AutoQuake 2nd hand car sale - any one brought from?

jason.parker.86

Hello,

I have been reading this thread with great interest and thought I would add my thoughts for what they are worth.

Autoquake are a midlde-man. They BORROW stock from DFM / LloydsTSB / Lombard - all big finance companies who basically supply lease cars to them idiots you see driving at 100MPH on the M62 in a VW Passat, with a black blazer hung on a coat hanger in the back window.

How they work is very simple. The big finance companies will have thousands of cars every week that are ready to go to auction. They go their to start their new life as a used car, simply because the lease is over on the car, its been re-possessed because the company has gone bust, or the employee has been caught with his trousers around his leggs - fiddling his sales figures (thus sacked). These auction houses are all over the country and joe bloggs can goto one and buy (Manheim, BCA, etc) but expect to be hit with a buyer fee of approx £300 on a car of £10,000.

9/10 cars that goto the auction houses will be snapped up by the motortrade, and 1/10 will either not hit the reserve or for one reason another - or the sale will fall through.

What Autoquake are doing is promising the big finance companes CAP Clean (CAP is the "parkers guide price" for the motor trader) figures for their cars, with the aim of reselling it within 2 - 3 weeks.

This means that Autoquake will only act as a "middle man" for the car, holding the car to sell onto the public (on behalf of the finance company), and if in this time scale the car is not sold, the finance companies send these cars straight to the auction.

So... Why do the finance companies do this? It all boils down to money. It costs them to sell the cars at the auction, and its a bit of a gamble what they will get for them, where as a company like Autoquake can say... "If we sell your car we will give you this amount and not charge you to sell it." Compare it to selling a house, the estate agent will only get paid on completion of a sale, so if he doesnt sell it- he loses out on all advertising costs etc... so its in his interest to sell your house.

So with these cars, expect the following:

- Full main dealer service history
- 9 out of 10 will be due a service (they never do the 3 year service if 3 year old)
- 1 Company Owner
- Good Tyres (Not Cheapo's)
- Hands free kits on dashboards, or holes in dash where a hands free kit was once present.
- Dogee stain on drivers seat

My opinion is simple. Regardless of where you buy your USED car from, they would have at once point (Unless P/X'ed) been through an auction house, and more than likly an ex lease car. Corporate organisations are the only people silly enough to buy a new car, but in return get hassle free motoring for 3 years.

My conclusion is ...What you are buying is the same, except its just a no-thrills version. The product is the same, its just 10% cheaper than most dealers.

Finally - Parkers / What Car / Which Valuations at the moment are out of the window. I can honestly tell you that the prices of used cars is far higher than the valutions given by these companies.

I hope you find my comments useful.

Jason

NatD1978

To be fair, Jason makes some really good points above.

I am a compay car driver - not as described above though lol - I have a Merceded C Class Kompressor. It's finally getting collected on Thursday and a Pre Contract car delivered (my new Audi won't be ready till November).

I feel sorry for anyone that ends up buying my Mercedes though. It was a pool car before I got it, and has been thrashed by everyone that got behind the wheel. To be honest, I haven't exactly taken great care of it either.

Purely on that basis, first hand experience, I would never consider buying an ex-lease / company car.

jason.parker.86

Ahh.. the good old pool cars. Nothing like taking the pool car out for a day in Hull, then getting back and hoping nobody remembers to ask you to fill out the "log" to log you as driving it - because you feel that that bloody speed camera van may have caught you doing 50 in a 30!

In my honest opinion, anyone who buys a 2nd hand car at present needs their head testing. Used car prices are sky high, and likly to remain sky high until the 59 plates out (September) when dealers will be flooded with 4 year old cars (Because companies held onto the 3 year old car for the extra year) due to the recession.

Top Tip: Hold back buying till October, expect to see some fantastic bargains.

robbieb34

Yes Jason is spot on and gives a very good reminder about the comparison price they give on Autoquakes website. This is a poor effort by them at making their prices look cheaper, the reality is that considering the general condition i.e overdue a service and with bits and pieces needing doing, they're no cheaper than buying from a reputable dealer who will have properly prepared the car for a retail sale. Plus many of the cars, as Jason points out will be bog standard with no frills in dull colours which any case automatically reduces their value and desirabilty in the trade and on the forecourts.

