What Car? Q&A - My car on order has increased in price

Q: My daughter paid a deposit for a Mercedes SLK 200 and has been waiting several months for it.

She was contacted by the dealer and told that it would be ready for mid June. The salesman also informed her that the price of the vehicle had gone up £500 since April 1, 2005.

Is the dealership allowed to slap the new price on my daughter when informing her the car is only a few weeks off delivery?
Martin Seel

Unfortunately the contract your daughter has with the dealer is highly likely to reserve the right to change prices and charge you extra, even on an order made a long time ago and with deposits paid.

On a car with such a long delivery time as the SLK, the chances of this happening obviously increase.

There’s unlikely to be any get-out clause, either. If you cancel the order, you’ll not get your deposit back.

It’s poor service for the dealership not to have alerted you to the price increase as soon as they knew to give you time to consider your options.

You might want to consider selling the car on. With a model as desirable as the SLK, you could even make a profit by selling it on to another buyer who can’t be bothered to wait in line.

The best course of action, however, may be to pay the extra for the car but to ask the dealer for a good-will gesture – perhaps a free first service.