On road costs rip off

Re the article by Susan Edmunds (August 15), on road costs when purchasing a car are a real rip off.

Consider this: We went to buy a brand new $50,000 car without trade-in and cash. I queried the salesman about on road costs of $1260 and he explained that $450 was for new registration. Oh well. OK.

Carry on – $60 for new WOF. Doesn’t the law say the seller must provide a WOF not more than one month old?

Carry on – $300 for grooming. What? I have to pay to have my new car cleaned, vacuumed, polished?

Next: $300 for PDC (pre-delivery check). What? I have to pay to have my new car checked for mechanical defects? And who pays to have any rectified?

And the final $150? Oh, that’s for a tank of petrol. No amount of discussion would have these charges waived, so we walked away from that deal and went and bought another make of car, where, with a little negotiation, we paid the new registration only.

Unfortunately, after a year this car was written off by someone who didn’t understand the STOP means stop.

So, back to the first dealer and to our delight and surprise, no on road costs at all. Why so? Well, explained the salesman, our now departed accountant would not let us sell our cars without this charge. This was costing us sales, so he had to go, and sales then picked up.

We bought a second-hand $20,000 Jap import at the same time as the aforementioned deal we walked away from. The dealer delivered this car with six months’ registration, a new WOF, immaculately groomed, an AA inspection report, and an apology for not quite a full tank of petrol as he brought it over from Tauranga for us. Good deal!

An examination of some dealers listings for second-hand cars sometimes also has ‘‘Plus on-road-costs’’, but a buyer should be able to drive off the showroom floor/yard for the price advertised.

Come on dealers, stop creaming it. And buyers – don’t pay ‘‘On Road Costs’’.

Jim Madgwick

Matamata