These are generally auction rejects so don't expect them to be as good as they put across on the website, there are so many things that don't show up on photos.

jason.parker.86

I always say if you goto Autotrader, a reputable place to find used cars, find a private buyer and knock him down on the phone prior to going down their.

Worst that can happen is they say no. Don't forget, alot of people who are selling newer cars maybe buying a brand new car, so would have already got a "part exchange" price from the dealer, so will have a rough idea as to what to expect.

Don't be put off buying private, if you get a vehicle inspection done by a local reputable garage, buying private can be just as much fun as buying from a dealer.

I have purchased a few private cars at very good prices! Remember, just because they are advertising it for £12,000 - does not mean they wont take £10,000!

markollyh

robbieb34 wrote: »

the reality is that considering the general condition i.e overdue a service and with bits and pieces needing doing, they're no cheaper than buying from a reputable dealer.

This wasn't the case for me Autoquake price £6995. My local reputable dealer £10995 same car, same mileage and almost the same condition.

If the prices were even close then I admit I would have gone to my local dealer.

ceeahbee

jason.parker.86 wrote: »

This means that Autoquake will only act as a "middle man" for the car,

This is quite ironic as I clearly remember Autoquakes 'philosophy' was to cut out the middle man..!

jason.parker.86

The problem is these days their is no way to avoid having to deal with a middle man. Companies do not want to sell 1 item to 30 customers, they want to sell 30 items to one customer, and unfortunately everyone has to make a living!

jgc

autoquake wrote: »

Hello there,

As Ban520 correctly points out, Autoquake.com is indeed a car dealer, selling cars on behalf of car fleets (we have sold 5,000 cars in 2008 and should sell over 15,000 in 2009). All of our cars have gone through an HPI check and a 120 point inspection. Cosmetic damage, if any, is highlighted in our condition viewer (see the "Vehicle Condition" tab on our car descriptions). Most of the cars have a full service history and scans of the logbook are displayed on our website (see the specifications tab).

Kind regards,
Clement (Autoquake.com)

OK.... I'm going to act as a test case here for autoquake. I have no affiliation with them (and infact live at the opposite end of the country from the branch concerned).

I have been looking for a good quality second hand BMW 525d Touring for a while and I have found and reserved one online with autoquake.

My experience so far:

1. The website is excellent
2. The picture shown are very good
3. The reservation process is very simple and I have no issue paying a 100 pound refundable deposit (I would expect to do something similar at a traditional dealer to secure the car)
4. Having reserved the car I called to ask some very basic questions about the car and go through to a very pleasant lady on the phone who didn't appear to know anything about cars and was simply there to take money and arrange appointment which was all very nice but of no use
5. I then called to ask for the 100+ point inspection output from them and again spoke to a very helpful lady with no real knowledge but I did manage to solicit the check sheet from them which was very helpful
6. Always get the check sheet from them when considering purchasing a car - the sheet revealed many minor cosmetic areas of damage on the vehicle which were not mentioned on the website including many stone chips, scratches and dents
7. I emailed and a helpful chap at the leeds office went around the car with a colleague and listed all of the damage (which should have been on the website in the first place as per Clements comments above)
8. I then called the same chap at leeds who has said he will take photos of all the damage for me today (good)
9. This chap did say in a flippant tone on the phone, however, that 'it is a used car'.....clearly it is a used car however I own a used car at the moment and it has no dents or scratches and if I were selling it I would disclose any (especially if my website says 'if the car is not 100% as described we will discount it or make it to the described condition')
10. Bearing in mind the quote from the website I have asked autoquake to either repair the damage properly (not just touch it in with a touch up pen) or discount the vehicle to cover the repairs
11. I am awaiting the photos, a response on the repairs and the HPI check output at the moment but I'll let you know how I get on

I should also mention that I am not able to visit the leeds location as I live too far away and so will have the car delivered so FULL DISCLOSURE from autoquake is vital to ensure confidence. Yes I know they have a 7 day money back guarantee but that doesn't help much if I have to drive the car from london to leeds to return it and pay for a train ticket back.

So far my impressions of autoquake:

a) excellent website
b) simple to use online reservations process
c) very nice but not very knowledgeable telephone staff
d) did not disclose all faults with the car on their website which makes me nervous
e) fair to cheap price for the car

Lets see how the next stages go.......

James

Errata

Very intersting, but I can't understand why you don't get the AA to inspect it. Dings and dents are small matters, an engine on the point of falling to bits is somewhat different, and not one that can be assessed through a photograph.