Bought my nice vectra paid the salesman then told me only got one key!!
Me not a happy bunny they said the original owner died and fair play showed me the death certificate!!, family sold it back to dealer and can't find the spare key & will look for it.
I think 7 days from purchase is enough time to give don't you to find the spare key?,
What happens if they can't find it? im sure i have rights on a vehicle sold not fit for purpose or something along those lines, & how much is a spare key for a vectra?
This comes from a vauxhall dealer it's a 58 vectra cdti your thoughts please? & apart from a vibration on steering wheel suspect balancing drives very nice indeed.
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Its a fair old leap from only one key to unfit for purpose. Dunno bout vauxhall, but the average price for a dealer to supply and code a new key to the system is about 100 quid.
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>> the average price for a dealer to supply and code a new key to the system is about 100 quid.
Various prices depending on which dealer you go to. You'd thought it would a fixed price throughout, but it's not. I've seen prices varying from £60 to £140 or more over on Vectra-c.com.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 28 Jul 10 at 18:55
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Typical devious car dealer, don't trust them!
Demand to see all relavent parts of the car, spare wheel, tools, detachable tow eye, service record (even if forged) and keys, if you don't see it don't believe it will be there.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 28 Jul 10 at 18:03
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No spare key would normally ring alarm bells, but 'owner dead and the rellies can't find it' is as good an explanation as any.
Out of an abundance of caution, I would be looking to get this story in writing because if your car is stolen, the insurance company will want chapter and verse as to why you have no spare.
I think on a newish car you are entitled to expect two keys.
The car shouldn't vibrate, either.
Hope that's no more than a wheel balance, which should not cost a lot, whoever pays for it.
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Lots of cars you pick up only come with one key
Its usually in the draw second right in the bedroom last keepers house ,if you ring them up and ask for it nicely or use a self addressed envelope with a nice letter and a wee cheque for their troubles
Your mans brown bread so you need that stokes woman
Unless dealer said car came with more than one key then im afraid its tough
Im just another trader by the way so im evil and nasty and sometimes if i dont like the customers attitude after the event i files it under b after ive nicked the battery (does that make you feel better ON?)
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>>
>> Unless dealer said car came with more than one key then im afraid its tough
>>
I rest my case.
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so MR ON you buy a car at auction for x pounds and you find it comes with only one key
so you can either lose profit and go to the dealer and spend anything up to lets say £1000 or in the case of a vauxhall £120 to get another key matched to the car or keep stum and say nothing
obviously you are perfect having never worked for a profit and would get a key done---
get real
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>>
>> get real
>>
£1000, £120, Trade prices? Aye right, as they say around here.
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a £1000 is for a bmw or sometimes a honda
bread and butter stuff like vauxhall is £120
why dont you price a kia one in the morning at your nice friendly dealer,dont have beens for breakfast before you phone though
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I wouldn't get full (or any) trade discount though, so I would be lucky to get any change from £100 at a guess.
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trade discount is basically 15% tops if you are lucky in a dealership and you wont get this for key reading anyway,only on overpriced parts
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£120.00 for a key is not too bad so the dealer will pay less than half & as the comment not fit for purpose yes i was been a bit strong there but dealers get my back up, There fine when cash is coming out but aftersales are rubbish with some.
It did have a kerbed front wheel and they said they would sort it,They did with a hammer and straighten out the steel rim & they balanced it but still have a little vibration from 70 onwards.
I don't expect them to replace it with a brand new steel wheel but on a forecourt full of vauxhalls i do expect a replacement wheel on my car fit for the job.
7 Days is enough time for them to find this key and drop off or i would collect it.
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A second key for my mk4 Golf GTI (which came with one) is about £150 even through a VW tech mate, and that's with him doing the coding for nothing. He said exactly what bellboy said - they get very little discount on keys.
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Slight drift, but another expensive bit to source is the towing eye cover for a Fiat Panda.
It's a piece of plastic about 1" square, but a dealer with whom I'm friendly tells me there's no change from £100 by the time it's painted.
When the new stock comes off the transporter it's one of the things they check very carefully.
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The same thing on a Renault Scenic II (unpainted) is about £25 IIRC and again is an inch square piece of plastic. There's a plastic retaining tab on the back of it, which keeps it from falling out of the bumper when you open it to attach the towing hook. It doesn't work. Ours fell off somewhere between Bracknell and Camberley when it was towed after the clutch failure. Insult to injury.
We didn't bother replacing it, and if the new owners noticed, they didn't mention it.
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last cover i bought was a corsa one,it cost me £28
i make my own depending on model an old number plate is ideal for lots of cars and i tiger seal them on once ive painted them
i do sometimes sell cars without the covers if i can so that should give ON more amunition
finally i always remove the cover if i need to winch a car by carefully pushing the little clips together then throwing it in the car to be retrieved later
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>>i do sometimes sell cars without the covers if i can so that should give
>> ON more amunition
Nothing personal BB, When I was a naive youngster I was ripped off by a car dealer, I vowed never again. It's just a "Buyer beware" message.
