2nd hand car - Private or Trade? Where is the best place to look?

blue_monkey_2

We have been out today looking for a 2nd hand car. What a waste of a day!!

Now I thought Trade might be better as, if it turned out to be crap, there might be some come back.

So we got the list of traders off Auto Trader and we went off today and the cars we saw today - described on their websites as IMMACULATE - have been absolutely crap, leaks underneath, ripped upholstery, peeling paintwork, cracked bumpers, I could go on but they should have been in the scrap yard. Instead they have a ticket on the windscreen for 5k. We did not see anything that was of decent quality at all.

I thought that I would go trade and pay by credit card as, if the dealer refused to sort it out with the SOGA, if it turned out to be a lemon, we could go to the credit card company instead.

However, I am now sorely tempted to get a car privately rather than trade because we would probably still have small claims court to fall back on if we get ripped off.

I am calling places that are open '7 days a week' for opening times to be told 'not open' (actually, it was a bit ruder than that), some of them are ONLY open Mon-Fri 9-5. This was a trader who was on eBay so had I bought that car I'd not actually be able to collect it as hubby works these hours. Others put them on eBay and then refuse to sell them if 'it does not make the money I want' even though it has no reserve. Some will not tell you the reserve so I am not going to waste my precious time viewing cars I might not have the money for anyway.

I am sick of looking already and it's only been a few weeks. How depressing does it have to be looking for a car? I've not seen anything in the local paper. Surely someone, somewhere, must be selling something that is not a skip on wheels?

Kilty_2

What are you looking for?

Size, petrol/diesel, age, budget?

blue_monkey_2

Kilty wrote: »

What are you looking for?

Size, petrol/diesel, age, budget?

Size: Estate or bigger.

P/D: Either

Age: Anything from S upwards does not matter as long as it's not a skip.

Budget, 2k-ish, give or take.

It's for my dogs - they are getting my new car mucky and I want to get them about in that.

Would a priavte sale be a more reliable buy as the owner knows it's history?

wild_tiger

i'm in the same position as the op, i've been looking for a few weeks as i'm really fed up and don't know what to do for the best. I went to AC and looked at a £4000 ford focus 2006 28,000 which i was really excitied about but it has a rusty 1p dent in the front of the bonnet, both bumpers have been well scraped and there is a 1p hole in the rear bumper, the sales man wouldn't let me test drive it because it hasn't been in the bodyshop but yet it is for sale on several websites, i asked about a polo (also on their website) when i was there but it was away getting a mot at another site so i couldn't test drive it either I've looked at a few of AC cars and they are dirty inside, smelling of dogs and all of them have had dents and scrapes. This is maybe just because they are in my £4000 budget. The problem i have with buying privately is that i don't have a car to get to view the private ones easily.

I have £4000 and would prefer 5 doors, petrol or diesel, low miles, medium size as i have 3 kids, i have been looking at polos, ford fiesta and focus, and megane, i want as new as possible due to the extra safety since i'll have my kids in it and plan on using it to travel the 300 miles to my mums for holidays

LandyAndy

blue_monkey wrote: »

However, I am now sorely tempted to get a car privately rather than trade because we would probably still have small claims court to fall back on if we get ripped off.

I really wouldn't place much reliance on that.

bigjl

If you can travel to london then Addison Lee will sell you an ex private hire Sharon on a 57 plate for around £5k, a mate looked at one for his wife last week and he was surprised at how clean it was inside and out,yes it had done high miles, 110k, but drove well. The salesman also gave him some advice regarding automatic diesel Galaxys or Sharon, note not the current Galaxy the last shape that was basically a Sharon.
He said that the autobox will only last 75k and then they remove them and get them rebuilt by their own engineer. This box has a reputation for problems but they have had few actually break they just know to.rebuild them at 75k. He only.advised buying one with the gearbox rebuilt.

Don't forget that Addison Lee are the biggest single user of Sharons and they have owned maybe 10000 of them over the years. I think most black Sharons are ex Addy Lee, they did have a few manuals around 2005 but the rest are auto.

A bit of a long winded post, but think outside the box and get a bargain. My mate looked at the service record of a couple and he was surprised how well maintained they were. Especially when you realise he is a black cab driver and is therefore meant to hate addison lee, but a three year old diesel 7seater with an autobox for around £5k even he can see the value.

I would rather have a well maintained high mileage fleet motor than a poorly maintained tatty well used privately owned car.


