Buying car tomorrow - advice needed!

poppasmurf_bewdley

Any decent dealer will say what he said about whether or not the car had been in an accident.

Otherwise, he would be putting his head on the block if he told you 'no' and you then found out someone had cracked the rear bumper and it had been replaced.

Even brand new cars can have been involved in a minor accident and been repaired so you wouldn't know.

pseudopensioner

s_b wrote: »

i suppose you could find a low mileage diesel at this age but you have to put into the equation lots of short trips causing bore wear or has it been parked up most of its life and rotten as an orchard pear out of season

Interesting.

I have posted elsewhere regarding my daughter's 54 plate Toyota diesel which has/had less than 26,000 miles on the clock, partly due to the fact that for 3+ years she had a company car and only used the Toyota at weekends or I used it when mine was in for service or her dad used it when necessary. Combination of long journeys and shorter ones. brand new engine now, so no miles on the clock! That'll be a strange one to determine if she decides to sell it in the near future. She was second owner when car was 4 months old with minimal mileage.

I have an 05 plate diesel with less than 30,000 on the clock. Again a combination of long trips and shorter ones. Bought new.

Both vehicles fully maintained with FSH.

There was me thinking that the FSH and low mileage and the two owner/one owner would be good selling points!

bigbulldog

pseudopensioner wrote: »

There was me thinking that the FSH and low mileage and the two owner/one owner would be good selling points!

Me too as I have a 51 plate VW Golf cabrio with less than 23k on the clock.!!

Sgt_Pepper_2

pseudopensioner wrote: »

I have an 05 plate diesel with less than 30,000 on the clock. Again a combination of long trips and shorter ones. Bought new.

Both vehicles fully maintained with FSH.

There was me thinking that the FSH and low mileage and the two owner/one owner would be good selling points!

FSH is that the one that they forgot to replace the sump plug on?

Strider590

LynnF wrote: »

What would you resonably expect a reputable trade dealer to have done to ensure that the car was sound? Any advice please?

Nothing at all...... They wouldn't even inspect the vehicle, they just hand the keys to the valet and stick it on the forecourt. They certainly wouldn't spend any money on it, I mean from their point of view, what's the point in carrying out expensive checks when you've already bought the car?

Also any new MOT will be purely "on paper" and should be treated as such, they probably wouldn't have even put it up on an inspection ramp.

When buying a used vehicle from a trade dealer, ALWAYS get it put through an independent mock MOT, BEFORE any warranty runs out.

The ONLY difference between main dealerships and independent dealers, is the main dealer has business premises in a premium location, gets lots of posh flags, some expensive looking signage and a coffee machine. They all play the same "tricks of the trade".

Here endeth the lesson......

bigbulldog

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

FSH is that the one that they forgot to replace the sump plug on?

This forum at times is a joke.

I would check the mileage with mot's online.

If possible speak to the previous owner and ask why they sold it.

Get a HPI report done

pinkteapot

Although there's cheaper text/web services out there, I still use the original http://www.hpicheck.com (£19.99) whenever I buy a car. If you're spending thousands, £20 doesn't make much difference. Always worth doing.

We bought a one year old car with 11k miles on the clock and it alerted us to the fact that when the dealer informed DVLA of the mileage they had keyed it in as 112,000 instead of 11,000 on its history, so it red-flagged on the HPI check as a potential mileage discrepancy. We got the dealer to get the record amended (from the condition we were perfectly happy that the car hadn't done over 100,000 miles!). If we hadn't known about that, it would have caused problems down the line if we keep it ten years and it's old when we sell it.

Re low mileage and potential mechanical problems, with any car from a dealer you should get some sort of warranty. Often 90 days. So that should give you some peace of mind.

Were you recommended to the dealer? When possible (if he has a car I want), I use a dealer my family has used for years. We know he buys in decent stock (cars with a clean history and in good condition) and he'll always sort problems out. I had a problem with the brakes on one car about a month after getting it and he fixed it under the warranty without quibbling. You want decent after-sales as you can have a problem on any car.

interstellaflyer

s_b wrote: »

wow big money for such an old car

It's a Diesel Golf, if 48K is genuine, it's followed up by a complete service history and the car is as clean as described then it'll be on the money, they are desirable cars and just because it's only done 48K doesn't mean it's only been used on short trips, it could quite easily been a second car and only used at weekends or personal use.

Golfs if they are in good nick fetch good money, my work colleague has just forked out near 7K on an 05 2.0ltr GTi Diesel and that's done 130K and a little tired looking. It also depends on where you live, secondhand car prices round where I live now are quite a lot higher than where we used to live in the North West.

Strider590

interstellaflyer wrote: »

It's a Diesel Golf, if 48K is genuine, it's followed up by a complete service history and the car is as clean as described then it'll be on the money, they are desirable cars

They are desirable, despite their reliability problems, people still have that conversation that goes a little something like this:

Person A "I need a new car"

Person B "Get a Golf, they're really reliable"

Person A "Have you owned one"

Person B "No, but everyone knows they're reliable"

Person A "Ok i'll throw myself into debt!!!"

6 months later

Person A "You motherf**ker, that car is an unreliable piece of crap, it's spent more time in the garage than on my driveway!!"

Person B "huh? but they're really reliable!!"

Person A "Oh yeah, so they are, must be my imagination"

10 years later

Person C "I need a new car"

Person A "Get a Golf, they're really reliable"

s_b

Strider590 wrote: »

Nothing at all...... They wouldn't even inspect the vehicle, they just hand the keys to the valet and stick it on the forecourt. They certainly wouldn't spend any money on it, I mean from their point of view, what's the point in carrying out expensive checks when you've already bought the car?

Also any new MOT will be purely "on paper" and should be treated as such, they probably wouldn't have even put it up on an inspection ramp.

When buying a used vehicle from a trade dealer, ALWAYS get it put through an independent mock MOT, BEFORE any warranty runs out.

The ONLY difference between main dealerships and independent dealers, is the main dealer has business premises in a premium location, gets lots of posh flags, some expensive looking signage and a coffee machine. They all play the same "tricks of the trade".

Here endeth the lesson......

you need to get out more
i wont sell a car until ive fully inspected it driven it and confident it has no issues
a new place has started near me and they have just built a workshop to check their cars over prior to sale too
the world isnt all buy at auction throw a bucket of water on it and sticker it up you know
some people take pride in what they do