Used Car Dealers Versus Private Owners

shahpur

Buying a used car from a dealer or privately, which is the best?
Can anyone please advise me .

I've been looking for over a week for a car and its is driving me mad.

I was told it was best to buy privately for a better deal, so i have been looking on Gumtree , ebay and Autotrader but even though i select the private sellers option 75% seem to be car dealers anyway and there is not a lot of choice ..

I have around £500 - £1500 to spend and do around 400 miles a week .

I was wondering as i know very little about cars would it be better off paying the extra and going through a proper car dealer/ showroom.

I am in Birmingham if anyone knows a good place to look , i had a fiesta zetec in the past.

Thanks in advance
shahpur

cos69

shahpur wrote: »

...... I was wondering as i know very little about cars would it be better off paying the extra and going through a proper car dealer/ showroom. ...

If you know little about cars, then you need to arrange for what your buying to be checked out by someone knowledgeable, even if you have to pay one of the motoring organisations to do it.

The advantage of a dealer is, they have to sell you something roadworthy although some of them will consider a valid MOT with a few months to run as evidence of that. A private sale means its as you see it.

rev_henry

I would suggest that you choose the car first, not the seller; it doesn't really matter too much, certainly in that price range. Look on autotrader for something you like, don't worry too much about private/dealer/etc. By the sounds of it your after suggestions of cars to look at? Well, at that price, I'd suggest an old shape corsa, or a fiesta as you say. Doing that kinda mileage you don't really want anything with much over 35k on the clock (or 50k ish if its a diesel, as they work less hard and can therefore do higher mileages). To give you some idea, we bought our 1999 corsa 1.0 with 16k towards the end of last year for £1500 and its been great so far.

shahpur

thanks for the quick replies , i went to one dealer and he tried to sell me a VW golf TDi 1.9 with 115,000 miles on the clock for £800 . He said that mileage does not matter with Diesel cars as they would last at least another 50k no problem especially VW.

I know it is not a big budget i have but would it be better to a buy a cheaper car ( around £600 ) and if it goes wrong move on to another if a major problem occurs

goldspanners

shahpur wrote: »

thanks for the quick replies , i went to one dealer and he tried to sell me a VW golf TDi 1.9 with 115,000 miles on the clock for £800 . He said that mileage does not matter with Diesel cars as they would last at least another 50k no problem especially VW.

I know it is not a big budget i have but would it be better to a buy a cheaper car ( around £600 ) and if it goes wrong move on to another if a major problem occurs

what age is the golf you were offered? that might not be too bad a deal.

shahpur

hi it was a 97 model ,

goldspanners

shahpur wrote: »

hi it was a 97 model ,

thats below average milage for the year.

try and drop him by another £200 and i would say that was a good deal if it has a years mot and at least 6 months tax and looks in half decent condition.

shahpur

hi , it was marked up at £950 and he would not come down anymore , it did have quite a bit of rust and wear. Is it true about VW diesel engines lasting around 200k miles .

goldspanners

shahpur wrote: »

hi , it was marked up at £950 and he would not come down anymore , it did have quite a bit of rust and wear. Is it true about VW diesel engines lasting around 200k miles .

any diesel engine will last to that no problem if its looked after, the vw's are pretty robust though and fairy simple to repair with cheap after market parts available from suppliers like GSF.
your budget should be able to afford you something newer though.

you need to know what you want and will need from the car,then choose a car that suits,then look for the best deal on said car

have a look at skoda fabias, they use vw engines and share a few other vw parts.

shahpur

thanks fir the advice ,

Cat695

if it has rust then stay away......costs a fortune to get through an MOT unless you know a welder