PS. Your spell checker can't spell ammunition. :-)
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I've often suspected that this little part might disappear so, in the past, have lightly glued it in place with Evostik. This makes it removable with a little leverage from a screwdriver but inhibits theft.
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>> £120.00 for a key is not too bad so the dealer will pay less than
>> half
We wish!
the buying discount on a key from the manufacturer I work for is less than 10%... take into account the time and hassle it takes to get all the required paperwork done, and the dealership makes sod all.
That is no joke - to order a key takes in all the best part of 1/2 an hour - the customer only see's 10 mins of that and often complains at being kept waiting!
And as regards margins on other parts, they are no where as high as you would like to believe.
on many parts, the 15% BB mentioned gives him a bigger slice of the pie than the dealer keeps, but if the trade didnt get it, we wouldnt see it, Euro's or the like would instead.
the only items dealers get about 50% on would be fast moving filers and the like, and a decent trade customer may get 25-30%
This compares to when my old mum used to work in haberdashery, and they would mark up cost price by 500% or more.....
Last edited by: swiss tony on Wed 28 Jul 10 at 20:36
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Get a new key from a locksmith. You will need the original, and probably ID/proof of ownership.
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Re towing eye cover. I had a 2000 model Galaxy. It suffered from a strange ailment. If it was raining heavily and I was travelling reasonably quickly, it would occasionally totally lose power to the steering making it feel very heavy and odd.
After several abortive attempts to trace the problem it was ultimately cured by replacing the front towing eye cover. No one, including me had noticed that it was missing. Seems that in heavy rain and at speed, the water could get through the hole and on to the power steering drive belt, causing it to slip.
Led to some interesting higher speed corners/roundabouts before it was fixed.
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>> Get a new key from a locksmith. You will need the original, and probably ID/proof
>> of ownership.
And you will need to code it to the car, the locksmith cant unless he has access to the odb port.
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I don't know exactly about that, not being a locksmith. Are you a locksmith? No? You could ask:
www.holloway-locksmith.co.uk/car_keys.html
or someone like that.
Last edited by: FotheringtonTomas on Wed 28 Jul 10 at 20:30
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he has the kit to connect to the ODB port - as I said.
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And being a locksmith is so easy, even you could do it FT.
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Yup, needs more than a locksmith. Daughter got a second key for the Fiesta. It opens the doors fine but won't start it - and disables it for a few minutes if tried.
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BigTee - Make sure you get the "Car Pass" card with all the various security codes on too. Failing that, a printout from the dealer.
Being a main dealer I would press for them to provide a new replacement coded key if the old one doesn't turn up. There are other cheaper ways of getting a new key done via ebay etc but it's quite complicated (search vectra-c.com as VX Fan suggests)
If your front wheel still wobbles after their treatment with a hammer I would press for a replacement. Thought you bought an exclusiv - sounds like it should come with alloys?
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My Chrysler Cruiser came with just one key. The rubber bit of the remote fob has disintegrated too, so I had to cut the thumb off a rubber glove and put it on the fob as a sort of condom to stop the buttons falling out.
So far so good, but it's a worry and I don't even dare ask the price of a new one. 200 plus I bet.
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Had to get a new plipper key from MB, pre coded from the factory about £70 all in.
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Ford one just keeps working really.....sigh.....Of course it does have a spare key but that never gets used.
:-)
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Oh, do stop being a prat.
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>> Oh, do stop being a prat.
I get it from you.
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>> Oh, do stop being a prat.
Hey that's not fair ! Why should I be the odd one out ?
:-)
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So he can do it - as I said.
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Indeed as I said he could. Some of them cant.
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I believe that some automotive locksmiths can clone the existing working key's transponder code onto a new key. I don't know if this is possible for all makes though.
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>> Daughter got a second key for the Fiesta. It opens the doors fine but won't start it - and disables it for a few minutes if tried.
We've had 2 extra keys cut for our Focus (one for each daughter) by a Ford dealer, just plain keys (non-remote) which I think cost about £15 each, though it was a few years back. Handbook tells you how to use an existing key to code the new ones to the vehicle. Job's a good 'un.
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We bought one from Ebay for the CRV and used the instructions available on the internet to code it to the car.
Around £20 if I remember, that's all, and not at all hard to do.
Pat
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>> We bought one from Ebay for the CRV and used the instructions available on the internet to code it to the car. Around £20 if I remember,
If buying a replacement fob for a Vectra-C from somewhere like ebay, it has to be brand new as 2nd hand fobs are not reprogramable. You also have to make sure you have the correct fob as I believe there are 2 or 3 different ones that use different electronics inside.
Also not only does it have to be coded for the immobiliser, but for the remote central locking as well. This can only be done by using something like Tech2, or Op-com coding equipment, for which you'll need the security code(s) from the vehicle Car-Pass.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 29 Jul 10 at 10:14
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Few secondhand cars have everything with which they came from the factory. Write it off to experience and next time make sure you're completely satisfied with the car before you agree to buy it.
