Help please want to buy a used car- sick of all con garages- what would you recommend

Cat72

Hi
We are trying to buy a used car and probably like so many others are getting fed up. We have been conned in to buying rubbish cars in the past and are really wary of making the same mistake again.
We visited car land todat and then our freind said they had bad service and had probelms from them- so thats them ruledout. So who would you recommend. We want to buy from a reputable garage- and they must exist.Can anyone give us any pointers. We were thinking of paying between £ 6-8,000 and maybe thinking of a focus, or vectra but not 100% .
Any help wpuld be grateful as it would certainily save us and maybeothers money if we make the right choice this time.
thanks

balsingh

There is another alternative. You could buy private and take your local machanical with you if you want them to look the car over. You will always get a better deal, no pushy salesmen, but you wont get a warranty!!

david29dpo

i have yet to find a reputable garage, buy private. with a bit of looking, find a one owner, low milage, FSH car. always look at the log book and ALL paper work. take some one with you if you know nothing about cars who does. also access the seller. sounds odd but look at the house etc. hows it kept? are they decent people? there are a lot of good cars about if you do a bit of homework. why pay more at a garage?

Jorgan_2

How do you feel about buying at auctions? Many of the fleets dispose of their cars here so you do have an opportunity to cut out the middle man. Most ex fleet cars will come with a full service history, not just stamps in a book but a full print out of what has been done to the car, when, by who & at what cost.

Most of these cars can be found at the larger national auction sites, not the ones that deal in £1000 or under stuff. You can buy a seperate warranty which will probably be more effective than the one offered by some garages.

If you go down this route, attend a few auctions first to see how things work. It may take a bit of your time in attending & doing research but you could save more than enough to pay for next years holiday & the warranty.

Cat72

Hi
Thanks for your replys unfortunately the last two cars were bought from private sales. We dont know anything about cars really, one man was recommended by a friend as he sells the occasional car from home(who was a mechanic but like most mechanics have no time to come with you to look at cars - since the problems we had with the car he no longer speaks to the guy who sold us it ).The sellers were very nice people and had immaculate homes.The cars were immaculate and had no obvious probelms and had all the details with them- the highest mileage was about 40000.
At first we thought we had a great deal and our friend had a quick look at the cars and said they were ok, but then we had loads of problems and bills of £800 in the first few months for one of the cars- it is now worthless due to all the repairs we have had to pay on it.The other car had a defect that only became noticeable in the cold weather- it just never started, something that would definately been known to the seller. Because of these two bad experiences and our lack of car knowledge and not having anyone to help us I would NEVER buy from a private sale again.
I definately want a warranty, although I know this does not cover a lot of things. And my other half , like some people , prefrs the knowledge that he can talk to a garage when problems occur- unlike when we tried to get hold of the selllers of previous car.
Thanks for your recommendations so far- and I appreciate what you said about car auctions. I actually bought a car a few years ago from an auction and it was the best car I had, although I never knew you could get a warranty. Unfortunately I doubt my other half would buy from an auction.There must be some good garages around as a lot of people do purchase from them.

plane_boy2000

Motorpoint are OK - you get waht you see, and they are bulk shifters, but only sell new / nearly new stuff so you get the manufactures warranty - not theirs. they have loads of Focus's for example 55 Reg 1.6 LX metalic silver 9,000 miles, air con , CD etc 7699 with balance of Ford warranty which would be at least 2 years 1 month. Also remember that the manufacturers warranty covers far more than an aftermarket one - usually anything which is not a consumable i.e. brakes, tyres etc

vansboy

Cat, not sure where you are in country, but as you've visited Carland, a more of a 'pushy' & high priced/poor value retailer of slightly below average vehicles, but in a 'friendly' enviroment. check out https://www.cargiant.co.uk, you'll see some varying reports on this company, but the vehicles are pretty much what you'd see in auction, but at £500 - £1000 more!! Not too sure if they have similar type dealers your way!

Aslo it'd be a lot easier for yourself, if you can be a bit more precise on the make of car you'd like. I'm not trying to bo sarcastic or clever, but the Focus & Vectra are in 2 different segments of the market. Focus is up against Astra & Vectra is bigger, like Mondeo.

& when you get them together, you'll see they're all largish vehicles anyway!!

Also Focus is the most searched for (hence more desired/pricey) car on Autotrader website.

As you're only looking, just now, why not trawl a few showrooms & take some test drives in different models - they are NOT all the same. Work out the trim & engine size that suits & make sure you'll be happy with parting with your £$£$£, before coming unstuck!

As for warranties https://www.warrantydirect.co.uk lets YOU put a warranty on the vehicle!!

If you did want to go the auction route, you can arrange for an 'auction buyer' to do the legwork for you - you pay him a commission for his efforts & you buy the car at auction price!!

VB

Viz_2

Don't buy from Carland. A friend had one from there and had nothing but trouble. When I looked around the Thurrock showroom a few years ago it seemed like the cars were accident / repair jobbies. You could tell from things like wrong positioning of the vehicle badges.

They also are well over priced.

Cat72

Thanks for all your replys. Funnily enough I found Motorpoint on the internet the other day and they didnt seem so bad, so we will probably pop along there. after reading yours and martins comments. We are not set on any kind of car- I like big cars and my other half likes nippy cars ( he also hates me driving big cars). He had mentioned the possability of the focus and I secretly think he would like something that looks good , and why not he works very hard ( two jobs).
But thanks a lot for ALL your suggestions have been great and will probably help myself and others. If only you could give me the patience and will power to trek around and finally get something! I appreciate it all the more as the last time I purchased a car and it went all wrong I was VERY upset .It was the last of my redundancy money and the only way I could get around was by car as I was mostly housebound , it really was the last straw. Hopefully this time it will be ok .BIG THANKS will keep you up to date as things progress. :T

stenny_2

Hi Cat,

Don't know which part of Scotland your in....but anyway, last year (june) we went to the peoples garage in Falkirk looking for a runabout for OH.
After spotting a 52 plate with very low mileage (13,500miles) we went ahead, at this time the car was priced at £5795 managed to get £800 knocked off plus a free set of mats chucked in and a full tank of petrol.

Although this was only a basic 2 door 1.4 LX, others wer priced at same including 53 plates but with higher miles!

My point is, if you see a car put a price on it like i did, then leave it with them once they agree then keep at them for more!

HTH

Jorgan_2

To give you an idea on the savings at auction, in Autocar this week they comment on a Peugeot 407, from memory its about 6 months old, 9000 miles on the clock and went for about £9500 at auction. Thats nearly half price & you get the balance of the Peugeot 3yr warranty as well.