Liability for car buyers: Questions and advice

Questioner

Almost two years ago I bought a BMW 520D from 2012 from a dealer in Emmen. We took a test drive at the time and the car drove as you would expect properly. Since we use the car for business and want to keep the costs of the BMW down a bit, I started looking at a Lease car. When test driving a VW in Oisterwijk it turned out that my BMW had a WOK damage in the past. The import BPM was apparently so low that several alarm bells started ringing at the VW dealer. I was completely unaware of this. My wife indicated that she even asked the BMW dealer the question, from which the answer was said to be that there was nothing wrong with it. Now I cannot remember this, but there was certainly no mention of a damage history of the BMW. Initially, the VW dealer indicated that there would be a trade-in price (even before the WOK report came forward) of €20,500. In the meantime, the car has been on the bridge and it is clearly demonstrable where the damage was. Result: the price that they still want to give for the BMW is only €17,500, which is a lot less. A second VW dealer (Udenhout) does not even want to continue with the BMW given the WOK past of the car> Can I hold the dealer liable for this? Or should he take the car back for the first offer from the VW dealer, given that this may be realistic minus the depreciation costs of the car?

Lawyer

In addition to your duty to investigate, the seller has a duty to report the condition of the car and you may assume this when making your purchase decision. After all, if you had known about the damage, there would have been a different negotiating position. If you can prove that there is WOK damage (and that is possible, as is evident from your explanation), then you have a good starting position and you can cancel the purchase. In that case, no agreement has been reached. I advise you to notify the seller of this in writing.