Sell by dates on dealers new stock

B

Bedspring

Free Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2017
Posts
64
Likes collected
23
Funster No
50,278
I have seen a new van at a dealers. It has been there at least 3 months. I suspect they have been using it at shows. I asked them how long they have had it.
  1. They said it comes with a full 3 year warranty
  2. I asked them how long they have had it.
  3. They said it comes with a full 3 year warranty
  4. I asked them how long they have had it.
  5. They said it comes with a full 3 year warranty

With some annoyance I asked if they would actually tell me how long they had, had it.
They said they would come back to me.
I have not heard from them since.

What do you think?

ps, I assume there is a plate on it somewhere that actually tells me this, so this makes me think they are doubly shifty.
 
Bedspring said:
I have seen a new van at a dealers. It has been there at least 3 months. I suspect they have been using it at shows. I asked them how long they have had it.
  1. They said it comes with a full 3 year warranty
  2. I asked them how long they have had it.
  3. They said it comes with a full 3 year warranty
  4. I asked them how long they have had it.
  5. They said it comes with a full 3 year warranty

With some annoyance I asked if they would actually tell me how long they had, had it.
They said they would come back to me.
I have not heard from them since.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
Sounds like the dealer has been totally straight and honest with you about that 2017 unregistered van............... Look at the date on the tyres for a very rough indication
 
Ask to see the Certificates of Conformity they will have dates of manufacture so you can see when the chassis was made and when the conversion was done.

Sounds like a dealer you wouldn't want to deal with anyway.
 
And I suppose with 25,000 people drifting through it at various shows, its had a thorough PDI

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
If it's a Ducato/Boxer based van, the drivers door opening has a SEVEL hologram with the date of manufacture on it......at least mine does.
 
Augusta08 said:
If it's a Ducato/Boxer based van, the drivers door opening has a SEVEL hologram with the date of manufacture on it......at least mine does.
Click to expand...
I never knew that! I must have a look at mine. Every day’s a school day! (y)
 
I bought my "new" Hymer after the dealer had it for 10 months or so. I knew that because they had put a sales video of it online when it first arrived. Had 500 miles on the clock because of being taken to shows on trade plates. They had overspecced it with extras.

I bought in November when the next year's models were arriving and I got it for a very good price and am the first registered owner. They had prepared it well and it was like new when I picked it up.

If you want it and the price is right buy it. But 3 months or so on a sales lot is not very long. If they have taken it to shows there will probably be mileage on the clock because most are driven there. So just insist they switch on the ignition and check. Having said that there have not been many shows in the last 3 months.
 
Chassis would be older than conversion in any case, but another id date to look for is the electric master should have an install date (test) sticker on it, look there
 
Augusta08 said:
If it's a Ducato/Boxer based van, the drivers door opening has a SEVEL hologram with the date of manufacture on it......at least mine does.
Click to expand...

Our Ducato doesn't

Someone blew the doors off...



.....'A' Class

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
All vehicles should have a 17 digit VIN since 1981, that's an international standard. Mel, you may be looking at an abbreviated version on some place/plate other than the official location for the VIN.

As for the website quoted above, don't take too much notice of the dating info on there, my interest is Volkswagen and the info for that make on the above site is incorrect. Digits 4,5 & 6 are filling 'Z' characters on European models, also notice that the model year of many manufacturers is nothing like the calendar year, VW for instance the model year is nominally August to July but varies depending on factory model changes. A VW dealer can, if he is willing, (try the trade parts counter as they are normally the most knowledgeable) provide you with a Car Data print which provides the specification of the vehicle as it left the assembly line and the actual date of manufacture.
 
We too have bought both ours, new but previous years model. 2006 for a registration of 2008. Our current one, 2012 but register 2013. Both had substantial reductions. Both first registered owners.
 
rod_vw said:
All vehicles should have a 17 digit VIN since 1981, that's an international standard. Mel, you may be looking at an abbreviated version on some place/plate other than the official location for the VIN
Click to expand...

We only have 17 in total, on the camper and the V5C ... the website link says to look at the 18th, 19th and 20th ones!
 