This post is is reply to Wild Tiger really as the OP's budget of £2000 isn't that much these days, not if you include a dealers profit margin, you are basically buying a £800-900 car with profit on top.


To think a car bought from a trader is going to be a better buy than a car at the same price from a private seller is a very innocent attitude, if you can find a genuine private buyer that has owned and looked after a car is a good, if rare, thing, though some people, normally those that trade a car in with "issues" are the kind of uncaring owners that struggle to sell a poorly maintained car privately and so sell it to a garage. This is before you consider the trader pretending to be a private seller.


One thing blue_monkey , what do you expect to gain from thinking the small claims court will help in any way if you buy a car privately that breaks down?

Private sale is buyer beware, end of story, unless you can prove the seller lied.

And if you can't spot a lie perpetrated by the seller then it may be better that you do buy from a trader as you have little chance of spotting an almost invisible fault in a car at an auction.

Kilty_2

wild_tiger wrote: »

i'm in the same position as the op, i've been looking for a few weeks as i'm really fed up and don't know what to do for the best. I went to AC and looked at a £4000 ford focus 2006 28,000 which i was really excitied about but it has a rusty 1p dent in the front of the bonnet, both bumpers have been well scraped and there is a 1p hole in the rear bumper, the sales man wouldn't let me test drive it because it hasn't been in the bodyshop but yet it is for sale on several websites, i asked about a polo (also on their website) when i was there but it was away getting a mot at another site so i couldn't test drive it either I've looked at a few of AC cars and they are dirty inside, smelling of dogs and all of them have had dents and scrapes. This is maybe just because they are in my £4000 budget. The problem i have with buying privately is that i don't have a car to get to view the private ones easily.

I have £4000 and would prefer 5 doors, petrol or diesel, low miles, medium size as i have 3 kids, i have been looking at polos, ford fiesta and focus, and megane, i want as new as possible due to the extra safety since i'll have my kids in it and plan on using it to travel the 300 miles to my mums for holidays

Arnold Clark do not prepare all of their cars before sale - I've test driven a number of dirty cars. I think this is because they're pressed for time due to volumes. They do sell a lot of dogs though I'm afraid.

Do you do a lot of driving? Reason I ask is because a 05-07 2.0 petrol Renault Laguna will fall into your price range with a bit of haggling but you're looking at 30-35MPG, £235 tax, etc. Stupid amount of car for the money (I used to own one) and extremely safe.

You'd get one with less than 30k miles on the clock for that price IMO - my one was in immaculate condition with 23k miles on the clock on an 07 plate and Arnold Clark were retailing it at £4688 having paid me £3100 for it.

wild_tiger

We would do at least 150 miles at week at the moment but i am looking for a new job and may have to use a car more depending on what job i can pick up.

Kilty_2

All I'll suggest is give AC a wide berth with that price range. Tends to be the part ex crap at that money which they do nothing to.

Hammyman

blue_monkey wrote: »

Budget, 2k-ish, give or take.

You need to be realistic. £2k is now borderline banger money. Whatever you buy from Trade is going to be P/X sub £4k. Whatever you buy fullstop from either trade or private at that price is going to have something wrong such as that you've already described but you're not willing to accept.

You either need to lower your expectations or up your budget to meet your current ones.

blue_monkey_2

I don't think it is banger money. As I say, we have seen a few but cannot find the place open to go and test drive them! Why not open the places so people who work and can afford to buy a car, can. Makes sense when you run a business surely?

In regards to privately owned cars being poorly maintained. Not always, we have always got our cars serviced and looked after but as with anything, am worried about being shafted.

I have a year old car sitting on the drive, why would I want to up my budget? If I wanted to buy a newer car (as my husband has already suggested) I might as well carry on trashing the new one with the dogs and buy a small one to pootle around in with the kids and use the MPV for the dogs.

We WANT something to trash, however, the money they have been asking for these rust buckets is just incredible.

Oh yes, preferable not an automatic. And not a French or German car. Seriously, hubby would not touch a VW (although almost tempted by a passat) after his brothers went up in flames, Nissan (expensive repairs) Saab, BMW, Merc - ditto, Peugeot and Renault - they are French and everyone he knows has had problems with them...... I realise that I am not leaving myself many options here.... LOL. But on viewing in general at all cars and all prices, they were just crap. We just walked away disheartened, came home and are off into the country next week to see if we can find any previously owned by rich people wh have looked after them and barely used them, who have PX'd for something!!

The quest continues.