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Missing promised keys/plips is something I never let a dealer get away with... why say there are definately two but the owner's forwarding the second when it's not true.
Remember a main Citroen dealer selling me a used Xantia 10yrs ago with just this story... sale done by father of a father/son family partnership too. A week after I had the car the guy shrugs his shoulders and says the old owner didn't have the key after all and effectively it was tough luck. Amazing turn around from the initial smooth sales patter of 7 days before.
Needless to say after a few words from me he supplied a brand new key/plip at no cost which they coded to the car when I called to collect it.
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In the past i have bought a used Megane and a Citroen Picasso both of which only had one key present when i viewed them. In both cases in response to the promise to obtain a 2nd key, my answer was "phone me when you have obtained it, then i will arrange to pay the balance and collect the car". That seems to focus their mind more to get hold of 2nd key, in my experience anyway !
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"The Sale of Goods Act
Essentially, the Act states that what you sell must fit its description, ............"
Did the description (on the order form, invoice or wherever) state that the car was being supplied with a spare key?
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 29 Jul 10 at 09:33
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Does the description say 4 wheels? a spare? a horn? No.
the car, as new, came with two. you are buying that car compete with its two keys.
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the cars not new though its second hand
so has no bearing on the sale unless as i said a second key was promised
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Forgetting the keys for a minute, I'd be more worried about the wheel issue. The front wheels can be notoriously difficult to balance on a Vectra C - as I know from experience. So if it's not right due to a dodgy wheel, you're going to want that replaced outright. Fortunately, being a steel jobbie, it should be cheap to do, so not much fuss raised.
I find Bellboy's contribution interesting, as he obviously thinks the punter gets what they get and should be happy. Whereas our expectations as a customer are clearly a lot higher.
Not saying either one is right or wrong. There's no point selling cars if you can't make a profit, and equally, I wouldn't personally buy a car with just one key, but it does illustrate why there is often so much conflict and distrust between dealers and customers...
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Well as the dealer gets a tiny margin for moving cars on, the idea that he might have to spend hundreds or more on a second key...
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>> Well as the dealer gets a tiny margin for moving cars on,>>
Where are all these poor impoverished car dealers?
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round my way ON mainly gone bust
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True enough, I've seen plenty of indie dealers go bust round here, some long established, others not so.
Strangely, the main dealers seem to be escaping these problems. Perhaps they have deeper pockets or simply higher margins?
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Strangely, the main dealers seem to be escaping these problems. Perhaps they have deeper pockets or simply higher margins?
>>>>>>
>>>>>in most cases its due to the fact the banks cant allow them to go bust because they know that they havent a hope in hell of selling anything if they did pull the plug
go round any town and see tumble weed blowing in the compounds
actually im doing fine but im finding it impossible to find worthwhile stock
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>> actually im doing fine but im finding it impossible to find worthwhile stock
>>
Take a run down to Sheerness and So'ton even Tilbury (in a smaller way) docks and see all the prime proper used cars lined up ready to ship out, been happening for a long time, is Hull similar or do they go from somewhere else?
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>> Strangely, the main dealers seem to be escaping these problems. Perhaps they have deeper pockets
>> or simply higher margins?
£100+ /hr workshops, plus full whack on parts used for service and repairs make a big contribution to a main dealer's bottom line.
My boss had a 30k service on his Jag XF recently. The engine oil alone was charged at £19 per litre. I cannot imagine the cost to them is even half that. Plus an hours labour at £125. Plus a pair of rear pads at £105. All with huge margins. The dealer has six service bays. It is highly likely this is where the bulk of their profits come from.
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>> The engine oil alone was charged at £19 per litre. I cannot imagine the cost to them is even half that.
£2 per litre for fully synth give-or-take.
Nice mark-up.
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...Nice mark-up...
Much as I fancy a Ford dealership of my very own, I don't think the business plan would look too clever, were you starting from scratch today.
Given the relatively low margins on cars, and the overheads of the glass palaces, I'm surprised any of the dealers make any money.
The big chains seem to do OK, maybe servicing is where it's at.
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>>The big chains seem to do OK, maybe servicing is where it's at.
At £19 a litre, I think you're right...
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>> round my way ON mainly gone bust
>>
Sorry BB, but I have as much sympathy as the motor trade shows to its customers.
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Just been down to another vauxhall dealer to get a quote £34.00 for the wheel & folding key £58.50 plus vat & the £40.00 for setting up the key.
So not too bad for the dealer to pay is it.
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Amazing got a phone call today the spare key was in the sales managers draw all the time so picked it up today car booked in next week for a replacement wheel.
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I'd be more concerned as to why the dealer had a death certificate. IIRC those things aren't cheap and you don't go scattering them around like confetti.
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>> I'd be more concerned as to why the dealer had a death certificate. IIRC those
things aren't cheap and you don't go scattering them around like confetti.>>
It's only a photocopy - and it's the same one that he waves at everyone ;-)
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Vauxhall Vectra C - Only got one key? - Zero
