It's a bank holiday weekend. No surprise that the admin staff are not in. Same as they wouldn't be in on a sunday in most cases.

If you haven't got your insurance sorted - which it is a LEGAL obligation for the car to get taxed in your name - then don't go blaming the dealership !

All you need to tax it is valid insurance, the MOT if applicable, and either the 'green new keeper slip', or the dealership can do it for you online.

You state that "Sorting it on monday would be fine". But have you ever 'sorted it' on a bank holiday monday ?

Can we tax a car easily or does it need certain documents now?

To tax the car you need the ref off the V5C (on page 3 - its got an extra digit) and valid insurance, easy to do it on-line.

we havn't got the insurance sorted

You can also buy insurance on-line, cannot understand why you have had difficulty sorting insurance. That is not the dealers fault.

Has anything changed in car buying recently

Yes, its got easier with the use of the internet. Sold a car to a buyer off Autotrader. He came by train, I took him a ride, he gave me cash, insured it using my laptop and taxed it using my laptop. He drove off never to be seen again. All within an hour.

Sorry James - I don't think any of us are understanding why you didn't sort out the insurance this week so that the dealer could deal with it on a weekday.

All I can suggest is that you arrange insurance on the phone tomorrow, get the insurer to Email you the certificate and other paperwork (they work on Saturdays and should be able to do that - SAGA did it for me as soon as I'd put the phone down). I can't see why the salesman shouldn't accept you showing it to him on Monday: try saying no deal if he doesn't.