Motor trade-ins

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32629, 10 June 1971, Page 10

Motor trade-ins

Sir, —It has interested me twice recently to read in your columns that it is illegal for car firms to demand a trade-in on the purchase of a new car. It has just been my experience to be refused my new vehicle for this very reason. I wished to sell my older vehicle at a “reasonable” price, but the firm offered me $4OO less than I was paid by another firm when I sold it the next week. This latter firm immediately made $3OO on my vehicle! Would someone in authority please say what course one ji

should take to obtain a new car without a trade-in? Can the firm legally refuse to sell me the new vehicle once they have advised me it is available? —Yours, etc., PACTIO OBTEMPERO. June 4, 1971.

[Our motoring correspondent replies: “Recent court judgments make clear that it is illegal for a dealer to insist on a trade-in as a condition of selling a customer a new car. If such a condition is set, especially before a witness, the prospective customer should immediately lodge a complaint with the Department of Industries and Commerce. The practice of insisting on a trade-in is common mainly because most customers are not willing to complain, and in effect seem prepared to pay a premium to get a new car.”]