Pre Purchase Jitters

[Lynxter]

Hello,

I’m hoping to be joining the PHEV community very soon and have reserved a June 2017 registered 5H Outlander PHEV with 5000 miles on which I am travelling to the UK from Ireland to look over / test drive early next week. The plan is that if the car turns out to be what I hope, I will purchase same day and travel back to Ireland that evening.

I’ve been avidly reading through this forum for a number of months and the wealth of experience posted by members has been one of the contributory factors in me deciding to take the plunge. I’m replacing an eleven-year-old Renault Grand Scenic which has been a fantastic family car but is in imminent need of retirement.

The car I’m looking at is being sold through a national car supermarket and the information available through what appears to be their call centre is sparse. I am hoping that when I arrive the sales staff on site have a more in-depth knowledge of the car but from previous conversations and test drives with other dealerships including Mitsubishi, I’m not overly confident this will be the case.
My reason for posting is to ask for some advice on the must-have / must do’s when looking over the car before deciding to buy, particularly in relation to the MMCS system. Having read numerous posts about the difficulties and costs that others have experienced in trying to locate SSID / CDs and Wi-Fi passwords I want to do my best to avoid that. Can I ask anyone how that information is usually handed over i.e. is the SSID card / CD inserted somewhere into the MMCS system and where should I look for the Wi-Fi connectivity information.

My flight is booked for Tuesday and hopefully, by the middle of next week, I’ll be a fully-fledged PHEV owner.

Many thanks in advance to anyone that can reply to what I know is a short timeframe.

Kind regards - Lynxter

PS: Any other helpful information that you may think useful would also be very welcome.

 

[Tipper]

For a car that young and from a main dealer I wouldn't expect any problems at all. It will have the remainder of the 5 year warranty which I presume is international or at least European! The warranty is 5 years from 15 reg. cars.

You need to ensure the battery 240V charging cable 'with box' is there and a small card with the car handbook which gives the car's router's SSID name and the password. The car is not internet connected just a local router for your devices to connect to.

My car was dealer sourced from the Mitsubishi UK management fleet (actually registered to a manager of Colt Cars who are Mitsubishi UK) and had 5000 miles on the clock. To all intents and purposes it was brand new in all respects.

A point to note though - cars cannot be driven on UK roads anymore without insurance and road tax. The police use roadside and mobile registration plate recognition cameras to check all cars against their database and will stop offenders and may seize the car! I recently purchased a used car, not PHEV, privately and both insured and then taxed it online before driving it home. It can be done in 15 minutes on your smart phone. You can get temporary, even one day, insurance for your short journey on UK roads and you need insurance before you can tax it.

 

[Lynxter]

Thanks Tipper,

From the bit of research, I’ve done the warranty is pan European which covers the car for the remainder of the five years.

Thanks for the info re the charger, handbook & card and what to look for when looking at it.

I have the insurance sorted for collection and hadn’t thought about the road tax for the trip to the ferry, I appreciate you pointing that out. With not being a UK resident I’m not sure whether a one-day road tax is something that will be easy to organise the same day. I'll speak to the dealer when I’m there about what solutions there may be.

Once I’m back I have 30 days to organise re-registration after which I can get it taxed here.

Sincere thanks for your reply.

 

[NightPHEVer]

Don't know if the 'road tax' (Vehicle Excise Duty) system is any different in Ireland (you don't say whether South or North) but if it was registered in June 2017 then it's still within its 12 month period of year one so it'll still be.... Oh no, hang on. The DVLA changed all this so they could effectively get some extra revenue by means of the previous owner and the new owner paying 'tax' for the same month should the buying and selling period occur within a one month period, which it often does, especially if it's a 'private' sale. I'd suggest you enquire with the dealer before hand about this as I'm not sure anybody actually understands it anymore. And PC Plum says If it's not 'taxed' it's not insured - well he does in Balamory anyway.

 

[ChrisMiller]

a small card with the car handbook which gives the car's router's SSID name and the password

Your car may be new enough not to need it, or it may not have been applied yet, but the Mitsubishi update to fix the well-known security issue changes the password, so mine is now on a piece of paper helpfully written out by the dealer. The SSID doesn't change and is broadcast by the car in any case - it's of the form REMOTE99xxxx.