Righto. My Mum's bought a Polo Harlequin (multi coloured horrorbox if you're not acquainted with the idea). But it's not a Polo Harlequin. It looks very much like a red polo that's been resprayed to look like Harlequin by a previous owner - door hinges etc. where paint has been slightly chipped, red paint shows through, and it lacks the special harlequin seat fabric. I expect that when I check the options codes and chassis numbers with VW that they'll confirm that it's not a Harlequin.
The other thing is that the car doesn't drive terrifically well. It feels like it needs new dampers, but it might just be that all Polos drive like this. OTOH it did seem worryingly able to drift around without being given any steering input by me when I had a very short drive of it today. It could be the super cheapo tyres fitted, but it could be suspension trouble - I've never had any of my old bangers do this to me...
Anyway, my point is this: The dealer almost certainly knew that he wasn't actually selling a Polo Harlequin (if he can't spot a paint job like that, he shouldn't be in the trade). Just in case you're wondering, VW made the proper Harlequins by making one of each colour and swapping panels. My mum's not that bothered by this, but I'm bothered by what seems to be dodgy handling on first impressions (the car managed to go from firmly on the right side of the road to the middle all by itself), particularly when she's bought this to be more suitable for the motorway than her old car. Money's not much of an issue for her, but she has paid well over what the car's worth, and I don't want to see her forking out a couple of hundred for fitting a decent set of tyres and replacing bits of suspension when the dealer should have sorted it in the first place before selling it.
So, now that the car's bought, collected and the logbook's been signed over, has she got a leg to stand on if I try to move her towards getting the dealer to take the car back? The car and dealer both give me a very bad gut feeling, but if it's very difficult to get him to take the car back, it'll save lots of arguments convincing her to get rid of the car (she loves the thing for some reason), and she might as well just spend the cash and get it fixed.
And for the record, I didn't see the car until she'd collected it...