the wiser, his arrest was announced and he was detained in a police cell for further questioning.

      It was later brought to his attention (after his car was seized) that he was being questioned in relation to the theft of the vehicle he had just bought.

      The biggest issue Mr Smith faced here was his rights as a consumer. Of course he managed to clear his name in conjunction with the offence, but what was to happen with the car and the huge sum of money he splurged to pay for it?

      Well, firstly, the Consumer Rights Act states that you have no legal rights over the car meaning that the car belongs to the original owner and there is no financial compensation.

      However, in this instance, Mr Smith had bought new (expensive) wheels for the car that had been bought on a stolen credit card in Ireland, and shipped over to the UK.

      So luckily for him, shipping the car back to Ireland minus the wheels didn’t seem like a compromise worth considering; so an out of court settlement was agreed with the original owner and Mr Smith still owns the stolen vehicle to this day.

      Now unless you want to face a similar trauma, I suggest you study the small print at all costs.

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