Posted this info before bought a first registered 13 plate transit hobby checked some time after for spares came out of ford Germany factory 2007 was obviously not stored under cover during this time traded same mentioned to dealer said thanks but not relevant
It was to me

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Cheshirecat57 said:
Chassis would be older than conversion in any case, but another id date to look for is the electric master should have an install date (test) sticker on it, look there
Click to expand...
All the vans we have had it's only been a month or so between build but I have heard of some vans where it's over a year.

Cheshirecat57 said:
but another id date to look for is the electric master
Click to expand...
What's that?
 
If you have a shuftie under the bonnet chances are you'll find something with a date label on so obviously it can't be older than that (assuming it's a new MH and hasn't been worked on of course!).
 
Cheshirecat57 said:
Chassis would be older than conversion in any case, but another id date to look for is the electric master should have an install date (test) sticker on it, look there
Click to expand...
I refer to the habitation Fuse box/ isolation area
 
The dealer is probably an ex politician, trained in the dark art of deception and not answering questions.
Don't even bother trying to find it's true age , walk away, being deceitful before you've even bought it would prove to be an absolute nightmare if you then start finding problems with build quality after purchase.
New cars are often stored for many months in damp fields before arriving 'new' at dealers showrooms.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
rod_vw said:
All vehicles should have a 17 digit VIN since 1981, that's an international standard. Mel, you may be looking at an abbreviated version on some place/plate other than the official location for the VIN.
Click to expand...
In addition, the only parts of the VIN that are standardised are the first three characters and the last eight. The first three characters identify the manufacturer and are referred to as the World Manufacturer Identifier. This can have several versions for a single manufacturer according to the country of origin amongst other permutations. The last set of characters have to be unique to the make and model. The intervening characters are freely available for the manufacturer to use as they wish. Some may include a year of production. Some can tell you if the vehicle was built as LHD or RHD, manual or automatic, saloon or estate, etc, etc. Some manufacturer's just fill the space with zeros or random characters. Ford in Europe including the UK have the month and year of production encoded in the last seven digits. In the US, the ninth digit is used as a check digit and is derived by a calculation which involves applying a numeric weighting to the other 16 digits. In that way it is possible to check whether any VIN has been doctored or falsified. The check digit is rarely used in Europe, but many manufacturer's go to a lot of effort to include features in the body stamping characters which both make the stamping difficult to replicate and show tell tale signs of falsification under forensic examination.

Sorry, got a bit carried away (it was part of my job for many years) but the point I'm making is that you can't automatically assume that a manufacturing date will be included in any given VIN unless you know that a particular manufacturer includes that information, and how and at which character(s) he presents it.
 
Not sure what went wrong with the quoting on previous post, won't let me edit it, so I've tried again!

In addition, the only parts of the VIN that are standardised are the first three characters and the last eight. The first three characters identify the manufacturer and are referred to as the World Manufacturer Identifier. This can have several versions for a single manufacturer according to the country of origin amongst other permutations. The last set of characters have to be unique to the make and model. The intervening characters are freely available for the manufacturer to use as they wish. Some may include a year of production. Some can tell you if the vehicle was built as LHD or RHD, manual or automatic, saloon or estate, etc, etc. Some manufacturer's just fill the space with zeros or random characters. Ford in Europe including the UK have the month and year of production encoded in the last seven digits. In the US, the ninth digit is used as a check digit and is derived by a calculation which involves applying a numeric weighting to the other 16 digits. In that way it is possible to check whether any VIN has been doctored or falsified. The check digit is rarely used in Europe, but many manufacturer's go to a lot of effort to include features in the body stamping characters which both make the stamping difficult to replicate and show tell tale signs of falsification under forensic examination.

Sorry, got a bit carried away (it was part of my job for many years) but the point I'm making is that you can't automatically assume that a manufacturing date will be included in any given VIN unless you know that a particular manufacturer includes that information, and how and at which character(s) he presents it.

Edit: Just to add, having checked my books, there is no information in a Ducato VIN relating to its date of production.
 
Last edited:
This is the type of dealer that you should instantly walk away from and not even start to consider purchasing a new motorhome from their dealership.

If at the purchasing stage you get this type of response when they don't have your money in their bank account their helpfulness will be much less when they have it.
 
Last edited:

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top